The Art of Being Alone
Loneliness has more to do with our perceptions than how much company we have. It’s just as possible to be painfully lonely surrounded by people as it is to be content with little social contact. Some …
Creativity
“Jootsing”: The Key to Creativity
Creativity can seem like a mysterious process. But many of the most creative people understand that you can actually break it down into a simple formula, involving what researcher Douglas Hofstadter …
The Ingredients For Innovation
Inventing new things is hard. Getting people to accept and use new inventions is often even harder. For most people, at most times, technological stagnation has been the norm. What does it take to …
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Doers and thinkers from Shakespeare to Jobs, liberally “stole” inspiration from the doers and thinkers who came before. Here’s how to do it right. *** “If I have …
Embrace the Mess: The Upside of Disorder
“We often succumb to the temptation of a tidy-minded approach when we would be better served by embracing a degree of mess.” — Tim Harford *** The breadth and depth of products and …
Why Great Writers Write
“Books are never finished.They are merely abandoned.” — Oscar Wilde *** Why do great writers write? The question will never be answered only explored — in the context of culture, time, and …
Hares, Tortoises, and the Trouble with Genius
“Geniuses are dangerous.” — James March How many organizations would deny that they want more creativity, more genius, and more divergent thinking among their constituents? The great …
Warren Berger’s Three-Part Method for More Creativity
“A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.” — Charles “Boss” Kettering *** The whole scientific method is built on a very simple structure: If I do this, then what will …
A Journey of Self Discovery
*** “Beautiful people do not just happen.” In her bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert told her story of self-discovery in which she spent a year journeying through Italy, India, …
The 10 Qualities of Creative Leaders
David Ogilvy was an advertising legend and perhaps the original “Mad Man.” The Unpublished David Ogilvy offers a remarkably candid glimpse of the private man behind the public image. Ogilvy was fond …
The Creative Process in 10 Acts
“It’s good to understand that it’s all a process and it’s going to take you to a new place. And I try to remind myself … to enjoy the process.” *** In this short …
Ten Pairs of Opposite Traits That Creative People Exhibit
This beautiful excerpt from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention beautifully illustrates why it’s so hard to pin down creativity and …
Wired for Culture
What makes us human? In part, argues evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel in Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind, language is one of the keys to our evolutionary success, especially in …
Carol Dweck: A Summary of Growth and Fixed Mindsets
There are two main mindsets we can navigate life with: growth and fixed. Having a growth mindset is essential for success. In this post, we explore how to develop the right mindset for improving your …
Albert Einstein on Education and the Secret to Learning
In 1915 Einstein, who was then 36, was living in wartime Berlin with his cousin Elsa, who would eventually become his second wife. His two sons, Hans Albert Einstein and Eduard “Tete” Einstein were …
How Play Enriches Our Creative Capacity
“Play doesn’t just help us to explore what is essential. It is essential in and of itself.” — Greg McKeown *** The value of playing cannot be over-stated. From Einstein and Seneca to Steve …