You Don’t Have to Be a Genius to Be Creative
Are you a creative person? Chances are, you said you aren’t. We’ve been conditioned to believe that creativity is the sole domain of geniuses, a kind of divine inspiration that is beyond the reach of ordinary people. But the common perception of creativity is largely based on myth and legend. Allen Gannett, CEO of TrackMaven and author of “The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea at the Right
Unleashing Creativity in a STEM World
Over hundreds of years, the way we educate children has remained largely unchanged. Children go to school, where they’re taught to memorize facts and figures. Later, teachers test the students on how much of that information they remember. Very little of the average student’s formal schooling centers around creativity. What exists today of creative studies—fine art, music, drama, creative writing, and other arts—are being eroded by budget cuts, a belief
Change Your Desk, Change Your Life?
The idea that orderliness breeds success reigns supreme. But what if messiness, especially a messy desk, offers its own rewards? What if we could eat healthier, be more generous, or better solve creative conundrums by curating our workspace differently, by making them either tidier or messier? Messy creatives: let’s start with you Clutter gets a bad rap. But relatively new research from the University of Minnesota affirms the common justification
Podcast: Tiago Forte on Productivity, Provocation, and Layering Knowledge
When it comes to productivity, there are plenty of people who want you to do things their way. Tiago Forte, a productivity consultant based in San Francisco, wants to help you think for yourself. “I try to provoke people,” he says. “I try to find what is becoming the common wisdom that ‘everyone’ knows, and just attack it. Because that gets people thinking.” In Part 1 of our podcast interview
Steve Jobs: Three Steps to Making Connections that Matter
William James wrote that “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” If that’s true, Steve Jobs may have been one of the wisest men of the late 20th century. Jobs may not have been a “creator,” but his sense of design touches almost all of our daily lives—even if you’ve never used an Apple product in your life. It’s hard to think of a
Thunder, Lightning, and Revisions—Mark Twain and Creativity
“You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God’s adjectives.” – Mark Twain, in an 1878 letter. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was many things: a steamboat pilot, a prospector, a reporter, a world traveler, a lecturer, an investor (mostly a bad one),
Effective Brainstorming Techniques
Brainstorming is one of the best ways to generate ideas and solve problems, alone or in a group. There’s no substitute for the free, improvisational flow of ideas, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think ahead. Here are some tips and techniques for getting the most out of your brainstorming sessions. Brainstorm your brainstorm If you’re asked to lead a team brainstorm, but you’re new to it, preparation is key.
Becoming More Human, One Dataset at a Time
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Giorgia Lupi, an award-winning information designer, has written volumes. While “big data” has become a buzzword for many of us, Giorgia’s goal is to make data ‘smaller’—breaking it into human-sized, contextual pieces, expressing those concepts visually, then wrapping them in meaningful stories. Her passion began in childhood. Without other siblings around to play with (or to pester), Giorgia often found herself
Taking Note: Lessons in Collaboration & Creativity from Thomas Edison
This post is part of our ongoing series, “Taking Note,” outlining the storied history and styles of note-taking. Throughout the coming weeks, we’ll explore how the practice of taking notes can improve your creativity and all the work you set out to accomplish. He is actually one of the least well known of all famous people, and much of what everybody thinks they know about him is no more reliable
- 1 2