Jonah Lehrer Looks At How Creativity Works

 Creativity

Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single “gift” possessed by the lucky few. In his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, and daydreaming productively, then he takes us out of our own heads to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective.

I n his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer looks at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It’s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.

Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, daydreaming productively, and adopting an outsider’s perspective (often through travel). He unveils the optimal mix of old and new partners in any creative collaboration, and explains why criticism is essential to the process. Then he zooms out to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective.

In Imagine we learn about Bob Dylan’s writing habits and the drug addictions of poets. He also describes how a Manhattan bartender who thinks like a chemist, and an autistic surfer who invented an entirely new surfing move. Diving deeper, he explores why Elizabethan England experienced a creative explosion, and how Pixar’s office space is designed to spark the next big leap in animation.

Collapsing the layers separating the neuron from the finished symphony, Imagine reveals the deep inventiveness of the human mind, and its essential role in our increasingly complex world.

In the videos below, Lehrer,who also authored the previous books, Proust Was a Neuroscientist and How We Decide discussed his new book, Imagine. Lehrer shared how we can make our companies more productive, our neighborhoods more vibrant, and our schools more effective.







SOURCE  Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce

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