Catherine de Lange, contributor
THE process of creativity is notoriously mysterious. Moments of insight are unpredictable, and as a result have come to be seen as otherworldly, randomly bestowed gifts somehow separate from the cognitive processes of our brain.
In Imagine, journalist Jonah Lehrer lays bare the magic trick. With the help of elegant experiments, mind-aching riddles and unlikely characters, he lets us peer inside our heads and see for ourselves what's going on when our best ideas come to us.
To unravel this mystery, Lehrer introduces exceptionally creative minds, from Bob Dylan to the animators behind Toy Story, before deconstructing what drives their creative genius.
It turns out different types of problem require different creative methods. At times, it helps to step away from the issue, to daydream a little or take a warm shower. It's a familiar sensation - the solution hits us only once we stop thinking about the problem. Why is that?
As Lehrer explains, when we focus on a problem, our brain's left hemisphere kicks into overdrive. It's a conscientious worker, sorting through our database of information looking for possible connections. But sometimes this approach leaves us mired in the details. The right hemisphere has a knack for letting us see the problem from a wider angle, allowing us to make more remote connections. Sometimes all we need to do is listen to the gentle murmur of the right hemisphere.
Focus, then, can be the enemy of creativity, and experiments back this up. Students whose attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder impairs their ability to focus perform better on creativity tests. Even the colour blue - which people find relaxing - tends to boost creativity. It's all about letting go.
Each chapter is dedicated to a different type of creativity. As Lehrer tours through, some of the concepts feel obvious: that we can get too close to a problem so need to approach it as an outsider, for example. But other insights come as a surprise, like the experiments showing that brainstorming, one of the most widely used methods of generating creativity, does not work.
In an attempt to unleash repressed creativity during a brainstorm, we espouse the notion that no idea is too silly to throw into the mix. But research shows we need to be critical to spur creativity: the creative team at Pixar spend hours each morning ruthlessly picking apart the previous day's work, for example. Simply praising colleagues' ideas, however daft, causes us to get stuck in a rut; we kill creativity with kindness.
Imagine should appeal to everyone, not just because of Lehrer's compelling writing style but also because it puts paid to the idea that creativity is a gift enjoyed only by the lucky few. We can all be more creative, we just need to know how. This book will show you.
Book Information
Imagine: How creativity works
by Jonah Lehrer
Published by: Canongate/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
?18.99/$26
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