Every creative journey begins with a problem. It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer. We have worked hard, but we’ve hit the wall. We have no idea what to do next.
The benefit of such horizontal interactions – people sharing knowledge across fields – is that it encourages conceptual blending, which is an extremely important part of the insight process.
Grit is the stubborn refusal to quit.
Creativity is a spark. It can be excruciating when we’re rubbing two rocks together and getting nothing. And it can be intensely satisfying when the flame catches and a new idea sweeps around the world.
To have a style is to be stuck.
What you discover when you look at creativity from the perspective of the brain is that it is universal. We’re all creative all of the time, we can’t help but be creative.
When we venture beyond the edge of our knowledge, all we have is art.
The answer will only arrive after we stop looking for it.
While human nature largely determines how we hear the notes, it is nurture that lets us hear the music.
In fact, the only way to remain creative over time – to not be undone by our expertise – is to experiment with ignorance, to stare at things we don’t fully understand.
People assume that they perceive reality as it is, that our senses accurately record the outside world. Yet the science suggests that, in important ways, people experience reality not as it is, but as they expect it to be.
Rejection process is not fun. It’s the red pen on the page, the discarded sketch, sometimes is the only way forward.
For too long, we’ve assumed that there is a single template for human nature, which is why we diagnose most deviations as disorders. But the reality is that there are many different kinds of minds. And that’s a very good thing.
The one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know.
The inconsistency of genius is a consistent theme of creativity.
The imagination is unleashed by constraints. You break out of the box by stepping into shackles.