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Imagine: How Creativity Works

by Jonah Lehrer (Goodreads Author)

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 17,541 ratings · 1,322 reviews

Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output?

From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Decide comes a sparkling and revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative...more

Hardcover, 279 pages

Published March 19th 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published 2012)

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Aug 11, 2012 Rob rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, own

The short version: Lehrer draws together some interesting ideas, but I feel like his rhetorical flourish sometimes gets in the way of the point he's trying to make. His main point here is that creativity and innovation arises when we freely mingle within diverse ideas, but sometimes it seems like he's too busy boosting for entrepreneurs and big cities, and he lets that get in the way of his central thesis. (Side note: I waffled between 2-stars and 3-stars.)

----

In Imagine: How Creativity Works, J...more

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view all 4 comments

Rob Ian wrote: "However, if someone had done the same thing in support of arguments that intelligence was race-based, we would be all over them and their...more
Aug 15, 2012 05:21pm

Alexander Fontana Nice work Rob.

In an earlier work, The Polgar Sisters, Psy. Polgar used his own children as a sample study example of why brillancy is more a matter o...more
Jan 23, 2013 10:00am

Jun 23, 2012 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: listened

FASCINATING!!! Well researched and well written. Some things seem like 'well duh' but they really aren't. If you are creative, if you aren't creative check this book out. It will enhance your creative powers, and validate HOW you get to your creative state. If you aren't creative, or don't THINK you are creative, you may quite possibly be surprised.

10 likes · like · see review

Apr 22, 2013 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

I can't say I agree with everything presented in here but I do think this book is interesting and worth reading. Jonah Lehrer is a good writer, though his prose gets a bit overwrought at times when he's talking about literature. It's funny. His writing mimics the subject matter he's talking about. When he's talking about science, his writing is direct, clear and succinct. But add the element of art, especially literature, and his prose gets more florid and he begins to add more clauses; in other...more

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May 06, 2012 Knitme23 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This audiobook kept me rapt en route to school and home again for about two weeks. Lehrer does a fascinating job of discussing, presenting, and analyzing creativity in many forms, and his information and insights have value for us personally, as communities, and, of course, as teachers. I am thinking of recommending this book to my department as a summer read--highly recommended.

Two quibbles, one audio-related, one not. Audio: Lehrer is not a great reader. While regional accents are terrific, h...more This audiobook kept me rapt en route to school and home again for about two weeks. Lehrer does a fascinating job of discussing, presenting, and analyzing creativity in many forms, and his information and insights have value for us personally, as communities, and, of course, as teachers. I am thinking of recommending this book to my department as a summer read--highly recommended.

Two quibbles, one audio-related, one not. Audio: Lehrer is not a great reader. While regional accents are terrific, his repeated pronunciation of "shouldn't" and "couldn't" as "shoon't" and "coon't" just seems like something that an editor or he himself should have addressed.

Secondly, and more damningly, the book is so male-oriented that it inspired the kind of frustration I haven't felt since the bad old days of teachers "jokingly" telling the girls they couldn't do or be something or other. Virtually every creative person, virtually every researcher Lehrer cites is male. Two particular examples: Lehrer mentions the upsurge of creativity in Elizabethan England due to a particular alignment of events and laws (read and find out), but except for a passing mention that the sons of all kinds of work class families could now learn to read, he never even notes the loss of the potential creativity of thousands of sisters, daughters, wives, all left uneducated. Since a subtext of his book is that we need creativity now more than ever and should seek it out and encourage it, that blindness seemed a huge flaw.

My second example is funnier. When I had just begin to notice that unflagging emphasis on "he, he, he," I finally heard a "she"! A woman had invented something creative and enduring! My ears pricked up. Yes! She persevered! She kept urging her husband (okay) to follow the idea she'd come up with from watching her kids (okay, fine. . . )--but the joke was on me: this one major example concerned the woman who invented--you got it--Barbie.

I wish some editor could've noticed this fault, because it certainly undermines the book's message that we need to "think different," that we need to see our world through a different lense in order to really inspire and benefit from creativity. I'd love to hear comments from other readers--maybe we could encourage a second edition, or maybe you'll all tell me to get over myself. However, read the book--it's fascinating, despite its flaws. (less)

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Jul 30, 2012 Melissa Rochelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audible, read-2012, audiobook, nonfiction

07/30/12 -- I forgave Lehrer for basically recycling his own works. But then to find out he MADE STUFF UP in this book...not OK. So my four star rating is going down to a three for now. It might go lower if we learn that more than just the Bob Dylan quotes were fabrications.

07/11/12 -- I feel like I should begin by saying I started listening to this after listening to Scott Brick narrate The Passage and SB is pretty much the greatest narrator on the planet (or so I've been told). When I started...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Ownbymom Ownby rated it 4 of 5 stars

The University of Utah has adopted this book for the year, which I admit is what prompted me to read it. So glad I did. It's a fascinating examination of the creative process for individuals, and for groups. The one thing I will take away is the idea that we need to put ourselves in places where we will experience diversity in all of its richness. Those kinds of encounters, even if they are seemingly insignificant, are the ones which prompt us to think in new ways. Sometimes the nonexpert is the...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Christine Edison rated it 4 of 5 stars

How can people become more imaginative? Through numerous amusing anecdotes and analysis of plenty of scientific studies, Jonah Lehrer shows how people as diverse as Bob Dylan, the man who created the “Just Do It” slogan and the inventor of the bacon-infused Old Fashioned made creative breakthroughs. Learn why Steve Jobs put the only bathrooms at Pixar in the atrium to force people to bump into one another and how travel really does broaden your mind.
Here are just a few tips I picked up:
-- Move...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Bettie marked it as noway-josé

Liar, Liar
Pants on fire!

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/imagine-auth...

16 likes · like · see review

Mar 22, 2012 Judith rated it 5 of 5 stars

I heard the author interviewed on Fresh Air (http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/1486071...) and was utterly fascinated! He told so many interesting stories, such as every researcher at 3M gets an hour a day (of their workday) to do whatever they want ... take a nap, go for a walk, play a game, etc. 3M knows that that time creates creativity!

He also told the story of how Swiffer was invented. Interesting!

11 likes · like · see review

Jul 31, 2012 notgettingenough added it

Shelves: haven-t-read-but

Hilarious. I've had pointed out to me that the author just got sacked from The New Yorker for making up the Dylan comments in this book.

Story here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/us-ne...

Jonah Lehrer, a staff writer for the New Yorker, has resigned after admitting to falsifying quotes.

After earlier disputing claims made by a magazine writer, Lehrer admitted on Monday that he had been guilty of making up and misattributing quotes about Bob Dylan in his best-selling book, Imagine: How Creativity W

...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Mary Hackett rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent book on how creativity works (and doesn't). Jonah Lehrer's articles always make science interesting, but this "extended article" of sorts is hands down my favorite one of his. Well written, researched and filled with handy anecdotes to illustrate his points, it is well worth the read. Now, I just have to move to a huge city, surround myself with a collection of people who don't think like I do (but a decent amount of people who do), get inspired by the noise of life (Like Talking Heads...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Kelly Maybedog Hawkins marked it as never

Shelves: why-focus-on-behavior

Publisher withdrew this book after it was proven that author made up quotes for his book. He was caught doing this. I do not feel that I can trust any facts in this book since who knows what else is made up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/...
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-...

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May 13, 2012 Kylie rated it 1 of 5 stars

well...I did think this book was great. Until I found out that he fabricated quotes in the Bob Dylan chapter and then lied to cover it up. It seems likely (the investigation is still ongoing) that more of the book is fabricated. He's creative all right but I really have no respect for him anymore--he's a journalist after all and his behavior violates the basic ethics of journalism.

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May 06, 2012 Marzie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm more than half-way through and maybe it's just my left-brain (even though tests show I'm sort of more right-brained?) getting in the way but I'm rather frustrated about how every chapter seems to say no, it's not just what we said in the previous chapter, it's this! Like relaxation is essential unless you're productive when you're under stress. Then stress! ADHD sufferers excel, except here, take some amphetamines and focus intently, except, hey, you lost all that right-brained disparate inp...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Andy rated it 1 of 5 stars

July 31 update: Lehrer is exposed as a big fat liar and this book is removed from the shelves! (because of fake Dylan quotes). see NY Times article:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com...

What is sad is that no one in the publishing world seems to have a high enough degree of scientific literacy to tell that Lehrer has just been b--sh---ing the whole time. Dylan quotes--someone is an expert on that. But science--we'll just believe whatever the cute dork says.
Original review below.

This is an e...more July 31 update: Lehrer is exposed as a big fat liar and this book is removed from the shelves! (because of fake Dylan quotes). see NY Times article:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com...

What is sad is that no one in the publishing world seems to have a high enough degree of scientific literacy to tell that Lehrer has just been b--sh---ing the whole time. Dylan quotes--someone is an expert on that. But science--we'll just believe whatever the cute dork says.
Original review below.

This is an entertaining book because its ideas are counterintuitive. The problem is that the reason the ideas are counterintuitive is that they are wrong.

Take for example, the chapter on how "brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea." (This is the chapter that was probably most mentioned in reviews.)

The reader would be much better served watching a short Nightline video on the design firm IDEO to see how brainstorming does work in the real world to produce many of the real products that surround us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66ZU2.... Lehrer's book does not mention IDEO--let alone explain how he deals with this inconvenient contradiction to his thesis. This is a suspiciously conspicuous hole. The fact that a giant design firm not only uses brainstorming but actively evangelizes for it is sort of a problem for the case that brainstorming is a myth. Lehrer himself acknowledges the success of IDEO in his New Yorker article on this same topic.

Lehrer's evidence for his surprising claim bashing brainstorming is a psychology study with groups of 4 or 5 undergrads, and no facilitator or special tools, working on an assigned topic they probably don't care about. This is a biased, unfair test of brainstorming because: the group is too small, there is a certain skill to managing a brainstorming session so that people follow the rules and kids just being told to do it will not have this expertise, and the point is to share ideas about a problem that people want/need to solve. Despite these monkey-wrenches, the "brainstorming" group still did do better than the controls! A third group did even better by "debating" but this is another straw-man argument because in practice the idea generation of brainstorming is always followed by some kind of winnowing process. Nobody anywhere is proposing that one should implement all of the hundreds of ideas generated by a brainstorming session. Nor would one reject new good ideas that come up during the winnowing.

The value of brainstorming is as a means of sharing ideas in environments where that does not happen spontaneously. If your workplace consists of geniuses casually wandering around and chatting with each other about all their brilliant thoughts, then brainstorming is probably not necessary. But for everyone else, it can be extremely powerful.

To baselessly bash something useful just so one can come up with something surprising to say is irresponsible.

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Sep 19, 2012 Dee West rated it 5 of 5 stars

I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Imagination and creativity can seem like elusive beasts. Mythical creatures that come into our lives as a flash, and disappear just as quickly. Is that really how it is though? There are tons of beliefs and myths surrounding creativity that actually interfere with imagination. This book explores these myths, presenting scientific studies and real life examples to show that these beliefs are just plain wrong.

This book is full of science,...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Paul McNeil rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Edit: As much add I enjoyed reading this book, I've got to knock some stars for making up quotes. Not cool.

I'm probably the ideal audience for a book like this (having been a student of both science and the humanities), but this book was just what I hoped it would be- a good blend of real-life examples, from Bob Dylan to Pixar to the Swiffer, as well as insights from neuroscience and clinical psychology into the conditions conducive to creative thinking. There really aren't any clear answers or...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 31, 2012 Cheryl Dickemper rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

In light of recent developments, I feel the need to rewrite my initially positive review. Fabricating sources to support your thesis is plagiarism of the worst sort and something I struggled against while teaching composition to undergrads. I did enjoy the book, but now that the quotes are in question, as a reader, I have to wonder what else was invented or ripped from context to support Lehrer's ideas. The book was still thought-provoking, though, and perhaps Lehrer can reinvent himself as spea...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Kristi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, kindle

Thoroughly enjoyable and insightful exploration of creativity and the conditions necessary to produce it. Great read for writers, teachers, anyone interested in innovation and creativity.

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 02, 2013 Jeffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mostly-non-fiction-maybe

This book is an entertaining read, and has plenty of parts that could be helpful for anyone working in a creative field - lots of insights into how artists (as well as scientists etc) break creative blocks or arrive at solutions to problems.

UPDATE: So now that its come out that part of this book were fabricated/plagiarized/altered/etc., does everything this book has to say become invalidated? I don't know. I think there's still something positive to take from it, even if you feel like your hands...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Bea Bolinger rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: recommended

I read this in under 24 hours, well written and informative. And I would like to see more of this research put into practice. Highly recommend.

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Jan 07, 2013 Johnny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology, business

Jonah Lehrer draws from multiple disciplines in establishing the principles of creativity for Imagine: How Creativity Works.
That’s appropriate because Lehrer argues that creativity is a result of new connections from varied stimuli. For example, late in the book, he argues that there were several extremely good reasons for the literary fecundity of the Elizabethan Era. Some of the “meta-ideas” responsible for this era of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, et. al. were:
1) an unprecedented relaxation...more Jonah Lehrer draws from multiple disciplines in establishing the principles of creativity for Imagine: How Creativity Works.
That’s appropriate because Lehrer argues that creativity is a result of new connections from varied stimuli. For example, late in the book, he argues that there were several extremely good reasons for the literary fecundity of the Elizabethan Era. Some of the “meta-ideas” responsible for this era of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, et. al. were:
1) an unprecedented relaxation of censorship laws (p. 556 in my eBook version);
2) the concept of intellectual property (p. 558); and
3) the spread of education and publishing(p. 560). I liked this. Lehrer also argued that one of the reasons that England had a higher per capita literacy rate than its contemporary population in France was that the Protestant Reformation had brought about an emphasis on textual interpretation of the Bible (p. 540).

Please remember those meta-ideas when we reach the conclusion of this review. Right now, I have to confess how mind-boggling his chapters on collaboration and collision were. In writing of collaboration, Lehrer cited research which demonstrated that successful Broadway musicals may have had significant overlap with people who had worked together in past productions, but that there was a designation called Q which indicated the degree of closeness between the members of the teams (p. 359). If Q was too low (less than 1.7), the musicals were likely to fail (p. 360), but if the Q was too high (above 3.2), the work wasn’t as good (p. 361). The sweet spot in between allowed for both comfort and cohesion along with the influx of new, fresh ideas. So, it was better.

To further illustrate that process, Lehrer mentioned Pixar Animation and Jobs decision to put the bathrooms in a central location so that team members would be forced to interact with each other. Without this decision, it is unlikely that the technology and the art would have blended so well. “Every aesthetic decision had technical consequences, and these would then require more artistic tweaks.” (p. 373) Then, Lehrer built on this theme with Ray Oldenburg’s theory of “third places,” the shared areas of common spaces, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. equivalent to the Rive Gauche bars of Paris frequented by Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald or the coffeehouses which built the investment community of 18th century England (p. 383). He blew my mind further by citing the recent work of Geoffrey West and Luis Bettencourt in demonstrating that doubling urban density raises productivity by up to 28% (assuming certain basic social infrastructure is constant—p. 477). Yet, he offers a cautionary tale of Boston’s Route 128 and its dying tech companies (DEC, Wang Laboratories, Lotus Corporation) and how the non-compete agreements, industrial secrets, and unwillingness to publish in peer-reviewed journals actually reduced innovation (pp. 486-7).

Now, early in the book, Lehrer offered a lot of insights that are worth reading on the neuroscience of creativity. Did you know that the color blue is more conducive to creative inspiration than others? (p. 152) Did you know that there is a surge of gamma wave rhythm about 30 milliseconds before a new connection is made or a puzzle is solved? (p. 71) But most importantly, there has to be broad stimuli and a chance to assimilate (often after giving up) in order for new insights to be presented. How then, can it be done?

Lehrer argues for these meta-ideas (which relate to those from Elizabethan England in parallel):
1) education (encouraging creativity) is foremost (p. 592);
2) immigration is vital (ages of excess genius occur where cultures interrelate – p. 594);
3) avoid regulatory environments with non-compete clauses and fear of publication which stifle creative cross-pollenization (pp. 598-9);
4) inculcate a willingness to take risks (p. 599); and
5) manage the rewards of innovation (avoid patent trolls—p. 606).

As with Lehrer’s thesis that creativity and imagination depend on a surfeit of stimuli and cross-pollenization, Imagine: How Creativity Works inspired and assisted me on many fronts. It helped me in preparation for two classes I’m teaching this quarter—one on game design and another on virtual communities—as well as helping me in my personal growth. This is an incredibly valuable book. It will stay on my digital reader for years to come.
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Jan 01, 2013 Vinod Peris rated it 5 of 5 stars

For those of us who are in the business of Research and Development, creativity is by far, one of the most sought after attributes. You can have all the knowledge on every aspect of your project, but if you aren't able to create something different that your customer will love, you haven't accomplished much.

The book doesn't disappoint. It has many examples from diverse walks of life that will definitely have you thinking, and hopefully lead you down the path to increased creativity. I was sold...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Gabriela rated it 5 of 5 stars

John Lehrer uses his immense insight into how the mind works, to show how creativity can be developed and harnessed. In Imagine, he shows how infusing old patterns of thinking with innovation can lead to better neighborhoods, profitable companies and better performing schools.

I was very impressed by how our imagination develops and how we can boost this to create better living and working environments. The main message I took away here is that criticism is an essential part of imagination. This...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Damaskcat rated it 5 of 5 stars

The author writes in a relaxed and entertaining style about the way imagination works and uses many real life examples to demonstrate imagination in action. The invention of post-it notes – as a result of glue that wasn’t sticky enough for another job; Pixar, the film animation company, encouraging all employees to interact and discuss their work and thus come up with innovative new ideas and Eli Lilly putting their insoluble research and development problems on an internet site and inviting sol...more The author writes in a relaxed and entertaining style about the way imagination works and uses many real life examples to demonstrate imagination in action. The invention of post-it notes – as a result of glue that wasn’t sticky enough for another job; Pixar, the film animation company, encouraging all employees to interact and discuss their work and thus come up with innovative new ideas and Eli Lilly putting their insoluble research and development problems on an internet site and inviting solutions.

The book is split into two sections with the first one concentrating on individual uses of imagination and the second on how imagination and innovation works with groups of people. The first section starts with Bob Dylan and describes how he had to get away from his frenetic life of non-stop touring in order to write some of his best songs. It also uses examples of where the imagination has produced fantastic creative work as a result of drug taking – Coleridge and W H Auden – being famous for work produced under the influence of drugs. There are discussions of how Yo-Yo Ma plays a complex piece of music and how fMRI scans show peoples’ brains working on a problem.

The examples the author quotes of how big companies stifle or encourage their employees’ innovative ideas are interesting reading. Apparently brain storming doesn’t work and far more useful ideas are generated by individuals working on their own and then getting together to discuss their thoughts. Encouraging people to talk about their work can produce a cross fertilisation of ideas which ultimately makes a company successful. Breakthroughs often happen when people who do not normally work in that particular field look at a problem with fresh ideas. Chemists may be able to solve a physics problem and molecular biologists may be able to solve a chemistry problem. Fresh eyes produce fresh solutions.

I found this a truly fascinating book to read. I had read some of the examples before such as the post-it note invention and the start of Apple but there were many other examples I’d not heard of before. This is a book to fire the imagination as it makes you realise that you don’t have to be a specialist to solve a specialist problem and in fact it may actually be a hindrance to be a specialist in some cases. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in psychology or popular science, it is well worth reading. The book has comprehensive notes on each chapter and an index
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Nov 01, 2012 Carol rated it 1 of 5 stars

A THOROUGHLY BAD BOOK
Although I knew author Jonah Lehrer got busted for making up quotations by Bob Dylan, & the publisher has recalled this book (!), still, as a writer myself, I was curious to hear what Lehrer found out before he went rogue. Not much! There's so little actual information here, vs. so much anecdote, speculation, overgeneralization, and just plain ignorance, that every time I picked up the book I'd be fuming within 3 pages. In fact, it's so comprehensively incompetent that I...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Loy Machedo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loy Machedo’s Book Review – Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer

The Controversy
Before I move into analyzing this book, I want to address this sad, shocking and sorry incident. I just found out that on 30th July 2012, Jonah Lehrer resigned from his position from The New Yorker. He admitted to recycled content and plagiarism. I cannot for the life of me understand why such a genius would want to fabricate the quotes of Bob Dylan (as mentioned in his book Imagine). That Silly Mistake cost...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Joel Arnold rated it 4 of 5 stars

Imagine explores how creativity works and what we can do to make it work even better. The writing style reminded me a lot of Malcolm Gladwell in all the good ways. I have found myself returning to the ideas in this book multiple times as a way of trying to boost my own creativity and productivity. I highly recommend this as a fun read and one that may make you a more productive person.

Big ideas:
Chapter 2: Creative ideas often come when we relax and think about everything else but the problem.
Cha...more Imagine explores how creativity works and what we can do to make it work even better. The writing style reminded me a lot of Malcolm Gladwell in all the good ways. I have found myself returning to the ideas in this book multiple times as a way of trying to boost my own creativity and productivity. I highly recommend this as a fun read and one that may make you a more productive person.

Big ideas:
Chapter 2: Creative ideas often come when we relax and think about everything else but the problem.
Chapter 3: Sometimes creativity comes from laser focus, blocking everything else out (Apollonian vs. Dionysian). The most successful creator is the one who can balance these two impulses and know which one to turn to at the right time.
Chapter 4: Our inhibitions or sense of "that would never work" is often what keeps us from being creative. There is an element of "letting go" required.
Chapter 5: The best person to solve a problem is often completely outside the discipline. Bringing young guys or mixing up the team is as great way to see things in a fresh way. Likewise, consider changing careers every 10 years since people often peak and stall.
Chapter 6: We profit from working with other people. We just need to mix it up—a constant, recurring partnership makes us lose the benefit of eclecticism.
Chapter 7: Cities make a huge difference on our creativity because we rub shoulders with so many different kinds of people.
Chapter 8: Paradoxically, we think most creatively when we borrow lots of ideas from everybody around us. Crowdsource and remix as much as possible.

Random Notes:
55 - the World of Caffeine argues that the spread of caffeinated beverages in the 17th century is a cause for the industrial revolution.
64 - Creative thinking can be divergent or convergent which follows Dionysian vs. Apollonian. The former comes with relaxation, letting completely disconnected thoughts and daydreaming bring new flashes of insight. The latter is restraint and focus and analysis, trimming and sorting our ideas to make gradual progress.
*75 - great quote
80 - different types of creative problems need different types of thinking. The successful person know how to use the right kind at the right time. We do often have a strong sense of whether we are actually making progress on a problem. At times we ought to follow that instinct and keep on laboring. When we feel like we hit a wall, though, we usually do best to pull back and try to disconnect / relax so that the answer can come to us in a flash of insight.
224 - funny typo - "But this is mistake."(less)

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Oct 02, 2012 Lynetta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-non-fiction

Lehrer has lots of examples of how great discoveries are made. He writes of David Byrne who travels all over Manhattan (and other places) on a bicycle. Byrne says it "lets him listen to the city. He describes cycling as "a form of urban eavesdropping." From this he gets ideas as a composer, visual artist, and simply to unwind. (pages 175-7).

Pixar has had eleven feature films and their unorthodox building forces all employees to work together. They realized that their creativity comes from their...more Lehrer has lots of examples of how great discoveries are made. He writes of David Byrne who travels all over Manhattan (and other places) on a bicycle. Byrne says it "lets him listen to the city. He describes cycling as "a form of urban eavesdropping." From this he gets ideas as a composer, visual artist, and simply to unwind. (pages 175-7).

Pixar has had eleven feature films and their unorthodox building forces all employees to work together. They realized that their creativity comes from their "ability to get talented people from diverse backgrounds to work together." (page 148) Every day a group gets together (to) "eat Lucky Charms and Cap'n Crunch and drink organic coffee." They "ruthlessy shred" the work of the previous day. (p. 156)

A hallmark of this book is that people in a field (perhaps chemistry) with a problem are so familiar with the process they overlook newer approaches. Indeed, at Eli Lilly years of investment in drug research might not pay off. In 2001 Alpheus Bingham set up a website called InnoCentive for posting the hardest problems of Lilly and offered a monetary reward. Bingham felt the problems would not be solved. After a few weeks of inaction, "The answers just started pouring in." "Our results showed that when the solvers rated the problem as outside their own field, they were more likely to discover the answer." (p 118-121)

Living abroad, going on vacation and simply walks in the neighborhood in which the mind is cleared are other methods of solving difficult problems.

Another contrast is between Route 128 and Silicon Valley. In the early 1950s Route 128 had a large group of high-tech industries. Each were protective of their secrets. In contrast, a group of grad students recruited by William Shockley founded the Fairchild Semiconductor Company in a San Jose garage. Other companies were formed and employees drifted back and forth and shared information and ideas. And enormous success! The Homebrew Computer Club began to discuss innovations in computer building, then moved to an auditorium at Stanford. At first there was brainstorming, then a presentation, then networking. From this came Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, among others. (p 192-197)

However, this book also states that brainstorming is not a good source of creative ideas. In a study a group was told to use the brainstorming model. The control group of individuals working by themselves were given the same puzzles and came up with twice as many solutions. (p 158-159)

The first section of the book is "Alone" and has a number of puzzles oriented to individuals. In addition there is quite a bit of information about the brain. We find W.H. Auden was a drug addict, which allowed him to be prolific. There's the origin of "I heart NY," the origin of Barbie and more. There's information on Yo-Yo Ma's approach to performance.

I liked this work and am sorry it is slightly overdue at the library because others are waiting to find the secrets!
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Sep 24, 2012 Melinda rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, not-worth-owning

I just got this from the library. I'm not sure why I made a request for it, but as soon as I got it I read an article about the author from July 2012. Jonah Lehrer made up quotes from Bob Dylan in his book, was found out, and then continued to lie about them until forced to admit that he had lied. Publication of "Imagine" was halted, and Mr. Lehrer resigned his position as a staff writer at the "New Yorker" magazine.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/us-ne... and http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetw ...more

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“We need to be willing to risk embarrassment, ask silly questions, surround ourselves with people who don't know what we're talking about. We need to leave behind the safety of our expertise.” — 16 people liked it

“And so we keep on thinking, because the next thought might be the answer.” — 11 people liked it

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