‘I am very motivated by frustration’: A Yale creativity expert on how to turn your ideas into action

Scientist Zorana Ivcevic Pringle has studied creativity for decades. Here’s her best advice for tapping into a creative mindset.

When scientist Zorana Ivcevic Pringle first started out in academia as an undergraduate student, she wanted “to study interesting people.” Unfortunately, that’s not a scientific term, and it carries with it a value judgement (also unscientific, as fun as it sounds). “I started being interested in describing what creative people are like, and understanding that complexity in a creative personality,” she says. “They seem to embody these dichotomies, things that oftentimes don’t go together in most people. It grabs your attention to something really important.”