inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity

by Tina Seelig

Imaginative. Innovative. Ingenious. These words describe the visionaries we all respect and admire. And they can describe you, too. Contrary to common belief, creativity is not a gift some of us are born with. It is a skill that all of us can learn. International bestselling author and award-winning Stanford University educator Tina Seelig has worked with some of the business world’s best and brightest, who are now among the decision-makers at companies such as Google, Genentech, IBM, and Cisco. In inGenius she expertly demystifies creativity, offering a set of tools and guidelines that anyone can use. A fantastic resource for everyone wanting to achieve their ambitions, and for readers of Jason Fried’s Rework, and Seth Godin’s Poke the Box.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Self Help, Psychology, Personal Development, Design, Education

225 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2012

About the author

Tina Seelig is the executive director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at Stanford University's School of Engineering. STVP is dedicated to accelerating high-technology entrepreneurship education and creating scholarly research on technology-based firms. STVP provides students from all majors with the entrepreneurial skills needed to use innovations to solve major world problems.

Seelig teaches courses on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the department of Management Science and Engineering, and within the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Tina was recently awarded the 2009 Gordon Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, recognizing her as a national leader in engineering educational. She also received the 2008 National Olympus Innovation Award, and the 2005 Stanford Tau Beta Pi Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2004, STVP was named the NASDAQ Entrepreneurship Center of the Year.

Seelig earned her PhD in 1985 from Stanford University Medical School, where she studied neuroscience. She has worked as a management consultant for Booz, Allen, and Hamilton, as a multimedia producer at Compaq Computer Corporation, and was the founder a multimedia company called BookBrowser.

Seelig has also written 15 popular science books and educational games. Her books include The Epicurean Laboratory and Incredible Edible Science, published by Scientific American; and a series of 12 games called Games for Your Brain, published by Chronicle Books. Her newest book is titled What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

As my mentor pointed out to me a couple years ago, creativity is one of the most important skills to master and develop throughout your career. No matter what you're doing, in your professional or personal life, creativity provides the answers and greases your wheels to whatever goal you desire.

inGenius is Tina Seelig's offering to those interested in learning about creativity. She is a professor at Stanford University and these chapters are like talking points from her class.

Granted, some of these tips seem like common sense. But if that's the case, then why aren't we all creative geniuses who have solved all of our problems? In my mind, there's plenty still to be learned from the topic or, if you've already heard it, reiterating the important points.

What is that saying... your thoughts become actions, become habits, become your life? Or some such. Well, it's true.

"With enhanced creativity, instead of problems you see potential, instead of obstacles you see opportunities, and instead of challenges you see a chance to create breakthrough solutions." pg 4

It's more than a positive mind-set, it's a way of viewing your reality. And, as Seelig points out in this book, your attitude at any given moment affects your creativity. You have to view any problem as solvable — you just haven't found the solution yet.

Seelig says anyone can be creative: "There is a concrete set of methods and environmental factors that can be used to enhance your imagination, and by optimizing these variables your creativity naturally increases." pg 9

I figure it's a bit like exercise. Flex those creative muscles on a regular basis and they'll get stronger.

Seelig brought my attention to the fact that our environment affects our creativity. She cites studies with the way classrooms are set up and how those changed the results of experiments. I had no idea.

She also reminded me that one does not have to re-invent the wheel to be creative: "Building upon existing ideas and inventions is another way to foster innovation." pg 41

inGenius offers readers a clear path to creativity. Recommended for anybody who wants to up their creative game.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a *bad* book but it does have that feeling of one of those business school books written in almost a self-help tone, with bullet points and diagrams that may or not actually contain meaning. The best thing Seelig does is bring together the ideas of others, although it left me wondering if I would get more from reading those original works.

A few bits I marked, some for teaching and some for leading discussion in my group:

"To stimulate the students' imagination... we asked them to introduce themselves to each other using their own six-word memoir." (Could I use this in my storytelling class?)

An approach designed to provide rapid feedback and to enhance innovation:
"I Like, I Wish, What If." (I could use this at the end of a research session, ties into some of the contemplative pedagogy discussion from my workshop)

"If you want individuals to be creative, then you need to design a habitat in which the incentives are aligned with that goal."

"Six Thinking Hats" model by Edward de Bono:
-A person who is drawn to the facts and is very logical wears the white hat
-A person most comfortable generating new ideas wears the green hat
-A person who uses intuition to make decisions wears the red hat
-A person who is very organized and process-oriented wears the blue hat
-A "devil's advocate," who uncovers what won't work, wears the black hat
-A person eager to make everyone happy wears the yellow hat
(discussion of identifying your hat and then intentionally switching it up)

On failure:

"I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work."
-Thomas Edison
"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
-Henry Ford

[Ännä · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I'm being a little stingy with the stars, because this is a good, well researched book about creativity. Here's my issue: this could be called the extroverts guide to creativity. If I was not creative and I read this I would feel like there was even less hope for me because many of the scenarios the author describes would reduce me to a sweaty ball of stress. Open offices with no solid walls. Lots and lots of group discussion. Even one office where coworkers could expect to find their entire space rearranged when they got back from vacation. I think there is something to be said for all of those activities, but there also needs to be an acknowledgment that all creativity doesn't have to, and I think for most people doesn't, come from a loud, busy, spontaneous, collaborative frame of mind.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the blurb reviewes for this book calls is a 'groundbreaking work', but this would only be the case if you've been in a coma for the past 50 years, since that;s how old some of the ideas in this book are. Another blurb reviewer says the author has "shattered the misconception that you can't increase creativity" - what misconception? - there are literally hundreds of books devoted specifically to increasing creativity and many of these are more than 50 years old. This particular book has parts devoted to brainstorming (1953: 59 years ago) and De Bono's six thinking hats (1981: 32 years ago) however there is little evidence that either technique produces creative ideas in the real world.

She also makes the mistake of confusing outcome with cause, for example page 101: "Ihere is no way that the designers ar Pixar would be able to come up with such innovative products without such a rich and provocative environment" - kind of makes you wonder how they came up with ideas before they were rolling in dough or how the Disney studios came up with ideas during their early years or how technological innovations invented in garages ever came about. Zany environments are a product of success not a cause. Similarly, she confuses novelty with creativity. On page 124, she highlights a railway station with stairs that play musical notes: "Almost everyone passed up the escalator in favor of running, jumping, and dancing up the stairs, because it was fun and entertaining" - my question is: how long until the novelty wore off and it just became annoying? was it appealing to the average commuter with their earphones on listening to their iPod? What time of day was it used since rush hour crowds would just generate a cacophany?

Since 'creativity' is such a nebulous word, all sorts of claims are made academically about how it can be measured and fostered. But the single biggest truth is that when you look at the vast numbers of writers, artists, composers and inventors who are popularly considered to be creative, none of them use or use the sorts of techniques promoted in this book or in any of the other popular creativity books. I would be curious to see how many of the hundreds of students who complete the author's course actually end up creating anything of lasting value and of those who do, if any, whether it is the ones who performed best in her course. That would at least provide some evidence that the course had some real value rather than just being fun and entertaining and a break from more serious studies.

[Jeremy Beasley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book in preparation for Stanford's online class, "A Crash Course in Creativity" which Seelig leads. I should also list my biases about the entire "creativity" movement as they certainly influence my review:

1. I'm growing slightly tired of the "creativity as the panacea" for all problems. Creativity and it's second cousin Innovation are starting to feel like the new intellectual "snake oil" of my generation.

2. After reading several business books, I'm growing tired of conceptual thought arguments and need books with real, practical advice and real case studies.

With that out of the way, below is my review of the book. Several spoilers ahead. Tread carefully.

________________

My take on the book is mixed.

There are a few great chapters that really stretched my mind: one of culture, another on attitude and a separate one on the environment.

But sadly, a significant portion of the is existing, mainstream analysis on creativity repackaged into Seelig's "Innovation Engine". I probably took this to heart since (a) I read a ton of blogs, books on creativity and didn't see much new and (b) I felt the use of her construct-The Innovation Engine-was forced. It was a framework for framework sake.

Additionally, nearly all of the cited examples of creativity were either from Stanford, where Seelig teaches, or Berkeley. This was a little disappointing since I felt as a professor she could have shown her breadth in knowledge and shown more examples rather than playing up her professorial colleagues.

A decent book but maybe not worth the buy. Great for a library checkout and probably no more than a 1-2 hour skim. That's all you need.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having not gone to business school I thought it would be interesting to see what I was missing out on – turns out not too much, but at least this book was clear, concise and nicely laid out. There's some inspiring paragraphs and quotes here and there, especially about reframing your thinking and being comfortable with repeated failure.

This does sometimes suffer from being too Silicon-Valley-circle-jerk-centric through... one of her chapters about gamification she suggests that customers could incentivize their waiters in restaurants by displaying their intended tips on a screen, which would go up or down depending on service. This idea, beyond being bafflingly wrong (has she ever worked in a retail/food service job beyond high school??), is WILDLY abhorrent, and made me wish there had been a chapter in this book about creativity and ethics.
But then again, seeing as she advocates learning from failed ideas, I hope she's seen the error of her ways in this line of thinking in the meantime.

[Rebecca Tolley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Flyleaf promises that author provides a set of tools we can use to radically enhance our own ingenuity and that's what attracted me to this book: the tools. Alas, they were not what I expected, or were merely the reiteration of the same I've read in other books on creativity. This is an excellent book for folks new to the subject as it provides many examples of creative thinking and problem solving, but has little new information for those well-read in the topic.

[Nita · Rating 3 out of 5]

*INGENIUS - A Crash Course On Creativity*
*Author: Tina Seelig*
*Genre:* Non fiction
*Moods:* Informative✓ Reflective✓
*Pace:* Medium✓

_*"Creativity is not a gift some of us are born with. It is a skill that all of us can learn."*_

*In inGenius, Tina Seelig expertly demystifies creativity, offering a set of tools and guidelines through the 11 chapters* in book which make for an informative and useful introduction to creativity.

_*Tidbits of the chapters discussed:*_
*1) Innovation Engine:*
Seelig uses an “Innovation Engine” graph to explain how she thinks creativity works.
The graph has six elements: knowledge, imagination and attitude, which we draw from internally, and resources, culture and habitat, which come at us externally.
Each factor feeds of the other. The more knowledge you have on a topic the more imaginative you can be to use that knowledge to try something new and solve a problem .
When you increase your knowledge by tapping into available resources, habitat and culture around you ( books, people), your attitude sparks and fires the innovation engine.

*2) Framing:*
Framing challenges current points of view and introduces new perspectives.
Netflix started their business as a local DVD delivery company and they framed their business to a worldwide movie delivery.
Amazon framed its book business not just for printed books but electronic books as well.
Scott Summit, Founder of Bespoke, framed prosthetics as not just unsightly artificial limbs but as custom-made fashion accessory.

*3) Connections and combinations:*
Silicon Valley is a great place for creativity due to its cultural diversity and informal communication networks and spaces, as documented by Annalee Saxenian in her book, Regional Advantage.

*4) Idea generation and brainstorming:*
When faced with a problem, people often stick to the first possible solution, even though it may not be the best. It takes a concerted effort to keep pushing past to new ideas.

*5) Focused observation:*
It is a is a powerful way to acquire valuable knowledge about the world. That knowledge is the starting point for all your creative endeavours because it provides rich fuel for your imagination.

*6) Workspace:*
“Creative spaces lead to creative work,”
If you want to be creative, you need to build physical habitats that unlock your imagination.

*7) Constraints and pressure:*
Constraints can stimulate creativity.
Most startups operate under conditions of constraint, which can actually be a catalyst for creativity.
Oxford University’s All Soul’s College has a “one-word essay” as an entry test – students have three hours to write an essay on the word.

*8) Goals and games:*
Rewards and rules can encourage innovation in communities and companies. According to gamification expert Tom Chatfield, it is important to give accurate and frequent feedback, set short-term and long-term goals, give surprise rewards and random perks for action (including failure), and improve social engagement between employees.

*9)Collaboration and conflicts:*
Collaboration skills include knowing when to lead, follow and sacrifice self-interest or personal goals, as well as resolving conflicts between people with different working styles and expectations

*10) Understanding failure:*
Unexpected observations, abandoned paths, and even failures can lead to new discoveries. In that sense, creativity is like scientific research, according to Tina. Companies need to have a mindset and culture of experimentation in order to be creative.

*11) Dreams and drive:*
Believing that there is a solution to your problem is a critical step in finding one,” Tina urges. Many people, unfortunately, lack this conviction and give up even when the solution to a challenge is in sight.

*“Your ideas – big and small – are the critical starting point for innovations that propel us forward,” author sums up.*

_*My Rating: 3/5*_

_***Ideas are not cheap, they are just free!***_

[Jim Razinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son is taking a management class and this is one of the texts assigned. As I have more than a passing interest, I read this and one of the others and though this is flawed, it at least has some good tips top share (I cannot recommend The Innovator's DNA...not a good book on the subject and that it will be taught to collegiate minds is bothersome to me.)

First, there is nothing earth-shattering, groundbreaking here. It's been said before in untold many other books. But there are still lots of soundbites. I'll pull several for here, starting with

The scientific method is clearly invaluable when you are trying to unlock the mysteries of the world. However, you need a complementary set of tools and techniques— creative thinking— when you want to invent rather than discover.

Her italics. Of course, Ms. Seelig has a new paradigm (an innovate one?) with her "Innovation Engine", a nested pair of triangles (see here) with knowledge, imagination, and attitude on the inside, and resources, habitats, and culture on the outside. To increase imagination, she gives examples of reframing problems, summarizing

Reframing problems takes effort, attention, and practice, and allows you to see the world around you in a brand-new light. You can practice reframing by physically or mentally changing your point of view, by seeing the world from others’ perspectives, and by asking questions that begin with “why.”

Thinking outside the box is a common buzz phrase and I learned long ago that there is always a box. So I say, find the box, enlarge it or jump to another box. She talks about connecting and combining ideas with a metaphor of bees (the chapter titles are a cute-clever, that one being "Bring in the Bees"), and recognizing that this was published in 2012, I had to squelch a retort to

Very innovative companies, such a Twitter, know how important this type of cross -pollination is to creativity in their businesses, and they make an effort to hire people with unusual skills, knowing that diversity of thinking will certainly influence the development of their products

Okay, the squelch function isn't working well..."innovative"?? Anyway, on not running with the first solution trap that most people fall into, she paraphrases Tim Hurson from his book "Think Better" (a jumping off point...must find) in that the first solutions are obvious, the second more interesting, and the third set progressively more creative.

Genrich Altshuller, a Soviet inventor. TRIZ [the Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving]is described as an “algorithmic approach to finding inventive solutions by identifying and resolving contradictions.” Altshuller’s book Creativity as an Exact Science describes his forty inventive principles. Building on Altshuller’s scientific approach, others created an even more detailed process called the “Algorithm of Inventive Problem Solving,” which includes an eighty-five-step method for solving complicated problems.

I'd say 40 principles is rather rigorous, but 85?? For exercises in observation, one class in Stanford has students making series of field observations in a Stanford Safari, talking to different people to get different points of view about the university. And each day of the Safari, the students "ate at a different campus eatery."

This might seem terribly mundane. But this simple act reminded the students that they so often fall into routines, such as eating at the same café day after day, when over thirty different options are available on campus.

To avoid routines, I try to walk different routes, sit with different people, etc. That's good advice for promoting a broader perspective. On habitat, an example Seelig uses is the morphing of the classroom from a stimulating environment like that of a kindergarten to the row and file of high school.

What type of messages do these environments communicate ? When you enter any space, you are immersed in a narrative and become an actor in that story. You know your role and what is expected of you. For example, how do you feel and act when you walk into a lecture hall, a hotel room , an airport terminal, a doctor’s office, a concert hall, or a playground ? Each space compels you to respond differently.

(Ms. Seelig probably isn't aware of John Taylor Gatto's theory that schools were meant to turn out conformist factory workers, so the design is likely intended. That and it is easier for classroom management, which is what most pre-collegiate schools are about.) I thought the findings of one study of Seelig to be enlightening. She set up two problem solving "ecosystems" with four groups in each that had the same problem - which problem was irrelevant, it turned out, but for this, each team had to work to put together jigsaw puzzles and get the pieces they needed from the other teams within their system. One side had tables, but no chairs, the other chairs but no tables.

Remarkably, the students in the ecosystem on the side of the room with the chairs (but no tables ) almost instantly started to collaborate with one another. Within minutes, the chairs were rearranged into one large circle or pushed aside altogether, as they worked on the puzzles on the floor. They figured out that by working together, they earned the maximum number of points for the game. On the other hand, the teams on the side of the room with tables (but no chairs) all anchored themselves to their respective tables. They did not collaborate at all and thus ended up limiting the number of points each team earned.

Enlightening to me because my office is in the process of a reconfiguration and the new layout has long tables between cubes, ostensibly for collaboration. I've yet to see them used for such in the first phase of the project. Meanwhile, my staff has a large triple cube that is open and there is a lot of collaboration. Sadly, that open concept is going away, so I'm going to have to make a pointed effort to foster the collaboration another way.

Ms. Seelig gushed over Edward de Bono:

There are many effective tools for preparing individuals to work on creative teams. One of my favorites is the “Six Thinking Hats” model, developed by Edward de Bono, the renowned inventor of the concept of lateral thinking. This model describes six different roles we play on teams and shows the benefits of each role. 1 I introduce this model early in my creativity classes, because it gives the students a concrete tool that they can draw upon for the rest of the course— and the rest of their lives. In de Bono’s model there are six different roles we play on teams, each represented by a different colored hat. Most people have one dominant hat color, with one or two other colors close behind.

I really disliked de Bono's stuff, his lateral thinking isn't, and colors mean nothing...just a weird gimmick, but that's me.

Heidi Neck, who teaches entrepreneurship at Babson College, runs a workshop in which she asks the students to complete a jigsaw puzzle. When they are done, they go into another room to create a patchwork quilt, starting with a crazy collection of different fabrics. When they’re finished, she compares the two approaches and end products. Putting puzzles together requires a fixed goal, and if a single piece of the puzzle is missing, you aren’t able to succeed. On the other hand, making a quilt is an open-ended process in which you can quickly change direction based upon the pieces you have on hand. And no matter what materials you are given, you are able to complete the quilt. Heidi shows her students that innovators and entrepreneurs are much more like quilt makers than puzzle builders. They have a mind-set that allows them to respond to the unexpected and to leverage the resources that are available in order to create something of value rather than waiting for all the expected pieces to show up.

Good stuff. In her summary chapter, on Imagination

Using your knowledge about the world as fuel, your imagination is an endless renewable resource. To demonstrate this point, I ask students in my classes to do a warm-up exercise inspired by Patricia Ryan Madson in her book, Improv Wisdom. I tell them there is an imaginary present sitting on their desk and ask them to pick it up and feel how heavy it is, how big it is, and to imagine how beautifully it is wrapped. Without opening it, they are to imagine what’s in the box. Once they have that in mind , they are to open the box slowly to see what is inside. I tell them that they will be surprised to find that the present isn’t what they expected . We go around the room and each person says what they thought was in the box and what they actually found. Everyone names different things, from books and chocolate to airplane tickets for an around-the-world adventure. I then ask them to look into the box to find yet another present, and another, and another. Each time they bring out something new and surprising. The key is that this “box”— your imagination— is bottomless. If you dig down, you will always find something new.

As I said above, there is always a box; figure out ways to make it bigger.

So, I think it will be a good contrast to the Innovator's DNA book for the class and more valuable...especially if the students are motivated to go out and read more.

In addition to the Hurson book, other Jumping Off Points are Jeff Hawkins's "On Intelligence", and Ori Brafman's "Click".

[Rayrumtum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend that you at least skim a copy of inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity by Tina Seelig in which she distills experiences from her popular course on creativity offered at Stanford University's Plattner Institute of Design. Her innovation model consists of 6 elements; the three internal ones are your knowledge, your imagination, and your attitude while the three external elements are resources, habitats (your local environment), and culture. The book is chock full of examples from research, her classes, or corporate case studies.

Some interesting tidbits include:
the space in which you are trying to be creative can have a big impact on the quality of the creativity. She identifies seven different types of space by what they are good for,
in certain instances time pressure can make you more rather than less creative by giving you a sense of mission.
Her discussion on brainstorming was interesting especially given some of the recent research. What is the size of the perfect brainstorm group?: Only as large as can be fed with 2 pizzas. She recommends participants stand rather than sit during the brainstorm to keep them more active. There should be a creativity warm-up exercise before beginning. A carefully worded question produces better results. The facilitator helps to insure that participants build on each other by intervening with some sub-topics after a few minutes,

The book is an easy, quick read,.

[Murat Aydogdu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am "taking" (i.e. loosely following) this MOOC out of Stanford's Venture Lab called "A Crash Course on Creativity". It is a 10 week course that ends mid-December, 2012. Tina Seelig teaches the course (and she teaches other course at Stanford). This is her book that the course is based on.

I was a little bit skeptical about it as it seemed a bit too "motivational-speaker-y" but the book definitely has some meat in it. I read it fast, and definitely learned some things, for instance, that creativity can be learned (by changing one's behavior).

I think it is worth reading.

[Khoury · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quyển sách này không được hay như cuốn "Nếu tôi biết được khi còn 20", tôi cho rằng như vậy. Giá mà Tina đề cập nhiều hơn đến cách dạy trong lớp sáng tạo của cô ấy, thay vì những sáng chế hay nghiên cứu hay những điều quá xa vời và khô khan. Càng về phần sau cuốn sách, tôi không còn hứng thú nữa, nó đề cập khá nhiều về phần lí thuyết suông nhưng tôi chưa thấy đượ c một điều gì đó thật sự động viên mình rằng "Tôi thực sự có tài", có lẽ tôi đã trông chờ quá nhiều vào nó chăng.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars really. I don't care what your job is, applying even just one of her suggestions will improve it. This is quick and insightful and chock-full of great and simple ways to increase your creativity. I've already created and am using a future projects box.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I resented this book for not being a down-to-earth, attainable pedagogical model. And then I got over it when I applied the brainstorming principles to my own thinking and have come up with an innovative final exam project. Hooray!!!

[Peter Schwarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read for anyone who needs a refresher on creative thinking.

[KarenO · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice compilation of generally known ideas on creativity and innovation-- with a business bend. But really nothing new here.

[Domrongpon Tanpaibul · Rating 2 out of 5]

End up with reading the last paragraph of each chapter. It isn't a bad book but I can't convince myself to read other thing that you do not necessarily need to know.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. I will use this in class !

[Katrina Sark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introduction: Ideas Aren’t Cheap – They’re Free

p.3 – Until recently, prospective students at All Soul’s College, at Oxford university, too a “one-word exam.” […] The word might have been “innocence” or “miracles” or “water” or “provocative.” Their challenge was to craft an essay in three hours inspired by that single word. There was no right answer to this exam. However, each applicant’s response provided insights into the student’s wealth of knowledge and ability to generate creative connections.
This challenge reinforces the fact that everything – every single word – provides an opportunity to leverage what you know to stretch your imagination. For so many of us, this type of creativity hasn’t been fostered. We don’t look at everything in our environment as an opportunity for ingenuity.

p.4 – Creativity allows you to thrive in an ever changing world and unlocks a universe of possibilities. With enhanced creativity, instead of problems you see potential, instead of obstacles you see opportunities, and instead of challenges you see a chance to create breakthrough solutions.
As demonstrated so beautifully by the “one-word exam,” every utterance, every object, every decision, and every action is an opportunity for creativity.

p.7 – Creativity is an endless renewable resource, and we can tap into it at any time. As children we naturally draw upon our imagination and curiosity in an attempt to make sense of the complicated world around us. […] As we approach adulthood, we are expected to be serious, to work hard, and to be “productive.”

p.9 – During the creative process the brain actively shuts off its normal inhibition of new ideas. For many activities it is important to have high self-monitoring of your behaviour so that you don’t say everything you think or do everything that you consider. But when generating new ideas, this function gets in the way. Creative people have apparently mastered the art of turning off this part of their brains to let their ideas flow more smoothly, unleashing their imagination.
The title of this book, inGenius, reflects the fact that we each have creative genius waiting to be unlocked. The word “ingenius” is derived from the Latin term ingenium, which means natural capacity or innate talent.

2 – Bring in the Bees

p.34 – Being able to connect and combine nonobvious ideas and objects is essential for innovation and a key part of the creative-thinking process. Along with you ability to reframe problems, it engages you imagination and thereby unlocks your Innovation Engine. Essentially, you need to be able to reorganize and rearrange the things you know and the resources you have in order to come up with brand-new ideas.

8 – Marshmallow on Top

p.144 – Play is an important variable for successful creative teams. Simply put, when you play, you are having fun. When you have fun, you feel better about yourself and your work. And when you feel better, you are much more creative and deliver more.

9 – Move Fast – Break Things

p.154 – As the saying goes, “Genius is the ability to make the most mistakes in the shortest period of time.” Each of those mistakes provides experimental data and an opportunity to learn something new. Like scientists, we need to stop looking at unexpected results as failures. By changing our vocabulary, by looking at “failures” as “data,” we enhance everyone’s willingness to experiment.
Successful innovation results from trying lost of approaches to solving a particular problem and keeping what works. This necessarily results in a large number of unexpected outcomes and discarded ideas. If you aren’t throwing away a large percentage of your ideas, then you aren’t trying enough options.

11 – Inside Out and Outside In

p.201 – Essentially, creativity is an endless resource, initiated by your drive to tackle challenges and to seize opportunities. Anything and everything can spark your Innovation Engine – every word, every object, every decision, and every action. Creativity can be enhanced by honing your ability to observe and learn, by connecting and combining ideas, by reframing problems, and by moving beyond the first right answers. You can boost your creative output by building habitats that foster problem solving, crafting environments that support the generation of new ideas, building teams that are optimized for innovation, and contributing to a culture that encourages experimentation.

[Lim Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book but preferred her earlier book on creativity

Innovation engine consists of internal and external factors
- internal factors are knowledge, attitude , imagination
- External are habitat( community) , resources and culture ( beliefs in the group )
-Each factor feeds of the other the more knowledge you have on a topic the more imaginative you can be to use that knowledge to try something new and solve a problem . You increase your knowledge by tapping into available resources, habitat and culture around you ( books, people). your attitude sparks and fires the innovation engine

The book introduces several good tips to help cultivate creativity and innovation such as

1. Framing and asking different questions
- different types of question asked in a different way , makes people think about it differently . Eg how do we build a playground vs how do we build a playground with recycled everyday objects at home , vs what if it was for disabled children
Look at the problem from others perspective eg Empathise with the end user and see the problem from their view point
Use analogy to frame the idea In another view point .
2. Cross pollinating different ideas , thoughts , objects that are totally not related to solve a problem
3.brainstorming in a group of 6-8 people
- stand up and facilitate by asking framing questions
- leave judgement out
- session no more than an hour and everyone has a pen and sticky notes
4. Constraints , rewards and punishment provides people the incentive to think out of the box
Constraints done correctly could lead to more innovative ideas . This could apply to either removing or applying constraints
Amazon brainstorm with the idea Of removing the constraints of shipping fees and came up with a solution that still allowed them to be profitable
Adding constraints of time made people more focused with their work . I believe this theory applies because we think more intensely about the topic and new ideas flourish because we are constantly looking for the answer
Rewards and punishment works the same way as it motivate and incentives us to focus our thinking with the goal to attain the prize or prevent the punishment
5. Observe and pay attention
To identify opportunities we need to be observant and pay attention to what’s happening around us
Day to day we are zoom in to the work that we need to do and spend most of our time on this . Zooming out and having an overall view of the surroundings will help us identify opportunities. Think of it as hiking on a path up the mountain we only see the path before us. Compare this to at a mountain top with the views across the valley. We might notice a shorter path to get up to the mountain or a more scenic route
6.Environment and room layout had a role in expanding people’s creativity
Again the location frames our mind in how we perform an activity
A room with just tables and no chairs and another with just chairs could influence the way we collaborate because of the default association of the usage of these objects
7. Experiment often - fail fast and oftent and learn from mistakes

[Nathanael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing revolutionary here.

While I applaud the effort to help people hone in on their creativity - which is quite hard - the book fell somewhat flat for me. There were many platitudes along the lines of "collaboration fosters creativity", "work environment is important", or "you need to view yourself as creative in order to be innovative". While these truisms may be useful for some, I doubt most people could derive any real value from them, especially when practical applications are not suggested. There is somewhat of an academic naiveté and redundancy in her observations about entrepreneurship. The diagram about the Innovation Engine is essentially saying that everything matters, in broad concepts ("Imagination", "Knowledge", etc.). It's akin to saying: "In order to play a strategy game, you need to be strategic".

My other problem with this book is the dispersed, anecdotal evidence supporting her statements. For example, she claims that being limited in resources and constrained sparks creativity. Although I would argue that "resourcefulness" is more appropriate to describe what individuals in those situations have to resort to, I am willing to accept the premise. Unfortunately, she supports her theory with just one example from the space shuttle program (which is somewhat flimsy since one could argue that they had no choice but to improvise, and goes back to my point about resourcefulness). She then goes on to talk about the Lean Startup, which quite honestly has much more to do with shortening the cycles of customer validation. In addition, she ends the chapter by asserting that in some cases, having no constraints is also useful, which leaves the reader with very little to take away.

In general, most chapters get lost in a hodge-podge of buzzwords and random facts rather than building a comprehensive thesis. Her chapter on observing, and looking beyond what we expect to see, is probably the most thought-provoking part of the book.

Overall, a good catalog of ideas and anecdotes, but don't expect to get much deep insight from this book.

[Poonam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tina Seelig has a PhD in Neuroscience and teaches Creativity and Innovation in Stanford University. I didn't like the way book was designed. The chapters didn't seem to flow. So I read the book from wherever I felt like and this worked for me. What I liked were some examples and stories that inspired me to create my own presentation on Creativity.
Couple of my takeaways: (I've added only those appeared new to me).

1. Ideas on how to brainstorm. Teams shouldn't be bigger than that can eat from two pizzas. They should all bring unique perspectives. There should be a warm up exercise to get participants into more of creative thinking. It should end with participants voting on best ideas.

2. Move it Fast and Break it: Even though Zuckerberg has changed this motto. it works. Few examples are Instagram and Chegg story. Or, how blogger Elise Bauer found her calling.

3. Ideas on classroom exercises: 6-word memoirs to introduce yourself.

4. Failure Faire workshop: 4 booths in carnival like setup: intellectual risk booth where participants solve a few lateral puzzles, financial-risk booth where there are increasingly risky gambling opportunities with an initial capital of five dollars, physical risk booth where they are made to juggle balls and other physical feats to evaluate how they felt before, during and after ward, emotional risk where they had to create a secret with postcard. (PostSecret).

4. Marshmallow on top is another chapter I liked. I have heard of Tom Wujec's TED talk and read of Bono's Six thinking hats. how we can switch hats as needed.

Lot of other stuff is written in self-help style and is skim and miss. I'll add more things in list above if I remember more that caught my attention.

[mavromou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un libro muy interesante, fácil de leer, y motivacional.

Tina explica con ejemplos y conceptos sencillos la relación entre tres variables personales, que toma de Bloom y tres variables del contexto haciendo lo que ella llama la "maquina de innovar". Una cinta de Moebius que contiene estas seis variables que están interrelacionadas entre sí y de a pares para comprender de una forma sencilla el proceso creativo.

Es una perspectiva interesante, y que sale de la estructura de las 4P de la creatividad (aunque nombra sus elementos) pero en lugar de tratarlos separadamente muestra la relación entre ellos.

Tina también cuenta su distintas experiencias, de sus viajes, sus practicas docentes en Stanford, entre otras.

Es un libro escrito con palabras simples pero conceptos poderosos que motiva e inspira a motivar a otros. De lectura obligatoria para profesores.


It is a very interesting book, easy to read, and motivational.

Tina explains with simple examples and concepts the relationship between three personal variables, which she takes from Bloom and three context variables by doing what she calls the "machine of innovation". A Moebius tape containing these six variables that are interrelated with each other and in pairs to understand the creative process in a simple way.

It is an interesting perspective, and that leaves the structure of the 4P of creativity (although names its elements) but instead of treating them separately shows the relationship between them.

Tina also tells of her different experiences, her travels, her teaching practices at Stanford, among others.

It is a book written with simple words but powerful concepts that motivates and inspires to motivate others. Compulsory reading for teachers.

[Majd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a University of Twente Honors student enrolled in the entrepreneurship and Business Development track and this was my recommended reading. Many believe that finding success stands up to working hard. According to the “InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity”, the author shades light on how simple it is to find the solution to a problem. This book incorporates the idea of creativity in every aspect of your life. You can thrive creativity by just changing your perspective on the faced issue. The author encourages her readers to fail as many times as possible, to make and believe in ridiculous ideas, and not to stop at the first “green flag”; there is always more to explore and analyze. The core of an answer is understanding the “Why?” of the problem. By solving the golden circle, you can focus on the next step of your creation, thus leading to a more qualified and inventive result. While mentioning creativity, the energy you are feeding your mind and body is crucial. Hence, the environment you are in shapes the way you look at certain things, ideas, people etc. This proves that creativity is built based on feelings, inspiration, and connections with others. By switching from games to responsibilities, Tina Seelig’s course also mentions the difference between those who have the attitude to finish their work no matter the difficulties they encountered during the way.
Personally, I liked that this book encourages you to find creativity in small things and helps you explore different ideas all within having fun. However, I didn’t find myself on the same page with the author on the topic of not trusting your gut feeling about the first idea. I recommend Seelig’s course/book to young aspiring Entrepreneurs who struggle on finding creative ideas for new projects.

[Laura Bandera]

I’ve stumbled upon this book, because it was our recommended reading for the Entrepreneurship and Business Development track at the University of Twente Honours Program. At first I was a bit skeptic, I was afraid that this would be a book talking about topics I don’t have a lot of knowledge about, describing concepts hard to implement in real life. I couldn’t have been more wrong. From the very beginning of this book I was genuinely excited, because the topic really resonated with concerns I had about not being a creative person and just having to accept that I will always have a struggle when it comes to innovative ideas. The book describes a holistic process of stimulating process called ‘Innovative Engine’, first explaining the idea behind each component and finally combining it to provide us with an amazing tool. What I liked really helpful, and what dispelled my initial doubts, was the use of many real life examples – sometimes particular experiments conducted in different Universities, sometimes referring to trivial elements of our life that I’ve never questioned before. Although some parts of different chapters were blending together, making it harder to draw clear conclusions from separate chapters, in the end it all made sense, since that was just a part of bigger picture concept. I can’t tell how good this book is compared to other ones from this genre, however I for sure can tell it is a great one for young Entrepreneurs to spark their creativity.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a University of Twente Honours student enrolled in the Entrepreneurship and Business Development track and this was my recommended reading. The book provides many useful methods on how to foster creative thinking. The author has substantial knowledge and experience in teaching, so the techniques given in the book are well-thought and tested. I like the fact that Seelig encourages everyone to start trying to think creatively, even if we are to fall since every failure is a valuable lesson to us. Many believe creative thinking is reserved for selected people, with inborn talents. The author proves that to be wrong, and argues that it is not true, since the key is to believe in yourself and not give up.
What I liked the most about the book is that the author mentions numerous real-life examples and anecdotes. Most of these stories are truly inspiring and make the book more interesting and reliable. She writes in an accessible and engaging way, making complex ideas easy to understand.
However, some methods or stories seemed to me a bit bizarre or not possible to incorporate into everyday life. Also, some concepts sound too perfect to be true.
Overall, Ingenious is an inspiring book with a lot of knowledge and methods of how to foster creative thinking. Naturally, I will try some of the ideas given in the book, to see if they actually work. Seelig's approach is both logical and motivating, making the book a valuable asset to entrepreneurial people.

[Marie de Vet · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
I am an Honours student from the University of Twente, partcipating in the Entrepreneurship and Business Development track. This book was recommended to me by the lecturer and after reading it, I would recommend it to any young entrepreneur as well. Ingenius is written by Tina Seelig, a lecturer at the d.school in Stanford, who teaches a course on creativity. Throughout the book, she teaches the reader that creativity is not something that you are born with, but something you can build upon and should be seen as a skill, rather than an innate talent. Additionally, she shares tips and tricks to stimulate creativity and innovation and surprising ways where creativity flourishes, like with constraints or by reframing. The author writes in an anecdotal way, based on her experiences and those of her connections at other business schools. As a young entrepreneur, I found it insightful, as it helped me unlock the creative part of my brain in different ways. It also showed me how educated lecturers at various schools view creativity and how it can be used to your advantage in an entrepreneurial setting. Do keep in mind that this is just one point of view on creativity and that it can't be described using hard facts. As creativity is subjective, it is important to read about multiple points of view to get a full picture.

[EunSeong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It has the tone of one of those conversational, self-help books (if you like that sort of thing), and some of the things suggested or stated in the book seems obvious, like gamifying things and making things fun so you actually complete necessary but mundane tasks, constraints leading to more creative results rather than hindering them, or how the physical layout of our environment can affect our behaviours and thoughts. However, Tina Seelig backs up what we take for granted with research rather than us just accepting things at face value, making them more persuasive should you decide to conscientiously follow through on any of the suggestions she gives. She gives practical and helpful advice on how to brainstorm, what innovative companies do to improve and increase teamwork and creativity, and what she's found out in her own classroom. It was written in an easy-to-digest way, and what she wrote bears repeating. Overall, I thought it was a solid, practical, helpful book you could breeze through if you're stuck on a project or need some well-grounded ways to enhance your creativity or productivity.

[Rick Yagodich · Rating 1 out of 5]

Over the years, I have read many books by subject-matter experts. A significant number of those books state something to the effect of: I run this really popular course on [subject of expertise] and there is such demand, I decided to write a book on it, to spread teh word further.

The majority of such books share a distinct feel: they read like academic papers. They do not flow. The verbiage is heavy.

Seeling's offering falls squarely within that majority. The irony, in this case, is that this book purports to be a crash course in creativity, yet lacks any linguistic creativity. It is blocky. Dull. Uninspiring. (If you want to read about this same subject, Matthew Syed's Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking covers the same material with a liberal dose of linguistic flair. unlike inGenius, it will not put you to sleep.

[Juan Castro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Foster your inner creative being:
Combine unrelated ideas to get surprising results.
Reframe the problem you face.
Step outside your constraints.

Don't stick with first ideas - better ones are yet to come.
Brainstorm: 8 people tops. Eliminate hierarchy. Find the right place and time to do it.

Open yourself to inspiration by observing constantly everything around you and your life. Breakout of your daily routines and be aware.

Embrace failures as the next step towards your solution. Iterate and keep improving. Your failures will lead you to a better alternative.

Believe you'll find a solution, and you will. The right attitude is key to find solutions.

The space you work in fundamentally shapes the way you work and collaborate with others. Even shifting furniture can make a world of difference.

Make creativity a game. Gamification and time/resources constraints work very well.