Wired to Create
Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind
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4.0 • 10 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Discover the ten things highly creative people do differently.
Is it possible to make sense of something as elusive as creativity? Based on psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman’s groundbreaking research and Carolyn Gregoire’s popular article in the Huffington Post, Wired to Create offers a glimpse inside the “messy minds” of highly creative people. Revealing the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, along with engaging examples of artists and innovators throughout history, the book shines a light on the practices and habits of mind that promote creative thinking. Kaufman and Gregoire untangle a series of paradoxes— like mindfulness and daydreaming, seriousness and play, openness and sensitivity, and solitude and collaboration – to show that it is by embracing our own contradictions that we are able to tap into our deepest creativity. Each chapter explores one of the ten attributes and habits of highly creative people:
Imaginative Play * Passion * Daydreaming * Solitude * Intuition * Openness to Experience * Mindfulness * Sensitivity * Turning Adversity into Advantage * Thinking Differently
With insights from the work and lives of Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Proust, David Foster Wallace, Thomas Edison, Josephine Baker, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, musician Thom Yorke, chess champion Josh Waitzkin, video-game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and many other creative luminaries, Wired to Create helps us better understand creativity – and shows us how to enrich this essential aspect of our lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Psychologist Kaufman (Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined) teams up with journalist Gregoire to amplify ideas put forth in the pair's Huffington Post article "18 Things That Creative People Do Differently." As advertised, the authors explore 10 "habits of mind" that great creative thinkers artists, writers, and innovators cultivate in themselves, such as daydreaming, intuition, and sensitivity. They devote a chapter to each habit, pulling examples from the lives of great figures. Introductory material gives an overview of the history of research into creativity. Kaufman and Gregoire survey new findings suggesting that, contrary to previous belief, the creative process is a whole-brain activity, not confined to one hemisphere. Moreover, it is a messy, not orderly, process and "is both the realm of a select group of geniuses through history, and the domain of every human being." By studying the standouts in creativity, they conclude, we can all learn how to enrich our well-being and express ourselves creatively in every endeavor. This guide is well-documented, never pedantic, and always educational and inspiring.
