Ten Things Creative People Know
Do you consider yourself creative? If you answer, "no," you are in the majority; most people don't think they are creative. It turns out, though, that you don't have to be a great artist to be creative. Creativity is simply our ability to dream things up and make them happen. Cooking breakfast, planting a garden, even developing a business plan are all creative acts. Creative expression boosts ser... posted on Jul 20, 20746 reads

18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently
"Creativity works in mysterious and often paradoxical ways. Creative thinking is a stable, defining characteristic in some personalities, but it may also change based on situation and context. Inspiration and ideas often arise seemingly out of nowhere and then fail to show up when we most need them, and creative thinking requires complex cognition yet is completely distinct from the thinking proce... posted on Mar 24, 178770 reads

10 Things Creative People Know
Do you consider yourself creative? According to Peggy Taylor and Charles Murphy, even if you don't consider yourself creative, you are more creative than you realize. "Creativity is not found just in the chosen few who exhibit artistic talent. It is a force that flows through every single one of us, allowing us to dream things up and make them happen." Creativity, in other words, is more than art... posted on Jun 5, 1808 reads

Untitled
The Internet makes it easy to share. Almost too easy, some say. Three years ago, the music industry sued Napster, the first popular music file-sharing network on the Internet. But what if people prefer to share their creative works (and the power to copy, modify, and distribute their works) instead of exercising all of the restrictions of copyright law? A professor at Stanford Law School, Lawr... posted on Nov 6, 936 reads

Creatives at Work
The number of people doing creative work has exploded to 30% of the workforce; creative sector workers today outnumber blue collar workers and the creative sector of the economy accounts for nearly half of all wage and salary income--$1.7 trillion dollars per year. The American Dream is no longer just about money. Better pay, a nice house, and a rising standard of living will always be attractive... posted on Dec 4, 1512 reads

Manifesto for the Next Industrial Revolution
How does economic growth happen -- from a strategic point of view? Joseph Schumpeter argued that growth happens through a process of creative destruction. But creative destruction has two sides -- the costs of destruction as well as the benefits of creation. And as creative destruction intensifies, the costs of this great tradeoff sharpen. How can we avoid this tradeoff and how do we begin reorgan... posted on Jun 29, 2247 reads

The Art of Creativity
Has this ever happened to you? You're out for a jog, completely relaxed, your mind a pleasant blank. Then all of a sudden the solution to a problem you've been mulling over for weeks pops into your head. You can't help but wonder why you didn't think of it before. In such moments you've made contact with the creative spirit, that elusive muse of good -- and sometimes great -- ideas. Yet it is more... posted on Dec 9, 5421 reads

Why Creative Thinking is Inclusive Thinking
"Albert Einstein was once asked what the difference was between him and the average person. He said that if you asked the average person to find a needle in the haystack, the person would stop when he or she found a needle. He, on the other hand, would tear through the entire haystack looking for all the possible needles. With creative thinking, one generates as many alternative approaches as one ... posted on Aug 3, 101572 reads

Julia Cameron on the Creative Life
"Time is like a river. We wash our bones like stones. Time is not the answer. Time is not the quest. Time is where we journey while we learn the rest. Washing in the river of the self." Over twenty years after publishing "The Artist's Way", a bestseller guide to bringing out one's creative self, author Julia Cameron has taken many risks. In this interview with Sounds True, she speaks courageously ... posted on May 7, 26364 reads

Stop Trying to Be Creative
Writer Christie Schawnden investigates how the creative process works using the example of the story behind one of her own articles. Interwoven with her journey are glimpses of her conversations with computer scientist and AI researcher Kenneth Stanley on the topic of creativity. Schwanden shares personal insights and explores research-backed ideas on some of the surprising secrets that are at the... posted on Feb 23, 7646 reads

11 Tips to Leading a Creative Life
In this TED article, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love" and the new book "Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear," offers wit and wisdom for people living with creativity -- which, according to her, is everyone! Creativity is not always easy to tap into, but thankfully there are lots of things we can do to help. To start, we can reframe "creativity" as "curiosity," consider fear boring... posted on Jan 11, 28137 reads

Creativity in the Daily Commute
Where do people do their most creative thinking? The most popular response: in the car! Last year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index survey focused on the locations and conditions that best promote fresh thinking. Program Director Merton Flemings notes, "Many Americans feel they spend half their lives in cars, but we were surprised by just how many people felt their daily commute was conducive to cr... posted on Nov 16, 2605 reads

Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind
Where do creative people get their inspiration? Guy Claxton, author of "Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind" has a theory: according to him it comes from a combination of inspiration and evaluation, "of being able to let an idea come to you and then crafting it into shape." Claxton talks of the intuitive understanding creative people have, of the importance of alternating work rhythms with reverie, of knowi... posted on Feb 14, 2971 reads

Old Master, Young Genius
Despite Robert Frost’s musing about the possibility of veering off toward "the road not taken," he and other artists are, by their inclinations, pretty much destined to follow one of two major pathways to success, contends David Galenson, Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. Galenson, whose recent work has used economic data to examine the careers of painters, has expanded his wo... posted on Dec 6, 2533 reads

The Burden of Genius
Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love" was so successful that everyone worried if she'd ever be able to repeat that creative performance. The concern led Gilbert to investigate how past cultures and societies handled creative strokes of genius, and she discovered a rather curious insight from ancient Greek and Roman cultures -- that people aren't geniuses, but rather they have a genius. Funny,... posted on Nov 2, 6320 reads

A Poem Is
Nancy Weber shares: "As the director of a creative writing organization, I have heard a lot of amazing, wildly creative poems and stories written by young writers in our workshops. However, I was absolutely stunned by this beautiful poem by Sadie McCann, a five year=old girl from our workshop at the Brooklyn Public Library, Bay Ridge branch. If she hadn't written it right in front of me, I would n... posted on Apr 26, 8885 reads

What They Don't Teach in Business School
When I started this journey, I just wanted to be a carpenter. But I surpassed my wildest dreams and became a builder, a distinction I didn't even know existed when I started. And this realization leads me to one overriding and inescapable truth, that a life well lived must be a creative endeavor. Whatever form that creativity takes whether it's carpentry, building, teaching, raising a family, or w... posted on Jul 12, 5761 reads

9 Interviews with Creative Visionaries
"I love a good interview. To me, there's nothing so useful for demystifying the creative process as hearing an artist or entrepreneur speak from a very personal perspective about how, and why, they do what they do. This weekend, I combed through my archive of epic and inspiring interviews and came up with this shortlist. Straight talk from Ernest Hemingway, Dieter Rams, Patti Smith, Steve Jobs, An... posted on Jul 13, 14856 reads

What We Aren't Taught About Creative Thinking
"Creativity is paradoxical. To create, a person must have knowledge but forget the knowledge, must see unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder, must work hard but spend time doing nothing as information incubates, must create many ideas yet most of them are useless, must look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different, must desire success but embrace fa... posted on Jan 18, 60127 reads

The Power of Metaphors
"When Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist, was a schoolboy, he was terrible at math because whenever the teacher had him write a number on the chalkboard, he saw something different. The number four looked like a nose to him and he kept doodling until he filled in the rest of the face. The number 1 looked like a tree, 9 looked like a person walking against the wind, and 8 resembled an angel. Everyon... posted on Mar 4, 48374 reads

The Stubborn Gladness of Elizabeth Gilbert
The bestselling memoir "Eat, Pray, Love," about losing and finding herself, was the book that shot Elizabeth Gilbert to fame. It is now both a movie and travel tour. Yet there is much more to Gilbert than this runaway success. "Her collection of short stories, 'Pilgrims,' was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her debut novel, 'Stern Men,' was a New York Times Notable Book. Her 2009 TED T... posted on Apr 7, 32194 reads

The Power of Creative Constraints
What if a hospital decided to serve anyone who came to its doors, regardless of whether they could pay, and still committed to providing world-class quality care? Can such a self-imposed constraint actually help drive innovation? And what if that constraint is geared toward solving a problem of global proportions, without any outside funding? An almost incomprehensibly ambitious vision to rid the ... posted on Jun 10, 47818 reads

Why Your Best Ideas Happen In The Most Unusual Places
Last month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg shared some questionable advice on how to become successful at work: Don't go to the bathroom and keep working. But according to Harvard psychologist Shelley H. Carson, author of "Your Creative Brain," little distractions like going to the bathroom can actually be a good thing when it comes to creativity. She explains that interruptions and diversi... posted on Oct 29, 26040 reads

Overcoming the Creative Block: Advice From Artists
""Inspiration is for amateurs -- the rest of us just show up and get to work," Chuck Close scoffed. "A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood," Tchaikovsky admonished. "Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too," Isabel Allende urged. But true as this general sentiment may be, it isn't always an easy or a livable truth --... posted on Apr 22, 26215 reads

Transforming Trauma Into Creative Energy
Shoshana had her share of trauma. As a young Jewish women, she fled Antwerp during Hitler's rise to power in Europe, and thus survived the war. Years later, the trauma was deep inside, and it began to surface mysteriously when she took to weaving. Instead of ignoring the pain she felt, she courageously decided to complete her healing by working with others experiencing trauma as a psychotherapist.... posted on Jun 15, 23196 reads

The Realness of Who We Are: Thoughts On Life & Crafting
"For a long time I hesitated to call myself an artist. I mean artist in the most playful, experimental, fearless way. I believe we are all born creative. If we weren't meant to have some creative capacities, the human race would have failed by now. Creating is innate. Handcrafts were a natural extension of the artistic interests I've cultivated and as a way of expressing two things: what it means ... posted on May 3, 14855 reads

10 Creative Rituals To Learn From
Sustained creativity doesn't just happen -- it's the result of hard work, and daily habits which help us tap into inspiration and cultivate success. But, what are those habits and, more importantly, how might they help? In this article, 99U interviews some of the most successful, creative minds to determine their wonderfully unique routines. ... posted on Aug 13, 38585 reads

The Myth Of Creative Inspiration
When we read the masterpieces of authors such as Maya Angelou, James Chabon, or Franz Kafka - we assume that it is their creative genius which helps the words to flow. But, what if creativity were more a matter of habit, than these often elusive moments of inspiration? Franz Kafka, for example, worked tirelessly through the night. While Maya Angelou rented a room to create during the day. In each ... posted on Oct 13, 21697 reads

Creative Compulsive Disorder: Remembering Zina Nicole Lahr
With goggles resting on her head and peacock feathers folded into hair, Zina Lahr viewed herself as a canvas. Self-diagnosed with "creative compulsive disorder", Zina filmed a video to share her passion for mechanics and animatronics. She reveals some of her jaw-dropping artwork: a giant puppet spider she helped create for a movie, and a wired paper crane for stop-motion animation. Zina's artwork ... posted on Sep 12, 4905 reads

How To Resist Social Distractions
"One can never be alone enough to write"... And yet despite the vast creative and psychological benefits of boredom, we have grown so afraid of it that we have unlearned -- or refused to learn altogether -- the essential art of being alone, so very necessary for contemplation and creative work." In discussing the life and work of 19th century French artist and diarist Eugene Delacroix, Maria Popov... posted on Jun 24, 13563 reads

Mary Oliver on the Third Self
"Mary Oliver sets out to excavate the building blocks of the self in order to understand its parallel capacities for focused creative flow and merciless interruption. She identifies three primary selves that she inhabits, and that inhabit her, as they do all of us: the childhood self, which we spend our lives trying to weave into the continuity of our personal identity; the social self, "fettered ... posted on Oct 23, 18867 reads

Re-Imagining the World: An Artist's Remarkable Life Journey
They say that a creative adult is the child who survived. From an early age, Slobodan Dan Paich had a powerful awareness of his inner compass. In the decades since, it has led him across the globe and against many odds, to build community through art and to leverage the creative force for re-imagining the world. Slobodan reminds us how staying true to ourselves, and working with our fears, we can ... posted on May 11, 3065 reads

Walking as Creative Fuel
Over one hundred years ago, Scottish writer Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, penned an essay entitled, "The Fellow that Goes Alone" about the simplest of activities that can yield the most creative thoughts: walking. In this ode to ambulating, Maria Popova weaves together quotes and excerpts from literature's big proponents of the timeless exercise, creating a piece that celebra... posted on Jan 27, 12431 reads

The Lonely Patience of Creative Work
Poet Rainier Maria Rilke believed that patience was vital to creative work: "Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fear that after them may come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the patient, who are there as though eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly sti... posted on Jul 8, 11402 reads

In the Business of Change
An increasing number of social entrepreneurs have come to realize that moving from ideation to success often requires going beyond the usual, the traditional, the expected. They need to shake things up, turn ideas upside down and infuse their solutions to challenges with a creative twist, new technology and/or a bold rethink....For social entrepreneurs it's more than being disruptive for the sake ... posted on Aug 10, 7619 reads

How to Save Creative Culture from the Syphoning of Substance
Maria Popova reflects on the thoughts of mathematician, philosopher, and cybernetics pioneer Norbert Wiener in his book The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society. She reminds us of the danger when "creative culture is reduced to mere 'content' as the life of the mind and world of substantive ideas collapse into an abyss of marketable sensationalism and cynicism, (flattening) life's nu... posted on Oct 21, 4184 reads

How Craving Attention Makes You Less Creative
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has gotten more than his fair share of attention from his acting career. But as social media exploded over the past decade, he got addicted like the rest of us -- trying to gain followers and likes only to be left feeling inadequate and less creative. In a refreshingly honest talk, he explores how the attention-driven model of big tech companies impacts our creativity -- and s... posted on Feb 24, 5512 reads

Legendary Cellist Pablo Casals, at Age 93, on Creative Vitality
"Long before there was Yo-Yo Ma, there was Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor Pablo Casals (December 29, 1876-October 22, 1973), regarded by many as the greatest cellist of all time. The recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the U.N. Peace Medal for his unflinching dedication to justice and his lifelong stance against oppression and dictatorship, Casals was as much an extraordinary... posted on Jan 20, 4090 reads

Haben Girma: Transforming Constraints to Creative Opportunity
"As the first deafblind graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma aims to help eradicate what she calls "ableism" in society, the assumption that disabled people are inferior. "We are not inferior. But society often sends this message," she says. Now a distinguished human rights lawyer advocating for disability justice, she is an internationally recognized beacon of empowerment and inclusivity... posted on Oct 17, 1156 reads

What Changed Your Mind?
What happens when leading figures are asked what has changed their minds about some of the biggest issues? The poll of Nobel laureates, scientists, futurists and creative thinkers is published by John Brockman, the New York-based literary agent and publisher of The Edge website. This year he posed the question: "What have you changed your mind about? Why?" Here are some of the thought-provoking an... posted on Aug 27, 5278 reads

Untitled
At the beginning of each year, students at Chapin High School in Chapin, S.C., chart the groups and cliques on their campus. Typically, it's a picture of divisions. Then they, "Mix It Up", create creative interactions amongst and enjoy 'Unity Day'.... posted on Apr 11, 1025 reads

Avenues of Happiness
They throw parties. But they donate all the proceeds to development projects. Couple of young entrepreneurs, relics from Silicon Valley's dot-com era, started AHIMSA Fund to raise some money to buy musical instruments for underprivileged slum children, to setup a curriculums for them to grow further and to give them an avenue for creative expression. "Some would say, why are you wasting your ti... posted on Jan 21, 3284 reads

Antiprenuer
Imagine a chain of restaurants serving only locally-sourced food. Or an artist-controlled radio network. Or a consumer co-op for organic clothing. No sweatshops. No ads. Just sustainable, accountable companies. Antiprenuer is a project to challenge the giant corporations by harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit of activists. Instead of protests and boycotts, they want to "start putting our creat... posted on Jan 21, 1757 reads

The Hunger Project
Despite a food distribution system that can put a can of soda within arms reach of every person, one-fifth of the world's population suffers from chronic hunger and 41,000 of them, mostly children, die each day. Instead of looking to just feed the one-billion hungry mouths with aid, one NGO views those one-billion mouths as hard-working creative people that are an instrumental part of the solution... posted on Apr 22, 1159 reads

Rough Seas
In life, it's the rough patches that build your strength and character. They test you. They make you dig deeper, think harder, and risk more. Use them to your advantage. Don't play the victim. Get up and get creative. It's what you do when the going gets tough that defines you.... posted on Oct 31, 1799 reads

Vogalonga
Environmental protest meets extreme sports each year at the Vogalonga (long row) in Venice, Italy. As many as 1,000 human-powered boats take part in the 18.6-mile regatta through the famously polluted waters of Venice. Motorboats, whose wakes weaken the foundation of centuries-old buildings, and industrial pollution from mainland chemical factories are the main targets of these floating activists,... posted on Dec 27, 1504 reads

Infinite Worth
On the site of an old copper paint factory and whiskey warehouse in Baltimore, stands the eclectic American Visionary Art Museum. Founded by former psychiatric nurse, Rebecca Hoffberger, on the idea that each of us has unlimited creative potential, the museum trumpets the wonders of raw human creativity by featuring art work from self-taught individuals with no formal training. ... posted on Jan 31, 1418 reads

Bus Stand Autobiographies
An incarcerated person, a bilingual 5th grader, and a former go-go dancer are among 20 people whose creative autobiographies are on display at bus shelters throughout Philadelphia! It's all part of the 'Autobiography Project' to commemorate the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin. After inviting residents to share their own life stories, in 300 words or less, these inspirations were plastered as... posted on Jul 21, 2240 reads

From Garbage To Gold
Two years ago, Eli Reich was a mechanical engineer consultant for a Seattle wind energy company when his messenger bag was stolen. Reich, who rode his bike to work every day, decided that instead of buying a new one, he would simply fashion another bag out of used bicycle-tire inner tubes that were lying around his house. Soon compliments on his sturdy black handmade messenger bag turned into req... posted on Sep 5, 1804 reads

Discovering Collective Wisdom
Call it collective consciousness, team synergy, co-intelligence, or group mind -- a growing number of people are discovering through their own experience that wholes are indeed far more than the sum of their parts; that when individuals come together with a shared intention, in a conducive environment, something mysterious can come into being. If you've never read a book about this "collective int... posted on Oct 8, 2942 reads