Fuel Your Creativity The Joy of Creative Ignorance: Embracing Uncertainty In Your Day-to-Day I was struck recently by a comment on my site: “There is really no prescription for creative work, I heard a writer say the other day that he sits down at the keyboard and the first thing he says to himself is ‘I don’t know.’” — Geoff Talbot That writer sounds like a wise man to me. All too often, when we start work, we bring too much knowledge, too many preconceptions about how we expect the work to turn out. So many, in fact, that we end up cramping our imagination to fit our expectations, instead of allowing it to surprise us with something unexpected. And as we know, that unexpected “something” is the source of creative magic. That’s not to say there’s no place for knowledge, skills, and experience. This isn’t a new idea. But it’s not always easy to feel the power of negative capability, or the joy of creative ignorance, when you’re faced with an empty screen, canvas, or stage, and the voice of doubt starts nagging from the back of your mind. Ignorance can be scary. A. B. Over to you:
201 Ways to Arouse Your Creativity Arouse your creativity Electric flesh-arrows … traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears. It is the gong of the orgasm. ~ Anais Nin Creativity is like sex. I know, I know. The people I speak of are writers. Below, I’ve exposed some of their secret tips, methods, and techniques. Now, lie back, relax and take pleasure in these 201 provocative ways to arouse your creativity. Great hacks from Merlin Mann of 43 Folders
Creativity Processes, Creative Thinking and Lateral Thinking from MindTools © iStockphoto/pavlen The tools in this section can help you to become more creative. They are designed to help you devise creative and imaginative solutions to problems, and help you to spot opportunities that you might otherwise miss. Before you continue, it is important to understand what we mean by creativity, as there are two completely different types. The first is technical creativity, where people create new theories, technologies or ideas. This is the type of creativity we discuss here. Many of the techniques in this chapter have been used by great thinkers to drive their creativity. Approaches to Creativity There are two main strands to technical creativity: programmed thinking and lateral thinking. The other main strand uses 'Lateral Thinking'. Programmed Thinking and Lateral Thinking Lateral thinking recognizes that our brains are pattern recognition systems, and that they do not function like computers. Unfortunately, we get stuck in our patterns. Taking the Best of Each...
'How Creativity Works': It's All In Your Imagination iStockphoto.com What makes people creative? What gives some of us the ability to create work that captivates the eyes, minds and hearts of others? Lehrer defines creativity broadly, considering everything from the invention of masking tape to breakthroughs in mathematics; from memorable ad campaigns to Shakespearean tragedies. Lehrer joins NPR's Robert Siegel to talk about the creative process — where great ideas come from, how to foster them, and what to do when you inevitably get stuck. Interview Highlights On comparing Shakespeare with the inventor of masking tape "I think we absolutely can lump them all together. "... On how Steve Jobs redesigned Pixar studios to maximize collaboration and creativity "The original design for the Pixar studios consisted of three separate buildings, where they'd put the computer scientists in one building, and the animators in a second building and the third building would contain everybody else: the directors, the editors and so on. " ...
4 Ways To Amplify Your Creativity The holidays are over, the weather is lousy, and we’re sober again. We made all kinds of New Year’s promises, but the big one that will change our careers, if not our lives, is the promise to ourselves to become more creative. In my new book, Creative Intelligence, I show that creativity is learned behavior that gets better with training--like sports. You can make creativity routine and a regular part of your life. That’s true for big companies as well as small startups, corporate managers as well as entrepreneurs. Creativity is scalable. The huge national policy storm brewing over “dwindling innovation” and an “innovation shortfall” also gives creativity an even greater agency. So here are four specific ways to lead a more creative life and boost your creative capacities. 1. Nearly every creative entrepreneur, artist, musician, engineer, sports players, designer, and scientist works with one, two, or a handful of trusted people, often in a small space. 2. 3. Creativity is relational.
The Simple Truth About Happiness “The opposite of happiness isn’t sadness — it’s boredom.”Tim FerrissTweet Over the past 4 years, I’ve read a countless number of articles on following your bliss, building passions, and being happy. Most articles touch on some common themes: finding passionate work, building positive and healthy relationships, being open-minded, and trying new things. This is, as you know, is all great advice. But over time, even though I started to explore and define my own life with these themes in mind, something felt off. There would be days where I would be insanely happy and days where I felt immensely depressed. But the down days were much, much worse. On the surface, there didn’t seem to be any correlation. But after a couple of months of accepting my bad days as normality, I stumbled across the reason for exactly why the worst days occurred and why my happiest days were so awesome. The Principle A mentor told me a couple years ago a core principle that he lives by: And it makes total sense. Examples:
13 Desktop Wallpapers To Kickstart Your Creativity One of the first things people notice about our offices here at Behance are the giant, motivational quotes up on the walls. Ranging from Picasso to Charles Mingus, they serve as a daily reminder of our ethos of making ideas happen.We decided it would be nice to share the love. Below find 13 desktop wallpapers to get you fired up to take action on your ideas. (Speaking of, did we mention tickets for our 2013 99U Conference are on sale now?) “It’s through mistakes that you actually grow. [Download image] “There is no such thing as finishing or failing, it’s all about doing.” [Download image] “Track your small wins to motivate big accomplishments.” [Download image] “Every team member who brings intelligence, experience and passion to their creations should be called an artist or designer.” [Download image] “Focus on the excitement and it will lead you through the obstacles.” [Download image] [Download image] “Everyone gets stuck in the process of creating. [Download image] [Download image]
How to overcome creative block: 20 brilliant tips | Design 1. Tap into your unconscious "Strange things happen in a semi-sleep state, when your unconscious takes over," says Shotopop's Casper Franken. "Wake up and write down whatever was happening before you forget it." 2. Write your main ideas down in columns, and list absolutely everything that comes to mind. 3. Don't go looking for inspiration: "A visually loaded word or phrase can jump out from a passage of text, or a song," proposes London based designer and illustrator Craig Ward. 4. Completely open briefs can be the worst for causing creative block. 5. "There's no such thing as a bad idea: the creative part is in seeing it though to completion, and turning dreams into reality," argues Mr Mills, creative director at ustwo. 6. "Sterility leads to an empty void of nothingness," adds Mills. 7. "Inspiration is intangible: you can't do it on purpose," believes illustrator Alex Trochut. 8. Go and do something else entirely. 9. 10. Inspiration can come from anywhere. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.