Imagine: How Creativity Works
Jonah Lehrer, 2012
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780547386072
Summary
Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output?
From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Decide comes a sparkling and revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It’s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.
Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, daydreaming productively, and adopting an outsider’s perspective (travel helps). He unveils the optimal mix of old and new partners in any creative collaboration, and explains why criticism is essential to the process. Then he zooms out to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective.
You’ll learn about Bob Dylan’s writing habits and the drug addictions of poets. You’ll meet a Manhattan bartender who thinks like a chemist, and an autistic surfer who invented an entirely new surfing move. You’ll see why Elizabethan England experienced a creative explosion, and how Pixar’s office space is designed to spark the next big leap in animation.
Collapsing the layers separating the neuron from the finished symphony, Imagine reveals the deep inventiveness of the human mind, and its essential role in our increasingly complex world. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1981
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.S., Columbia University; Oxford
University as a Rhodes Scholar
• Currently—N/A
Jonah Lehrer is an American author and journalist who writes on the topics of psychology, neuroscience, and the relationship between science and the humanities. Simon Ings has written, "Lehrer fancies himself—and not without reason—as a sort of one-man third culture, healing the rift between sciences and humanities by communicating and contrasting their values in a way that renders them comprehensible to partisans of either camp.
Lehrer graduated from Columbia University in 2003 with a major in neuroscience; while an undergraduate, he examined the biological process of memory in Professor Eric Kandel's Lab. He was also editor of the Columbia Review for two years. He then studied 20th century literature and philosophy at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
He is a contributing editor at Wired, Scientific American Mind, National Public Radio's Radiolab, and has written for the New Yorker, Nature, Seed, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe. Jonah Lehrer is also featured in brief informational sessions on the television show Brink, on the science channel. He currently writes the "Head Case" column for the Wall Street Journal.
Jonah Lehrer is the author of three books: Proust Was a Neuroscientist (2007), How We Decide (2010), and Imagine: How Creativity Works (2012).
Proust Was a Neuroscientist, Lehrer's debut book, is a collection of biographical essays on creative figures such as Paul Cezanne, Walt Whitman, Auguste Escoffier, and Marcel Proust. Lehrer argues for an intimate relationship with science and the humanities, and he holds that many discoveries of neuroscience are actually rediscoveries of insights made much earlier by various artists.
In How We Decide, Lehrer argues there are two main parts of the brain involved in decision-making, the rational and the emotional. His thesis has been called into question based on current understanding of neuroscience. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Imagine argues that modern science allows us to identify and harness the many different thought processes from which creativity emerges.... The book’s strength lies in specific examples—detailed stories about 3M, Pixar, Bob Dylan and Don Lee, the computer programmer who became a master mixer of quirky cocktails. These insightful tales make Imagine well worth the read.
Scientific American
Flummoxed by an intractable problem? You probably just need to work harder, right? Actually, try taking a walk instead. Thanks to how we’re hardwired, insight tends to strike suddenly—after we’ve stopped looking. In this entertaining Gladwell-esque plunge into the science of creativity, Jonah Lehrer mingles with a wide cast of characters—inventors, educators, scientists, a Pixar cofounder, an autistic surfing savant—to deconstruct how we accomplish our great feats of imagination. Notable themes emerge: Failure is necessary. The more people you casually rub shoulders with—on and off the job—the more good ideas you’ll have. And societies that unduly restrict citizens’ ability to borrow from the ideas of others—see our broken patent system—do so at their peril.
Mother Jones
Imagine is a great introduction for anyone curious about the nature and dynamics of creativity.
Booklist
In his new book on creativity, Lehrer (How We Decide) presents captivating case studies of innovative minds, companies, and cities while tying in the latest in scientific research. He recounts the sometimes surprising origins of hugely successful inventions, brands, and ideas (e.g., the Swiffer mop, Barbie doll, Pixar animation) and reveals unexpected commonalities in the creative experiences (e.g., the color blue, distractedness, living abroad). The book combines individual case studies with broader psychology to provide new insights into creativity, much like Sheena Iyengar's The Art of Choosing. Many of Lehrer's insights are based on emerging scientific practices and are thus fresh and especially applicable to modern life. He emphasizes innovative companies and experimental approaches to education and includes historical factoids that reveal the backstories of everyday items. Verdict: Lehrer's findings can be used to inform the design of innovative programs or to structure a productive work environment at home or at the office. This book will appeal to educators, business administrators, and readers interested in applied psychology. —Ryan Nayler, Univ. of Toronto Lib., Ont.
Library Journal
Lehrer argues for policy changes to enhance our nation's creativity: immigration reform because immigrants account for a disproportionate number of patent applications in the United States, and patent reform, in order to reward and thereby promote innovation. Lehrer writes with verve, creating an informative, readable book that sparkles with ideas.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What does every creative journey begin with according to Lehrer? What phase, which precedes a breakthrough, do we tend to overlook when we speak of the creative process? 2. What is the major function of each hemisphere of the brain? What role does each side play in the creative process? Which hemisphere is a “connection machine”? What are the three general phases of the creative process?
3. The first chapter of Imagine is entitled “Bob Dylan’s Brain,” but what is so significant about Bob Dylan’s brain? What is important about Dylan’s composition of his hit “Like a Rolling Stone” in particular? What does it reveal about creative blocks and the role of the right hemisphere?
4. What lessons can we learn about creativity from Dick Drew’s invention of masking tape? What does it tell us about the impact of interrupting one’s thought process or having a relaxed state of mind? How do these relaxed conditions affect the activity of the right hemisphere and the rhythm of alpha waves in our brain, and how does this ultimately influence our creative output?
5. How does mood affect our ability to have insights? Why does there seem to be a link between major depressive orders and artistic achievement? What scientific explanation does Lehrer give for the close association of bipolar disorder and creativity?
6. What is horizontal sharing and conceptual blending? How does the latter correspond with philosopher David Hume’s thoughts on the essence of imagination? How can we get better at conceptual blending?
7. Discuss the varied effects of alcohol, stimulants, and amphetamines on the creative process, and, more specifically, their impact with respect to our ability to generate insights. What are the effects of color? Of light or time of day? Of architecture? What effect does daydreaming have on our creative process?
8. What is “working memory” and how large of a role does it play in our creative process? What is the major function of the prefrontal cortex? What other parts of the brain does the prefrontal cortex work with most closely? What does Earl Miller’s experiment reveal, however, about the importance of the primitive mid-brain?
9. What are the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s two archetypes of creativity? What does Lehrer say they are called in modern science?
10. The artist Milton Glaser says that “we’re always looking, but we never really see.” What does he mean by this? What does the slogan of Glaser’s studio tell us about creativity? What does he mean when he says that “creativity is a verb”? What does Glaser’s most famous design project reveal about creativity, perseverance, and the refinement of ideas?
11. What is “the unconcealing”? Why is this such an important part of the creative process?
12. What is Lehrer speaking about when he references “letting go”? Which part of our brain is responsible for hindering this? What does this tell us about the constraints that we place on our own creativity? Can these restraints be overcome? What can we learn about this concept from the musician Yo Yo Ma, jazz improvisation, the surfer Clay Marzo, or comedy powerhouse Second City?
13. Are we “biologically destined” to get less creative as we age? What practical advice does mathematician Paul Erdos offer to maximize our creativity? What effect does being an outsider or thinking like an outsider have on our creative development? How can travel influence our creative output? Why does Lehrer say that we “must constantly forget what [we] already know”?
14. What do Professor Ben Jones’s analyses reveal about trends in scientific teamwork? How should we work together, and what are the ideal strategies for group creativity? What does sociologist Brian Uzzi’s study of musicals tell us about teamwork and group creativity?
15. What is the power of Q? How do levels of “social intimacy” affect levels of creative success?
16. What lessons can we learn from Pixar? Consider their refusal to form an independent production company, the architecture of their workspace, and their creative methods. What accounts for their unlikely, repeated success?
17. Although advertising firm partner Alex Osborn’s technique of positive brainstorming is perhaps the most popular creative method, is it the most effective means of fostering creativity? What problems are associated with this method? What does the research of psychologists Keith Sawyer and Charlan Nemeth reveal about the effectiveness of brainstorming? What does it tell us about the effects of debate and criticism on innovation, imagination, and the generation of ideas? What is “plussing,” and why should this be incorporated in critical discussions?
18. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third places.” What are “third places,” and what role have they played in the history of new ideas?
19. What is urban friction and how does it affect our creativity? What can we learn from the research of author and urban activist Jane Jacobs and her ideas about “knowledge spill-overs”? What does physicist Geoffrey West’s research reveal about urban patterns of productivity? What does West say is “the single most important invention in human history”?
20. Lehrer speaks about the development of the Route 128 area in Massachusetts versus the development of Silicon Valley in California. What can be learned about creativity, exchange, and innovation from a comparison of the two?
21. What accounts for the Israeli technology boom? What does this example tell us about the importance of social circles, information sharing, and face-to-face interaction?
22. According to the research presented in Lehrer’s book, how important is physical proximity between collaborators? What does Lehrer say, then, is the job of the internet and technology?
23. Statistician David Banks says that geniuses arrive in tight, local clusters, but why is this the case?
24. What is the Shakespeare paradox? What can we learn about genius from a consideration of Shakespeare’s background? What cultural factors played the biggest role in facilitating his success, and what can we conclude about the role of culture and external factors in determining creative output?
25. Lehrer says, “For Shakespeare, the act of creation was inseparable from the act of connection.” There are many other examples, however, of this concept of the link between creation and connection provided in the text. Discuss this concept. What kinds of connections are useful or necessary in fostering our creativity?
26. Discuss economist Paul Romer’s claim that ideas are an inexhaustible resource—a “nonrival good.” While ideas may be an inexhaustible resource, Lehrer calls for us to consider how we can “create a multiplier culture.” Is a dense population or geographic area sufficient to multiply our creative output? If not, what else is required?
27. What are meta-ideas and what role do they play in influencing creativity? Discuss some of the examples of important meta-ideas offered in Lehrer’s book. What were the most important meta-ideas of sixteenth-century England, for instance, and how did they influence levels of creative or artistic achievement? What four meta-ideas does Lehrer say we need to embrace today? In the Coda to his book, what does Lehrer claim is the most important meta-idea of all?
28. What does Lehrer’s book reveal about traditional methods of education and their effect on creativity? What lessons are offered through a consideration of schools like the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and High Tech High? Can creativity be taught? If so, what tactics or methods can schools implement in order to cultivate and support the creativity of their students?
29. Lehrer says that “[w]e need to innovate innovation.” Considering the many lessons and observations offered in this book, what are some of the steps that we can take to accomplish this?
(Questions issued by publisher.)