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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Instant creativity | Anvar Alikhan, Business Standard

I think the headline is overstating things, but Alikhan writes an informative review of new book, How Creativity Works, by Jonah Lehrer. It's about one of my favorite subjects.

Instead of summarizing the review, though, I'll just provide this list -- "20 ways to be more creative" -- that Alikhan pulled from Lehrer's book:
  1. Don’t be too focused or serious… relax, have fun!
  2. Work with people who are different from yourself
  3. Work on problems at the fringes of your specialty
  4. Have a good laugh before looking at the problem
  5. Paint your walls blue
  6. Smoke a little marijuana (no kidding!)
  7. Think like a child 
  8. Practice day-dreaming
  9. Try to rotate yourself through your business, periodically
  10. If you’re a “day person”, think about the problem at night (and vice versa)
  11. Piggyback on other people’s experiences (and vice versa)
  12. Think about the problem when you’re drowsy
  13. Re-state the problem in general terms (not specific)
  14. Pretend you’re far away from the problem
  15. Don’t sit in a small room
  16. Go for long walks
  17. Take long, hot showers
  18. Have a diverse circle of friends
  19. Travel a lot
  20. Be happy!
Besides reading the review and the book, here's a another related website that you might find interesting:

Garbl's Creativity Resources Online--an annotated directory of websites that provide advice for increasing creativity and innovation in your writing, in your personal life, on the job, in school, in the arts and elsewhere. Many of the sites have links to other resources on creativity.

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