How to Kill Creativity

Catherine Thompson
Nov 7 · 1 min read
What sparks your understanding? Pic by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

This is the first in a series of experiments finding out how hard it is to illustrate research visually with no jargon.

The rules are it has to be interesting research, made using simple software (this was made in PowerPoint), with no jargon, and creative commons or self-drawn icons.

I’m kicking off with How to Kill Creativity written by Teresa Amabile way back in 1998. I love Amabile’s work and it’s an easy first experiment; it’s a short article with simple language, and quick and easy takeaways.



Do you feel like you have learnt something from this visualisation? If not, check out the original article over at Harvard Business Review. It’s well worth a read.

Do you find the lack of capitalisation and punctuation distracting? What about all those colours? What helps you understand things quickly?

Catherine Thompson

Written by

Currently exploring ways to illustrate great research visually ▦ Innovation for Social Good ▣ Geek ▩ Dyslexic ▧ Foodie ◪ Feminist ▥ CISL 10 ◧ All views my own.▨

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