Creativity Lessons from Genius
Book summary of “Cracking Creativity: The secrets of creative genius” by Michael Michalko
Creative geniuses are genius not because of their knowledge, but because they know “how” to think. This book presents a series of tools and mindsets to improve creativity based on research of the history’s greatest thinkers across disciplines such as Einstein, da Vinci, and Picasso.
Five big ideas of this book are:
- Geniuses use productive thinking instead of reproductive thinking. They solve a problem by looking at it from many perspectives and generating all possible solutions, considering the most as well as the least likely approaches.
- Geniuses use various visual techniques to avoid the constraints of language in expressing their thoughts.
- In order to have great ideas, you must have many ideas.
- Geniuses create original ideas by incorporating randomness into their creative process. You can apply different “play” techniques to get the same effect.
- For collaborative creativity to work, participants must be able to exchange ideas without trying to change the other person’s mind.
1. Productive thinking vs. Reproductive thinking
Einstein was once asked how his problem-solving method different from others. He said if you asked the average person to find a needle in a haystack, the person would stop when he/she found a needle. Einstein, on the other hand, would tear through the entire haystack to look for all possible needles.
Geniuses think productively, not reproductively. They don’t stop at the first good idea. They find many ways to look at a problem and generate all possible solutions from each perspective.
Without this mindset, the various techniques in this book will not help you improve your creativity. You must be willing to spend time exploring the problem and generating a great number of ideas, knowing most of them will be thrown away.
2. Formulate problem statements from different perspectives
Leonardo da Vinci believed that you cannot understand a concept until you have perceived it from a minimum of three different perspectives. His rationale was that the first way you look at a problem tends to be too biased toward your existing thinking pattern.
In order to creatively solve a problem, the thinker must abandon the initial approach that stems from past experience and reconceptualise the problem. — Author
Before you start brainstorming, restate the problem five to ten times to generate multiple perspectives. The emphasis is not so much on formulating the perfect problem statement, but to deepen your understanding of the problem and discover alternative problem definitions.
3. Diagraming techniques
Not all ideas can be expressed in language. Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks famously known to be filled with diagrams and sketches, with texts only played a supporting role for these visuals.
Some diagraming techniques to make your thoughts visible are mind mapping, lotus blossom diagramming…
4. Methods to generate original ideas
Edison guaranteed productivity by giving himself an idea quota — one minor invention every ten days and a major invention every six months. The first step to generate great ideas is generating a lot of ideas.
To do so, separate your thinking into stages: possibility thinking and practicality thinking.
This two-stage concept is similar to design process’s divergent and convergent thinking. The key is not to do both at the same time.
Some techniques to help you generate more ideas are:
- Random objects: Select twenty objects at random. Make two lists of ten objects on the left and right sides of the paper, then try to connect one concept to another.
- Five senses: Force a connection between your idea with sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing
- Reverse assumptions: List all assumptions about the topic on one side, then write the opposite of each assumption on the other side
- Reverse brainstorming: Identify the weaknesses of your idea and find countermeasures
- World of essences: Find the essence of your problem, the generate a list of things from other worlds that represent it
5. Cumulate and improve ideas
Imagine having an idea bank to draw inspiration from whenever you face a problem. You can create your idea bank by keeping a notebook of all written ideas, and habitually collect and store interesting items that can stimulate your imagination.
Sometimes, discovery happens accidentally. When you find something interesting, study it. Too many fail to answer opportunity’s knock at the door because they have to finish some preconceived plan.
Constantly elaborate or improve their idea by using the SCAMPER technique.
6. Rules for effective group brainstorming
For collaborative creativity to work, participants must follow these rules:
- Exchange ideas without trying to change the other person’s mind (don’t argue, don’t interrupt, listen carefully)
- Suspend all untested assumptions
- Be honest even if your thoughts are controversial
- Regard others as equal colleagues
The ideal brainstorming group is diverse, including experts, nonexperts, and people from different domains.
Additionally, try alternative group brainstorming techniques such as brain writing, idea pool, gallery, three plus…
This article is one of a series of book summary on the creativity topic. Check out the rest of the series if you want to learn more about developing creativity:
- Science-backed ways to boost creativity (synthesis of all the book summaries)
- “A Technique for Getting Ideas” Summary (a five-step process to generate ideas, written by a marketing expert)
- “Daily Rituals: How artists work” Summary (a glimpse into what an average day of many famous artists look like)
- “Cracking Creativity: The secrets of creative genius” Summary (this one, chock full of techniques for creative problem solving)
- “The Medici Effect: what elephants and epidemics can teach us about innovation” Summary (the importance of working at the intersections of various fields and how to do so)
- “The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life” Summary (how to build creativity habits that nurture your craft)
