tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post8797824787942601611..comments2023-10-03T11:41:21.191+01:00Comments on The Truth About Lies: Imagine: How Creativity WorksJim Murdochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-60197124327944527302014-07-07T12:30:27.395+01:002014-07-07T12:30:27.395+01:00Thanks for your comment Zohaib but did you notice...Thanks for your comment <b>Zohaib</b> but did you notice my postscript? In an article in GalleyCat James Boog reports that "Jonah Lehrer [has] resigned from <i>The New Yorker</i>. Lehrer admitted that he had fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his book, <i>Imagine: How Creativity Works</i>. [...] The book has already sold 200,000 copies, but the publisher has stopped the presses. Links to Lehrer’s book have been removed at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble."<br /><br />This is a shame because I'm sure the book still has many valid points to make but now he's sullied his copybook who's going to trust him?Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-87593076872083229192014-07-05T09:14:12.766+01:002014-07-05T09:14:12.766+01:00I recommend the new book "Imagine: How Creati...I recommend the new book <a href="http://howentrepreneur.com/download-imagine-how-creativity-works-pdf-ebook/" rel="nofollow">"Imagine: How Creativity Works"</a> by Jonah Lehrer on creativity. It is jammed pack with anecdotes and research results that could provide grist for classes on creativity. The book is organized into two segments: the first chapters are about individual creativity and the latter are about group creativity. <br /><br />The alone part goes into how the brain functions. It is a little more complex than mere right brain vs. left brain issues. It also explains why so many creative people are hopped up on drugs or suffer from bipolar disorder. While we don't want to encourage those behaviors, the book uses that information to show how we can accomplish many of the same results without giving in.<br /><br />Another interesting point was the observation that blue walls encourage right brain thinking (get out the paint can) and red walls encourage left brain thinking.. Also, for those who didn't already know it, naps and travel are also good to encourage creativity.<br /><br />The chapters on group creativity were more useful. According to research there is a sweet spot for the make-up of teams for creativity. A scholar analyzed collaborative groups for Broadway musicals back to the 1880s looking at the creative teams. He found that that creative teams--choreography, music, direction, etc--who never worked together before were most likely to create a flop. Teams that worked together constantly performed better. The most successful teams were those where there was a partial core but new blood was added. West Side Story was cited as an example with the addition of Steven Sondheim to the existing team.<br /><br />Togetherness plays a big part in group creativity. Pixar places all of the bathrooms in the middle of the building to encourage people running in to each other even when they are not working on the same project. One reason Silicon valley is a center of creativity, according to the author, is that California law greatly limits no compete contracts, so people flow around freely between companies.<br /><br />His comments on brainstorming were interesting. He presents data that suggests the absence of criticism leads to poorer results than allowing criticism. I think his view of brainstorming ignores the converging phase. We all know brainstorms without a convergence phase just leaves you with a handful of stickies. He cites Pixar's criticism meetings as an example, but by that point I think Pixar is beyond the brainstorming phase and into a different phase of creativity.<br /><br />A final comment, the author notes that an off the wall response in the early stage of brainstorming makes the technique more effective. If one free associates off the word "blue" everyone will say the obvious, e.g. sky etc. If someone comes in with aqua or something unexpected, that will widen the groups range of thought.<br /><br />The above is just the tip of the iceberg for this bookAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18217407276087906277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-1604341526655217952012-04-19T16:21:28.231+01:002012-04-19T16:21:28.231+01:00Well that’s good, Owen. I hope you enjoy the book....Well that’s good, <b>Owen</b>. I hope you enjoy the book. It’s been about fifteen years since I’ve been to Edinburgh—I didn’t even go to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in <i>Waiting for Godot</i>—and I’m not sure what would entice me at this point. I know Americans would think of a trip to Edinburgh like I think of a trip to the corner shop but without a car it’s quite a trek, especially for Carrie and I wouldn’t want to go without her; it’s not as if we live in the centre of Glasgow or anything. Jonah looks like he’ll be entertaining through.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-6406399330047684092012-04-19T15:27:18.919+01:002012-04-19T15:27:18.919+01:00Cheers for that Jim,
It's ordered and due to ...Cheers for that Jim,<br /><br />It's ordered and due to arrive on Saturday so I have a week before going along to see Jonah speak in Edinburgh. Think there might still be some tickets available: http://www.list.co.uk/place/30881-surgeons-hall/Owen O'Learyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09377861792879499661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-17363958129499825472012-04-17T15:28:35.649+01:002012-04-17T15:28:35.649+01:00I’m glad you enjoyed the review, Owen, and nice to...I’m glad you enjoyed the review, <b>Owen</b>, and nice to see a new name appearing in the comments. There are lots of books like Jonah’s around at the moment and they are open to criticism but, for me, a writer who spends his time lying his way to the truth, books like this make me think and that’s far more important that the pinpoint accuracy of what they claim. There has to be a scientific explanation as to what creativity is and how it works; there has to be. This may not be the definitive answer but it has helped me develop faith in my own process. I say ‘faith’ and not ‘belief’ because I choose to differentiate between them: beliefs don’t need to be true—people used to believe the earth was flat; people still believe that spilling salt is unlucky—but faith is built on evidence over a period of time. I have been writing now for forty years and so have built up a body of evidence. Now when I start a new novel I have faith in myself—in the left and right hemispheres of my brain—that I’m capable of finishing it even though I know that for a good 75% of the time I won’t have a clue where I’m going with it and will regret bitterly having started off in the first place. <br /><br />Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes—you’re quite right there—and I didn’t mean to demean people who express their creativity by baking cakes or tinkering with car engines; as a writer I can be a bit blinkered at times. <br /><br />I can’t imagine you not getting something out of this book though and am happy I was able to direct you towards it. It already is on Amazon though. Here’s a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Creativity-Works-Jonah-Lehrer/dp/0547386079" rel="nofollow">link</a>.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-37026416280556804552012-04-17T15:06:22.726+01:002012-04-17T15:06:22.726+01:00Great review Jim, I had glanced at it a few times ...Great review Jim, I had glanced at it a few times this week before finally setting aside a cup of tea and some time to read it. Best lunch break I've had in a while. <br /><br />I'm looking forward to the book arriving from Amazon but one thing I'm curious to learn relates to the act of creating. In essence I agree with some of the posts on here in that we are all creators. In fact I think that an quest for the meaning of life leads to our role as creators and that creativity is not confined to artists etc. Everything from spreadsheets to detailed travel itineraries involve an act of creation and I would be keen to learn of a study that tracked brain activity in the minds of these so called non creatives and make a comparison with artists/musicians etc.<br /><br />Anyway, let's see what Jonah has to say and thanks again for the review. OwenOwen O'Learyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09377861792879499661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-53279581492506168942012-04-13T14:54:41.323+01:002012-04-13T14:54:41.323+01:00No worries, I wasn't offended. As I said, it&#...No worries, I wasn't offended. As I said, it's a wall I've crashed into before. (Cue David Bowie song here....) I've long since accepted the fact that not everyone experiences life the same way, or the same way I do.<br /><br />It's the same with creativity. I just accept the fact that it happens, and rarely am interested in why. I'm more interested in how than why; it just is. <br /><br />I do believe that creativity is a human birthright, and everyone has it. We may not all express it in the arts, and I know some chefs who I consider at least as creative as some painters I could name. We may not all be equally creative, either, some doing more with it than others, but that doesn't matter as much as that you DO do something with it, one way or another. <br /><br />I actually do agree with the theological position that we are co-creators with the Creator in bringing new things into the world, and creativity is how we express our own divinity in the world, and grow and co-evolve. I'm also reminded of this every spring when the flowers emerge from nothing as they do every year.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-85112014734904471412012-04-12T17:46:07.067+01:002012-04-12T17:46:07.067+01:00I’ll be honest, Dave, I find it amazing that not e...I’ll be honest, <b>Dave</b>, I find it amazing that not everyone has this urge. I know I was the odd one out at school but the thing was that’s not how I saw it. I saw all of <i>them</i> as peculiar even those with musical ability who were content simply to play what other people write down. Practically the first thing I did once I learned how to play was set myself the task of writing my own stuff. Now that was far more satisfying even if my playing wasn’t always able to match my compositional abilities. I get that not everyone who picks up a piece of wood will see the sculpture on the inside but maybe there’s a sideboard in there. Just sticking it on the fire to keep one warm seems such a waste.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-24597347654924808432012-04-12T12:22:20.882+01:002012-04-12T12:22:20.882+01:00I found this fascinating. I am definitely going to...I found this fascinating. I am definitely going to buy this book, but what I found particularly enthralling, reading it at this time, was the overlap there seems to be with my post of yesterday. <br /><br />Particularly interesting is the question of why - and maybe how - we became creative as a species.<br /><br />I must say that I have always found creativity to be the most creative subject around.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-13741266858712056902012-04-12T09:54:07.816+01:002012-04-12T09:54:07.816+01:00Yes, Davide, I wouldn’t say that this book is the ...Yes, <b>Davide</b>, I wouldn’t say that this book is the last word on creativity but it does at least take a step in the right direction. When I facetiously suggest that inspiration is a thirty-second burst of alpha waves I am referring merely to the delivery system; God alone knows what goes on to get to that stage when an idea all neatly packaged is ready for transmission.<br /><br />And, <b>Art</b>, I don’t like to think of myself as prejudiced in any way. I have limited life experience and even with a fairly decent imagination I find I’m only capable of short leaps of faith. I’m sure you know all about the various types of déjà experience that people have proposed in addition to the common or garden déjà vu which I have personal experience of. I’m not closed to new experiences but on the whole I don’t feel very comfortable with things I can’t explain and that includes déjà vu because no one can seem to agree on exactly what’s happening so I don’t dwell on it whereas I imagine that’s the kind of thing you do do. What I suggested in your case was an off the cuff response and no offense was intended but I don’t get what you’re on about, I really don’t. In my world you’ve either been someplace or you’ve not. I’ve not been anyone in a previous life whose been there, I have no psychic abilities and, as I’ve said before, I don’t have a spiritual bone in my body. I’m not so much blinkered as myopic: I can only see what’s in front of my nose and the thing is I’m not even remotely curious what else there is out there.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-2014549548396927872012-04-12T04:24:54.298+01:002012-04-12T04:24:54.298+01:00Well, you can explain it that way if you want to, ...Well, you can explain it that way if you want to, but it didn't happen that way. *shrug* Oh well. But then, this is when I run into even my friends' prejudices against the reality that I actually live in. Nothing I can say will convince people of things that they would rather explain—or rather, explain away. Most people have set opinions and become inflexible about them. My life has forced me into not having fixed opinions, because it's been a life full of change and the unexplained. Again, oh well.<br /><br />All of which is just fine. Imagination is a very powerful thing, I completely agree. But so is inspiration. So is the subconscious. So are dreams. So is resistance to the subconscious. The waking mind likes to think it's in charge, when in fact it's the smallest, least powerful part of the whole.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-17495441268002143322012-04-11T19:06:41.398+01:002012-04-11T19:06:41.398+01:00How true Jim, yes the waiting kills and putting tr...How true Jim, yes the waiting kills and putting trust in a process that we fundamentally don't get kills even more...but it's the way of the Gods, isn't it? I mean, when I get to what you have so clearly pointed out, that's to say an ineluctable level of unfathomable-ness, I simply become humble and humbly mystic and... I remember lines like this by Seamus Heaney..."Walk on air against your better judgement..."Tommaso Gervasuttihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17137499390434949734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-47753509641630441292012-04-11T14:55:32.634+01:002012-04-11T14:55:32.634+01:00I agree totally, Art, it is semantics but the only...I agree totally, <b>Art</b>, it <i>is</i> semantics but the only way I can explain your ability to write about places you’ve not been with any degree of accuracy is that you’ve read about them and then applied your imagination to what you’re read and been lucky enough to hit the nail on the head. Recycled personal experiences is only the start for me though. That’s where the imagination kicks in because I can then extrapolate from the facts (assuming what I have to being with <i>are</i> the facts). My last book was written with a female protagonist and a female foil and as much as I embrace my female side the bottom line is that I’m not a woman and never will be. But I can imagine. I have enough experience of women that I can do that and not embarrass myself in fact I’ve been complimented in the past how well I write women. <br /><br />I’m with you: as long as whatever it is that keep me writing keeps flowing I have no great need to label it or even understand it. Trusting it is another thing entirely. I still find that hard.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-58760155066256788152012-04-11T14:35:03.040+01:002012-04-11T14:35:03.040+01:00I think there's some semantic baggage around t...I think there's some semantic baggage around the word "inspiration," where you're using it only in that one Romantic way, but I don't see a conflict with what you describe as your process. We can call it what we will, it comes from somewhere other than the waking conscious mind (which really is the smallest part of the whole system). Whether we call it imagination or vision, or reworked personal experience, I don't really care. As long as it keeps flowing, that's what matters. I sometimes think trying to get at the "why" of creativity is the wrong question entirely: "how" matters more, at least to the artist.<br /><br />I guess we're fundamentally different in one way, though, creatively. (Which is fine, BTW, I'm just noticing.) In my case, I can demonstrate numerous examples of my poems NOT coming from anywhere near my life experience, or anything I've done, or places I've been to. In fact, I can demonstrate from my journals that more than once a poem has been written about a place years before I'd visited it that turns out to be remarkably accurate. If everything we produce creatively is recycled stuff from our own experience or memory, how is that possible? It's perhaps more than just imagination, because it's happened more than once or twice. <br /><br />If everything that percolated up from my own subconscious was derived from my own life experience, I'd find that very dull. Not that I've lived a dull life, but as you know I tend to seek out new adventures rather than repeat myself. (Exploring a place I've never been before is one of those occasions I feel most present, most alive.) The truth is, I always get images and even smells from places and people I've never been. My dreams are not just recycled day-stuff, they bring me a lot more than that. Again, whether that's imagination or vision or whatever, I don't think it really matters. As long as it keeps flowing.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-65153301613033999992012-04-11T13:12:19.635+01:002012-04-11T13:12:19.635+01:00I agree, Davide, I find subjects like this endless...I agree, <b>Davide</b>, I find subjects like this endlessly fascinating. I’m not always sure I trust what they’re saying 100% but I don’t know enough to argue. I did turn down another book that I was offered when I had a quick look at some of the existing reviewing because one of the reviewers cited several weaknesses in the author’s arguments which would have bypassed me completely. Where I do gain comfort, however, is in trying to come to terms with how I work as a writer. I’ve always recognised that I have a long gestation period but I’ve never really had a handle on what was happening during those months when I never seemed to be doing anything. Now, even though I don’t understand it, I’m more open to admit that my subconscious is still very much on the case. I don’t get books fully formed—that would be too much to ask—but I do get poems that appear (seemingly) out of nowhere but of course they’re not out of nowhere, they’re just from a part of my mind that I cannot access directly; I just have to trust that it knows what it’s doing and it seems to even if other people’s minds work quicker than mine does. Nothing comes out of the blue. Everything I have ever written about has been based on my own life experiences, things I’ve personally gone through, things I’ve witnessed others go through or things I’ve read or imagined people going through; my mind is constantly churning away—both the conscious mind and the unconscious part—and so what’s surprising (to me at least) is that I don’t have more ideas but I can live with what I come up with. It’s the waiting that kills me, putting trust in a process I don’t get; that’s hard.<br /><br />I guess it all depends what one takes from the verb ‘disturb’, <b>Gwilliam</b>, but your point is valid. The important point though is becoming aware that we have this dual processor in our heads and finding a way to, as I was saying to Davide, trust the right side of our brains to think outside the box. I’m a grafter—always have been—and so when I have a problem I tend to work away at it until I come up with a solution. I’m also an impatient bugger which is why I struggle to do something as simple as relax. I lie down and expect my body to just relax there and then because that’s the time I’ve budgeted for relaxation and it should just switch off and stop chucking all these thoughts at me. I don’t like not being in control but the fact is that I’m so not in control of my own body and you would really think after nearly fifty-three years I might have got a bit of a grip, wouldn’t you?<br /><br />And, <b>Art</b>, I’ve made it very clear what I don’t believe in, that romantic notion of inspiration, and I still don’t. I still believe that, once you get down to it, inspiration <i>is</i> nothing more than a good idea, a different idea, an idea that surprises you but it’s still something that I came up with. I just wish it didn’t happen when I’d just got into bed but the arguments in this book go some way to helping me understand that there is a reason why I get these flashes at the most inopportune moments and I just have to accept it in the same way as I accept my short-sightedness. I just don’t know how to manage this side of my creativity to maximise output of the good stuff. Someone should invent a pill that generates alpha waves. I’d take it.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-3009788712450473292012-04-11T01:58:41.417+01:002012-04-11T01:58:41.417+01:00Well, yeah. This is what I have been saying all al...Well, yeah. This is what I have been saying all along. You may not believe in inspiration but by whatever name you use for it, you still need it and use it.<br /><br />Daniel Levitin put Sting into an fMRI to test the musical creativity brain with parallel results. It's in his book "The World in Six Songs, " which I am reading and plan to review.<br /><br />Elsewhere I've already explained how Beeman's example of Robin Williams has a couple of problems, one of them being that "happiness" isn't really defined, just assumed. It needs to be more precisely defined for that supposition to have real merit.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-58701630937593626532012-04-10T20:11:51.949+01:002012-04-10T20:11:51.949+01:00Jim, I'm a bit thick when it comes to logic. W...Jim, I'm a bit thick when it comes to logic. Would not the heat of the flames 'disturb' the pyramid?Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-61989238177938492672012-04-10T19:19:14.868+01:002012-04-10T19:19:14.868+01:00Just a quick comment, I totally agree "ideas ...Just a quick comment, I totally agree "ideas come OUT OF THE BLUE" and the word inspiration maybe simply means "inspiring, inhaling" that's to say breathing the blue in....Tommaso Gervasuttihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17137499390434949734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-89881504707557293592012-04-10T19:15:03.245+01:002012-04-10T19:15:03.245+01:00Dear Jim, how engaging this post, I have read only...Dear Jim, how engaging this post, I have read only half of it but I amgoing to read it all very carefully and maybe reread it. I am imagining it would be great partecipating in a seminar on these matters you are digging out.Tommaso Gervasuttihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17137499390434949734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-10185522699093571482012-04-10T10:53:32.825+01:002012-04-10T10:53:32.825+01:00My father would have argued that humans have the c...My father would have argued that humans have the creative impulse because they’re made in God’s image, <b>Kirk</b>, but I’ve never seen God as a sculptor; a carpenter and a joiner perhaps. My father hadn’t an artistic bone in his body and I never grew up in an environment where artistic things were elevated in any way above the mundane. Beats the hell out of my why I turned out the way I did; my siblings certainly didn’t. I never decided to become a creator—and, as I’ve said I would have received little encouragement to become one (although to be fair I was never actively <i>dis</i>couraged)—it was just something that came naturally once I hit puberty because apart from a single rather macabre poem about a public hanging written in Scots when I was a kid there was not the slightest evidence that I wouldn’t follow my family into mundanity. I, however, was never chided for being a daydreamer. I enjoyed school. I liked learning and still do. When I’m not actively creating it’s what I like to do next. I think curiosity is an essential requirement for any creative soul. <br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-21179395700468318522012-04-10T01:48:38.124+01:002012-04-10T01:48:38.124+01:00There's several reasons why one would want to ...There's several reasons why one would want to be a creator--I'm thinking of a creator mostly in the artistic sense, as that's what interests me the most. One may be a fan of creators--I like Picasso, so I shall be Picasso (good luck). Or one may like the lifestyle, or what they may imagine to be the lifestyle, of a creator (e.g. hanging around Parisian cafes chatting with Fitzgerald and Hemingway, though I imagine both men spent at least part of their time holed up in their rooms writing) And, of course, there's always the profit motive (though a writer with only dollar signs in his eyes may end up with nothing but dollar signs on a piece of paper). But there's another reason to create that I think is often overlooked. A person wants to create because they always find themselves creating! I mean, if you walk around all the time describing everything to yourself in prose, and even describing your own self in the third person, then you should seriously consider becoming a writer. If everytime you look at something--a tree, a shop, yourself in the mirror--you can't help but imagine the tree, shop, yourself, in the form of watercolors on a canvas, then you should seriously consider becoming an painter. No, as I see it, creating per se isn't the problem. The problem is channeling all that creativity, giving it form and shape. THAT'S when the hard work begins. I mean, I've got the daydreaming part down pat. Always have. Just ask any of my teachers from childhood who sent me home with notes complaining I spend too much time in class daydreaming. No, it's getting those dreams out of my head and onto a piece of paper that's the bitch.<br /><br />Sounds like an interesting book. I'm going to have to read it.Kirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02155991693956178030noreply@blogger.com