Imagine: How Creativity Works

by Jonah Lehrer

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Author: Jonah Lehrer

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Hardcover:
How do you measure the imagination? How do you quantify an epiphany? This title shows how research is deepening our understanding of the human imagination. It reveals the deep inventiveness of the human mind and its essential role in our increasingly complex world.

Review

"Jonah Lehrer may be the most talented explainer of science that we've got. His engrossing investigation of creativity and its sources makes "Imagine" his best book yet."
--Joshua Foer, author of "Moonwalking with Einstein" "Jonah Lehrer's new book confirms what his fans have known all along - that he knows more about science than a lot of scientists and more about writing than a lot of writers."
--Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Poin""t" and "Outliers" "Who wouldn't love a book that validates what cubicle workers already know: Brainstorming meetings are a waste of time."
"--USA Today" "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"

"The author of "Proust Was a Neuroscientist" argues his case using examples ranging from the songs of Bob Dylan to the invention of the Swiffer, adding practical tips (the color blue stimulates imagination; brainstorming meetings don't work) for better right-brain thinking."
"--Details" ""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 mixe

From the Inside Flap

"New York Times" best-selling author Jonah Lehrer shows us how we can all learn to be more creative.
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 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.

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Imagine: How Creativity Works