The Educator's Notebook

featured articles

A.I. Is More Creative Than Most People. How Can It Help You?
One Useful Thing - 8/13/23

“Reading these studies, it seems like there are a few clear conclusions: AI can generate creative ideas in real-life, practical situations. It can also help people generate better ideas. The ideas AI generates are better than what most people can come up with, but very creative people will beat the AI (at least for now), and may benefit less from using AI to generate ideas. There is more underlying similarity in the ideas that the current generation of AIs produce than among ideas generated by a large number of humans. All of this suggests that humans still have a large role to play in innovation… but that they would be foolish not to include AI in that process, especially if they don’t consider themselves highly creative.”
The Formula For The Most Creative And Innovative Work
Guardian - 9/13/21

“The team found that for all three career types, work tended to be more diverse just before a true hot streak than expected from the randomly selected points. However, once success had begun, individuals switched, sticking to a narrower than expected approach. That, the team says, suggests “that individuals become substantially more focused on what they work on, reflecting an exploitation strategy during hot streak”. But the researchers found that neither exploring new approaches nor exploiting one were alone linked to hot streaks. Instead it is the combination that is important.”
“Everything Is A Remix” Gets Updated
Kirby Ferguson - 9/7/21

“When you take something old and use it in something new, that's remixing. It might seem like just copying, but it's actually much more. Remixing can empower you to be more creative. Remixing allows us to make music without playing instruments, to create software without coding, to create bigger, more complex ideas out of smaller and simpler ideas.”
The Balancing Act Of Creativity: Connectivity And Isolation
99u - 1/15/20

“For managers and teams, the takeaway is clear: a structure that allows for periods of collaboration and periods of uninterrupted individual work can boost creativity and productivity.”
Population Density — Being Closer Together — Leads To Greater Creativity
CityLab - 11/1/19

“The actual physical capacity to connect people and ideas may, in fact, be one reason why cities, and some neighborhoods are more conducive for innovation than others.”

View remaining articles (33)

The Neuroscience Of How Collaboration Leads To Creativity (Via Music)
Nautilus - 7/25/19

“The more tightly the social parts of our brain are connected, the more possible it is that performance will be more moving, more expressive… Brains are social, people are social, and when they’re connected, that has the best effect for creativity.”
"Why Diversity Wins” - A Succinct And Compelling Explanation [Video]
Everything is s Remix - 7/23/18

“This kind of diversity, diversity of thought, is the hidden advantage of diversity, because it better enables us to solve complex problems.”
Mitch Resnick: “Screen Time? How About Creativity Time?”
Medium - 1/20/18

"Rather than trying to minimize screen time, I think parents and teachers should try to maximize creative time. The focus shouldn’t be on which technologies children are using, but rather what children are doing with them. Some uses of new technologies foster creative thinking; others restrict it. The same is true for older technologies. Rather than trying to choose between high-tech, low-tech, and no-tech, parents and teachers should be searching for activities that will engage children in creative thinking and creative expression.”
On The Value of Conflict: 4 Rules for Productive Disagreement.
New York Times - 11/4/17

"If no one ever argues, you’re not likely to give up on old ways of doing things, let alone try new ones. Disagreement is the antidote to groupthink. We’re at our most imaginative when we’re out of sync. There’s no better time than childhood to learn how to dish it out — and to take it.”
The Science Of How Space Affects Thinking, Creativity
Medium - 6/2/17

"Our mental space stands in direct proportion to our perception of physical space.”
Data Scientist Writes On How To Be Both Data Driven And Creative
Medium - 5/23/17

"The idea here is that we should use data as information, not as insight. Put another way, it’s not about the ingredients, it’s about the cook.”
Shakespeare, Text Analysis, And The End Of Sole Authorship?
Literary Hub - 4/5/17

"The author is sacred, singular, reified. There is something monotheistic about this idea of the single author-creator; there is something of the primacy of the individual one may see in Caspar David Friedrich’s paintings. We write our own work, of course, but writing, and art more broadly, is often collaborative at some level: our all-too-often-unacknowledged editors, our readers who make substantial suggestions, the writers we channel or even borrow from.”
Why Many Artists And Creative Companies Are Going Analog
New York Review of Books - 2/9/17

"Creativity and innovation are driven by imagination, and imagination withers when it is standardized, which is exactly what digital technology requires—codifying everything into 1s and 0s, within the accepted limits of software… Like all respectable commentators, Sax takes pains to assure us that he’s not a Luddite; the correct and responsible deity is Balance, blandest of goddesses. And it is at least possible that digital technology is reaching a high-water mark and might before long begin to recede to a more manageable level, possible that after our initial intoxication we can come down from our binge and learn to handle this new drink responsibly.”
Constraints Are A Major Stimulator Of Creativity
Fast Company - 2/7/17

"Creativity is in many ways situational, not some inborn faculty or personality trait. When people face scarcity, they give themselves freedom to use resources in less conventional ways—because they have to. The situation demands a mental license that would otherwise remain untapped. Seen in this light, resource abundance can actually be counterproductive. Our problems, challenges, and opportunities may become more manageable with constraints that direct us to make the best out of what we have. Without constraints, the research suggests, we tend instead to simply retrieve exemplary use cases from memory.”
What Is Design Thinking?
Atlantic - 1/4/17

"Historically, creativity has been portrayed as a mysterious, elusive force—a gift from the gods or the muses. Creativity can’t be summoned, the thinking goes, let alone taught to the mentally inflexible, unimaginative, muse-less masses. Design thinking upends that perception and assumes that anyone can be a creative problem-solver.”
Creative Peaks Can Come At Any Age; It’s a Matter Of Productivity
New York Times - 11/3/16

"Keeping productivity equal, the scientists were as likely to score a hit at age 50 as at age 25. The distribution was random; choosing the right project to pursue at the right time was a matter of luck.”
Uncertainties In Innovation: Common Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
Stanford Social Innovation Review - 9/1/16

"In this article, we set forth a model for understanding the relationship between innovation and impact, and we provide a way to diagnose the pathologies that interfere with that relationship. We also offer insight into how organizations can counter these pathologies by developing innovation practices that optimize their effectiveness.”
Higher Ed Invests In Spaces For Creative Work
New York Times - 8/4/16

"The rationales for these buildings are varied: Employers are dissatisfied with graduates’ preparation, students are unhappy with outdated teaching methods, and colleges want to attract students whose eyes are on postgrad venture capital and whose scalable ideas might come in handy on campus. And so universities of all sizes, both public (Wichita State, University of Utah, University of Iowa) and private (Cornell, Northwestern, Stanford), have opened or are planning such facilities.”
Imitation And Innovation As The Source Of Early Learning
New York Times - 7/30/16

"It’s not just that young children don’t need to be taught in order to learn. In fact, studies show that explicit instruction, the sort of teaching that goes with school and “parenting,” can be limiting. When children think they are being taught, they are much more likely to simply reproduce what the adult does, instead of creating something new.”
Lessons From Teaching Entrepreneurship At Stanford
Steve Blank - 3/11/16

"We designed our class to do something different. We wanted the teams to tell the story of their journey, sharing with us their “Lessons Learned from our Customers”. They needed to show what they learned and how they learned it after speaking to 100+customers, using the language of class… The focus of their presentations is on how they gathered evidence and how it impacted the understanding of their business models.”
Picbreeder: Brilliant Insight Into Conditions For Creative Work
FiveThirtyEight - 7/23/15

"Although this openness to new ideas might sound like just waiting around for serendipity to strike, it’s a more deliberate process… Simonton’s research has similarly shown that the best predictor of creative achievement is an openness to experience and cognitive exploration.”
5 Tips For Being A Creative Organization (From Xerox PARC Founder)
Fast Company - 5/26/15

“4. Stay small, avoid hype, and pick a boring name… The shortest lived group at Xerox PARC was "Office of the Future," because Xerox executives would not leave them alone. I chose the most innocuous name for my own group, the Learning Research Group. Nobody knew what it meant, so they left us alone to invent-object oriented programming and the GUI.”
Reconsidering “Innovation” and “Progress”
Aeon - 5/3/15

"Somewhere between the tiny vision of innovation and the arrogance of grand progress lies a vision of collective destiny and confidence that with the right investments, a strong consensus, and patience we can generate a more just and stable world. We passed right by that point in the rush from the 20th to the 21st centuries. We must reclaim it.”
Inside Lego’s Renaissance: How They Keep The Creativity Coming
Fast Company - 1/8/15

“[Growth] required figuring out what a modern Lego should even be, which Knudstorp accomplished in part by investing in a kind of research the company had never done before—deep ethnographic studies of how kids around the world really play. Today, Lego may know as much about that subject as any organization on earth.”
Lena Dunham Talks About Being Creative
Slate - 12/3/14

“My parents taught me that you can have a creative approach to thinking that is almost scientific... You don’t have to be at the mercy of the muse. You need your own internalized thinking process that you can perform again and again... Everything that I do comes out of writing. It’s the genesis point... You go within yourself, wrestle with your demons, scribble some stuff up and come out with a vision of what the world is like. It is closer to being a painter."
Several Principles from Pixar for Nurturing Good Work
Farnam Street - 11/17/14

“When someone hatches an original idea, it may be ungainly and poorly defined, but it is also the opposite of established and entrenched—and that is precisely what is most exciting about it. If, while in this vulnerable state, it is exposed to naysayers who fail to see its potential or lack the patience to see it evolve, it could be destroyed. Part of our job is to protect the new from people who don’t understand that in order for greatness to emerge, there must be phases of not-so-greatness."
Isaac Asimov on How to Be Creative in a Group
MIT Technology Review - 10/20/14

“There must be ease, relaxation, and a general sense of permissiveness… If a single individual present is unsympathetic to the foolishness that would be bound to go on at such a session, the others would freeze. The unsympathetic individual may be a gold mine of information, but the harm he does will more than compensate for that. It seems necessary to me, then, that all people at a session be willing to sound foolish and listen to others sound foolish."
Professional Insight Comes from Mixing Perspectives
Misc Magazine - 9/10/14

“Seeing the problem through another discipline’s lenses gives one the permission to think outside the norms and boundaries of one’s own... In most large organizations, this is a fundamental challenge. Coming out of your functional silo to roll up your sleeves with colleagues from another one is often an exercise in defensive posturing, rather than constructive conflict... Organizations that cannot breach the silo walls when necessary are ill-equipped to achieve breakthroughs of any kind whatsoever.”
Creative Circles: Keep Yourself Creative By Having a Team
99u - 7/14/14

“Relationships are some of our most valuable creative resources. One way to enrich them is through creative circles – a small meetup of people who want to share inspiration and be accountable for their work.”
Wesleyan President: Critical Thinking Is Over-Emphasized
New York Times - 5/10/14

“Critical reflection is fundamental to teaching and scholarship, but fetishizing disbelief as a sign of intelligence has contributed to depleting our cultural resources. Creative work, in whatever field, depends upon commitment, the energy of participation and the ability to become absorbed in works of literature, art and science.”
For Groundbreaking Creativity, Exorcise Fear of Failure (via Pixar)
Brain Pickings - 5/2/14

“Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new (and, as such, should be seen as valuable; without them, we’d have no originality).”
On Building a War Room (Why Every Leader Needs White Boards)
Fast Company - 5/1/14

“[They] help your team work better together. When you capture every decision and put it on the wall, you don’t have to wonder if everyone is on the same page. The room is the page. The more you put on the walls, the more shared understanding you build.”
How to Innovate Within An Existing Organization
Steve Blank - 3/31/14

“Paradoxically, in spite of the seemingly endless resources, innovation inside of an existing company is much harder than inside a startup. That’s because existing companies face a conundrum: Every policy and procedure that makes them efficient execution machines stifles innovation.”
How Was SXSWedu? EdSurge Debriefs.
EdSurge - 3/10/14

“This year’s gathering drew over 6,500 entrepreneurs, educators, investors, researchers, policymakers, and just about anyone interested in the booming education industry. The 300-plus panels, workshops and presentations were chosen out of 700 proposals that were evaluated by the SXSWedu advisory panel, event staff, and the public.
Harvard Designs New Spaces to Promote Innovation, Interaction
Harvard Magazine - 2/19/14

“The report begins with a series of stage-setting adjectives, meant to capture SEAS faculty members’ aspirations for their new campus: ‘Open. Connected. Active. Transparent. Livable. Sunlit. Social. Flexible.’”
For Insight and Creativity, Maximize Your “Idea Flow”
Wired - 2/7/14

“When the flow of ideas incorporates a constant stream of outside ideas as well, then the individuals in the community make better decisions than they could on their own.”
3 Broad Tips For Promoting Meaningful, Creative Work
Fast Company - 12/21/13

"Prospecting and mining the past to gain a deep understanding of where things come from and why they exist is hugely important to creating meaningful new things.”
Are Good Taste And Good Design Personal Or Universal?
Paul Graham - 2/1/02

“If you mention taste nowadays, a lot of people will tell you that "taste is subjective.” …Most of us are encouraged, as children, to leave this tangle unexamined… Like many of the half-truths adults tell us, this one contradicts other things they tell us. After dinning into you that taste is merely a matter of personal preference, they take you to the museum and tell you that you should pay attention because Leonardo is a great artist… Once you start to examine the question, it's surprising how much different fields' ideas of beauty have in common. The same principles of good design crop up again and again.”

creativity

Four Levels Of Creativity: Big-C, Pro-C, Little-C, and Mini-C
Aeon - 10/26/23
On How Cities Foster Innovation
New York Times - 10/20/23

“The clustering itself is a thing that matters, economists have argued, because it helps people trade ideas, land better jobs and find others doing highly specialized things. And those benefits of what economists call “agglomeration” have theoretically grown more important as America has shifted over decades to an economy built on ideas.”
Bill Watterson: On Collaboration [Video]
YouTube - 10/10/23
A Flowchart Showing The Product Development Process
Twitter - 9/30/23
How To Set The Context For Transformative (Vs. Incremental) Creativity
MIT Sloan Management Review - 9/12/23

View remaining articles (401)

Lauren Groff’s Creative Process When Writing
New York Times - 9/9/23

“When Groff starts something new, she writes it out longhand in large spiral notebooks. After she completes a first draft, she puts it in a bankers box — and never reads it again. Then she’ll start the book over, still in longhand, working from memory. The idea is that this way, only the best, most vital bits survive.”
Consuming Terrible Art Helps You, Too
Austin Klein - 9/7/23
A Brief Quip By Sam Altman On Innovation
Twitter - 9/6/23

“Innovation is easier with a relatively small team that has to make a decisive and clear concentrated bet and that doesn't tolerate any mediocre performers. That's it.”
Remembering “The Artist’s Way” As A Path To Creativity
NPR - 9/5/23
When Did People Really Start Talking About Creativity? (Very Recently!)
Behavioral Scientist - 9/4/23

“Strikingly, before about 1950 there were approximately zero articles, books, essays, treatises, odes, classes, encyclopedia entries, or anything of the sort dealing explicitly with the subject of “creativity.” …Despite the fact that many in the postwar American art world embraced self-expression and experimentation, it turns out the efforts to really get under the hood of something called creativity—which also encompassed ideas like “creative ability,” “the creative personality,” and “the creative process”—were primarily driven by a concern not for art per se but for inventiveness in science, technology, consumer products, and advertising.”
Austin Kleon Interviews Beth Pickens On Making Art
Austin Kleon - 8/29/23

“Last week I had the pleasure to chat with art coach Beth Pickens, author of Make Your Art No Matter What and Your Art Will Save Your Life. Beth and I share many of the same core messages, but I come at making art from the inside of being a working artist and Beth comes at it from the outside of working with artists, so she picks up things that I miss.”
When Working, Think Of Your Audience And “Be A Good Date”
Austin Kleon - 8/17/23
Researchers Explore New Ways To Assess Creativity
Science Focus - 8/14/23
What Is Flow, And How Can I Enter It More?
Kottke - 8/10/23

“Moment to moment feedback may be enough to motivate deep engagement.”
“The Emotional Journey Of Creating Anything Great”
Personal Excellence - 8/1/23
“How To Create A Masterpiece”
Uncharted Territories - 6/13/23

“1. Be a Genius… 2. Increase Your Variance… 3. Increase Your Throughput.”
Quick Catnaps Seem To Spark Creativity
NIH - 6/6/23
John Cleese On The Importance Of Free Play Without Fear Of Mistakes
Instagram - 5/30/23
In Praise Of Free Play: Q & A With Teresa Amabile On Creativity
Character Lab - 5/14/23

“How do parents and teachers encourage creativity? Because it sounds like anything we do might make kids feel like they’re being watched or evaluated. Lesson number one is to get out of the way. Back off and give kids free rein to explore something they’re interested in, as long as it’s safe. It’s important to encourage them to try an interest without the expectation that they have to excel in it.”
“Artists Must Be Allowed To Make Bad Work”
Austin Kleon - 5/7/23
Matt Damon On Collaborative Generation Of Good Ideas
Instagram - 4/22/23
“You Have To Really Love Your Idea”
Austin Kleon - 3/14/23

“Not only will you have to persevere for many years, if your wildest dreams come true and your project is a huge hit, you have to be ready to talk for years — if not decades! — about it. So at the very least, it better be something you were passionate about at the time of its making.”
How To Use Constraints To Focus And Improve Your Creativity
Annie Murphy Paul - 3/7/23
To Be More Successful Creatively, Make More Things
Annie Murphy Paul - 2/28/23
Memory And Imagination Draw On The Same Mental Capacities
Annie Murphy Paul - 2/23/23
Task Switching Promotes Creativity
Annie Murphy Paul - 2/17/23
Some Myths About Creativity
Annie Murphy Paul - 2/16/23
Certainty, Competence, And What Makes Creativity
Annie Murphy Paul - 2/15/23
A Short Brain Break Can Help Your Focus And Creativity
New York Times - 2/3/23
How Short Naps And Sleep Feed Creativity
Nautilus - 1/25/23
Austin Kleon On His Dream Work Studio
Austin Kleon - 12/6/22
Schedule Time For Creativity. Our Days Allow Less Time For Thinking
Cal Newport - 12/5/22
“The Art Of Imperfection”
Austin Kleon - 12/2/22
"Your Creativity Won’t Save Your Job From A.I.”
Atlantic - 12/1/22
When To Kill A Creative Project
Behavioral Scientist - 11/7/22
“Ray Bradbury On Feeding Your Creativity”
Austin Kleon - 11/1/22

“Every night read one short story, one poem, one essay. Do that for a thousand nights and you’ll be stuffed full of ideas.”
"4 Types Of Innovators Every Organization Needs”
Harvard Business Review - 10/27/22
A Framework For Innovation At Scale
Steve Blank - 10/25/22
Resistance Helps Drive Creativity
Austin Kleon - 8/2/22
How Do You Grade A Creative Assignment?
EdSurge - 7/21/22
On Developing And Engaging A Rich Innovation Ecosystem
MIT Sloan Management Review - 7/20/22
One Way Of Defining Innovation (In Business)
McKinsey - 7/15/22
“Participatory Creativity” - Is “Genius” Really Just Synthesis? (Via The Beatles)
THE Conversation - 7/7/22

“The notion of participatory creativity has major implications for any person or organization concerned with the creation of innovative ideas or artistic expression. It means recognizing and putting in place the means to foster creativity as a collaborative process.”
Virtual Meetings Generate Fewer Ideas
Stanford - 6/29/22
A Kind Of Creative Book About Creativity
Washington Post - 6/24/22
Growing Innovation From Pockets To Everyone In An Organization
Steve Blank - 6/20/22
On The Courage Of Creating Work On Your Own Terms (via William Blake)
The Marginalian - 6/18/22
On Creativity And The Tyranny Of Expectations
MSN - 6/16/22
Scholarly Look At Influence And Imitation
The Smart Set - 5/9/22
The Story Of Founding Wikipedia Reveals Elements Of Creativity
MIT Sloan Management Review - 12/1/21
A Tribute To Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi
Edge - 11/20/21
When To Hand Off Projects In Order To Sustain Creativity
Stanford - 11/15/21
On Mind Mapping
Austin Kleon - 11/2/21
Prevalence Of Myths About Creativity
Science Direct - 11/1/21
What Are The Most Prevalent Beliefs About Creativity (Both Accurate And Inaccurate)?
Science Direct - 11/1/21
How Perceptions Of New Ideas Are Influenced By Framing
Pubs Online - 10/28/21

“We found causal evidence of a negativity bias, where evaluators lower their scores by more points after seeing scores more critical than their own rather than raise them after seeing more favorable scores.”
Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, 87, Pioneering Scholar Of Creativity And Flow
Austin Kleon - 10/21/21
The Simple, Creative Lifestyle of Billie Eilish’s Producer, Her Brother
New York Times - 10/15/21
Creativity Is Like A Compost Heap
Austin Kleon - 10/10/21
What To Do After Brainstorming
Fast Company - 8/5/21
A New Divergent Thinking Test: Naming Unrelated Words
PNAS - 6/22/21
Iterate vs Plan. Agile vs Waterfall. Here’s A Case For Planning.
Fast Company - 6/3/21

“What got lost along the way was a view of UX as something deeper and more significant than a step in the software delivery pipeline: an approach that grounds product design in a broad contextual understanding of the problem and goes beyond the line-item requirements of individual components. Also lost along the way were many of the more holistic and exploratory practices that enabled UX to deliver that kind of foundational value.”
Reflections On Being An Amateur
Psyche - 6/2/21
On The Value Of Indexing In The Creative Process
Austin Kleon - 5/20/21

“No matter what you make, if you produce a lot every day, you need some sort of system for going back and figuring out what you have.”
How To Build An Innovation Pipeline
Steve Blank - 5/19/21
Get Feedback On Your Ideas. Lots Of It. It Works. (Via Lean Startup)
Harvard Business Review - 4/23/21

“Our data show that the lean startup method does what it promises to do. We found a positive correlation between teams’ interviews of potential customers in a given week and their convergence on a particular idea the next. In other words, the more interviews the teams conducted, the faster they settled on whether a business idea was worth pursuing — something advocates of the approach assume but which has not been empirically proven until now. Simply put, it pays off to leave the building and ask customers what they think of your idea.”
“Adding Is Favoured Over Subtracting In Problem Solving”
Nature - 4/7/21
Some Art Is Centrifugal (Spins You To Other Art), Some Is Centripetal
Austin Kleon - 3/29/21
Creativity Is A Daily Act Of Living Responsively In The World
Psyche - 9/1/20
"How To Brainstorm — Remotely”
Harvard Business Review - 7/20/20
People Are More Creative Than Institutions
Social Science Research Network - 6/12/20

“In this study, we empirically assess the contributions of inventors and firms for innovation using a 37-year panel of U.S. patenting activity. We estimate that inventors’ human capital is 5-10 times more important than firm capabilities for explaining the variance in inventor output. We then examine matching between inventors and firms and find highly talented inventors are attracted to firms that (i) have weak firm-specific invention capabilities, and (ii) employ other talented inventors.”
Lateral Thinking And Other Pseudosciences Of Creativity
Aeon - 6/11/20
The Overton Window: Why Brainstorming Requires Wide-Ranging Prompts
Quartz - 4/30/20
On The Neural Networks That Enable Creativity
Aeon - 3/18/20
“TV Tropes” - A List of Repeated Forms Used In Media Storytelling
Slate - 2/14/20

“Whenever I got into a new band or played a new game or watched a new movie, I still looked it up on TV Tropes. I had to understand it—and seeing the same tropes appearing over and over again made me realize that I was holding myself to an impossible standard. Nothing is original. Every great work of art—every film, movie, game, book, character, painting, or song—is just a mash of ideas. Someone else has already thought those thoughts.”
A Biological/Evolutionary Model For Technological Innovation
Aeon - 2/11/20
How Some Schools Are Teaching And Measuring Creativity
EdWeek - 2/4/20

“Based on more than a decade of research on creativity and collaboration, Sawyer and his colleagues found schools that have been successful in nurturing creativity in their students use an approach he dubs "guided improvisation," to borrow a jazz metaphor. Rather than entirely student-led instruction, teachers ground students' creativity within a domain such as history or science, using a few core concepts to anchor a student's exploration and teaching students to look for connections to other subjects. A series of studies found students taught this way remembered content-area knowledge equally as well as students whose classes focused on covering more total content, but they performed better at using their knowledge in creative ways and for unfamiliar problems.”
Are Optimism And Self-Efficacy The Two Traits Needed For Creative Success?
99u - 10/31/19
"Design Thinking Versus Grand Design” - Two Modes Of Creativity (via WeChat)
Harvard Business Review - 10/29/19
“Teachers Who Promote Creativity See Educational Results”
Gallup - 10/28/19

“Teachers' use of creativity in learning was determined by the frequency with which they report allowing students to do each of the following: 1) choose what to learn in class; 2) try different ways of doing things, even if they might not work; 3) come up with their own ways to solve a problem; 4) discuss topics with no right or wrong answer; 5) create a project to express what they've learned; 6) work on a multidisciplinary project; 7) work on a project with real-world applications; and 8) publish or share projects with people outside the classroom.”
On Being A Curator (Of Fine Art)
New York Review of Books - 10/24/19
On The Importance Of Passion For Driving Creativity
Psychology Today - 10/21/19
“Creativity Is The Currency Of Learning”
Next Gen Learning - 9/25/19
“Humor Boosts Creativity”
John Spencer - 9/16/19
Mitch Resnick’s Creative Learning Spiral: Ten Tips For Cultivating Creativity
Medium - 9/2/19
Ben Folds’ Memoir On Finding Your Creative Voice
Brain Pickings - 8/22/19

“We all see something blinking in the sky at some point, but it’s a damn lot of work to put it in the bottle. Maybe that’s why only some of us become artists. Because we’re obsessive enough, idealistic enough, disciplined enough, or childish enough to wade through whatever is necessary, dedicating life to the search for these elusive flickers, above all else.”
“How to Turn a Creative Spark Into Something Real”
99u - 8/20/19
A Deep Dive Into Brainstorming
Quartz - 8/5/19
Stanford d.school Shares Essential Questions For Designers
Stanford - 7/23/19

“Here are nine questions we think a lot about. Each links to deeper descriptions and related research we’ve uncovered along the way.”
Building An In-House Innovation Strategy? Here Are Tips To Succeed
Harvard Business Review - 7/22/19
Having Multiple Identities Boosts Creativity
EdWeek - 7/10/19
A Tribute To The Index Card As Creative Tool
Medium - 6/10/19
Ideas Are Not Inside You; They Are Outside You, Trying To Get In
Austin Kleon - 6/6/19
"Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster”
CityLab - 6/5/19
"Getting Creative Really Does Boost Your Mood”
BBC - 5/8/19

"Almost 50,000 people took part in the BBC Arts Great British Creativity Test. It suggested that being creative can help avoid stress, free up mind space and improve self-development, which helps build self-esteem. The findings also said there are emotional benefits from taking part in even a single session of creativity.”
What Kind Of Creative Type Are You? Take The Test Here. [Fixed Link]
MyCreativeType - 5/1/19
What Kind Of Creative Type Are You? Take The Test Here.
MyCreativeType - 5/1/19
“The Two Types Of Creativity That Peak At Different Ages”
Quartz - 4/28/19
Going Deeper On What’s Good And Bad About Cultural Appropriation
New York Times - 4/20/19

"In the end, determining when cultural appropriation is O.K. can feel as if it requires a delicate calculus, more holistic than binary. It’s understandable that as a result, we’ve landed on treating cultural appropriation as a bad habit to be trained out of us; often it feels easier not to engage at all. But this balancing act is worth performing. Because the bad-habit model is not only exhausting; the result is often that people are so afraid of appearing “bad” that they self-censor good-faith impulses to try something new. Ironically, in doing so, they learn less about other cultures.”
Who Owns The Work Created By An AI Taught By One Artist’s Oeuvre?
The Verge - 4/17/19
Every Product Google Stopped Producing: On Letting Projects Go
Fast Company - 3/22/19
The iPhone Prototype Shows Just How Important Creative Process Is
The Verge - 3/19/19
Creative Success Has More To Do With Network Than Actual Creativity
Quartz - 3/3/19
Being Creative Requires Consuming (A Lot)
Connected Principals - 2/25/19
Philosopher: Why Creativity Is Uniquely Human (And A.I. Can’t Do It)
MIT Technology Review - 2/21/19
On The Neuroscience Of Creative Versus Analytical Thinking
Neuroscience News - 2/14/19
Path To Market Matters. How Do You Develop Sustainable Innovations?
Ars Technica - 2/14/19
Small Science Research Teams Are More Innovative Than Large Ones
New York Times - 2/13/19

“Smaller groups were more likely to produce novel findings than larger ones. Those novel contributions usually took a year or so to catch on, after which larger research teams did the work of consolidating the ideas and solidifying the evidence.”
On The Necessity Of Boredom, And Its Creative Potential
New York Times - 2/2/19
Spending Time With People Unlike Yourself Increases Creativity
NPR - 1/24/19

“There's something about deeply understanding and learning about another culture that's transformative.”
Ten Traits Of Successful Innovators
McKinsey - 1/1/19
On Why Bach Increasingly Recycled His Work Later In His Career
New York Review of Books - 12/20/18
Some Thoughts On Fostering Creativity In Students
EdSurge - 12/18/18
How To Be An Artist — Or How To Be Original: 33 Excellent Steps
Vulture - 11/27/18
On Beethoven's Creative Process
Brain Pickings - 11/25/18
Creativity Declines When Observed (Via Surveillance And Politics)
Wired - 11/16/18
To Be More Creative, Slow Down
Quartz - 11/7/18
Appropriation: “In Literature, Who Decides When Homage Becomes Theft?”
New York Times - 10/8/18

“The issue isn’t the right of artists to imaginatively enter other lives. What’s being questioned is the concentration of cultural capital, and how members of the dominant class, who tend to receive more resources and broader access to the public, are rewarded for telling “difficult” stories — like those dealing with the subjugation and suffering of minorities and the poor — even when they misrepresent the people they’re claiming to speak for. Often theirs are the loudest, if not the only voices heard on the subject. No one should proscribe artists from trying to transcend the limits of their experience; the joy of art and literature has always been how they free us from those limits. The answer is not to have fewer stories, but more.”
“How To Run A Successful Design Sprint”
Medium - 9/26/18
Limitations Breed Creativity: Via Music For Super Nintendo In The 1990s
Kottke - 8/16/18
A Talk By Austin Kleon Summarizing His Books On Creativity [video]
MIT Media Lab - 8/16/18
Mary Shelley On Creativity
Brain Pickings - 6/25/18
Rilke On The Lonely Patience Of Creative Work
Brain Pickings - 6/22/18

““The most regretful people on earth,” the poet Mary Oliver wrote… “are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”
The Internal Research And Innovation Group At Apple That Once Was
Fast Company - 6/19/18
Is Being Repetitive Actually A Boon To Creative Work?
Writing Cooperative - 6/16/18
Is Cultural Awareness The Key To Creativity And Success In A Field?
LinkedIn - 6/15/18

“In my research, no matter whether I was interviewing a painter, a chef, or a songwriter, I’d eventually hear some variation of the same story. Painters show up at numerous art exhibits. Chefs eat at cutting-edge restaurants, visit farms, and travel to food shows. Songwriters are constantly listening to music, new and old.”
On The Role Of Emotional Intelligence In Creativity
Pacific Standard - 5/25/18
“Design Thinking Is A Boondoggle.” And ‘Innovation’ Too.
Chronicle of Higher Education - 5/21/18

“Innovation-speak is meant to compensate for a dearth of actual innovation.”
Rilke On Creativity
Brain Pickings - 4/16/18

“In the course of creative endeavors, artists and scientists join fragments of knowledge into a new unity of understanding.”
Adobe Funds A Study On Creative Problem Solving In Schools
Adobe Educate - 4/16/18
In China & Japan, Copies Are As Valid As The Original
Aeon - 3/8/18

“The Chinese have two different concepts of a copy. Fangzhipin are imitations where the difference from the original is obvious. These are small models or copies that can be purchased in a museum shop, for example. The second concept for a copy is fuzhipin. They are exact reproductions of the original, which, for the Chinese, are of equal value to the original. It has absolutely no negative connotations.”
Another Piece About “Better Brainstorming.” Good, If Long.
Harvard Business Review - 3/1/18
Austin Kleon On Mitch Resnick’s Creative Learning Spiral
Austin Kleon - 2/26/18
On The Difficulty Of Measuring Creativity
Artsy - 2/26/18
How Do You Generate New And Interesting Ideas? (A Twitter Thread)
Twitter - 2/24/18
On How Verbal And Visual Thinking Fuel Creativity
Medium - 2/23/18
4 Principles For Building Creative Teams
Harvard Business Review - 2/13/18
Copying Is The Heart Of Creativity
Austin Kleon - 2/8/18
A Course On Creativity In Science
Stanford - 2/6/18
On The Role Of Influence In Creative Work
Austin Kleon - 2/2/18

"To say that Keats influenced Wilde is not only to credit Keats with an activity of which he was innocent, but also to misrepresent Wilde by suggesting he merely submitted to something he obviously went out of his way to acquire. In matters of influence, it is the receptor who takes the initiative, not the emitter. When we say that Keats had a strong influence on Wilde, what we really mean is that Wilde was an assiduous reader of Keats.”
On Recognizing Neural Systems At Work In Creative Thinking
Pacific Standard - 1/15/18

"Three specific neural systems: the executive network, which is engaged in complex mental tasks such as problem solving; the default mode, which is activated when we're in a resting or ruminative state; and the salience network, which monitors incoming input, prioritizes it, and allows us to efficiently process it. Normally, it does so by suppressing either the executive or default mode, allowing the network that is best-equipped to deal with the information at hand to do so unimpeded. But this research finds that, in highly creative people… key parts of the problem-solving and internal rumination systems are simultaneously engaged, allowing the formation of creative connections.”
Imitation: China Replicates The Eiffel Tower—And Miles Of Paris
Fast Company - 1/9/18
"10 New Principles Of Good Design”
Fast Company - 1/3/18
Ed Sheeran Describes The Creative Process of “Shape Of You”
YouTube/New York Times - 12/20/17
A Cynic’s View of Design Thinking
Medium - 12/6/17
Is Creativity Under Threat In A Digital Age? (Enh.)
Medium - 12/5/17
Some Surprisingly Good, If General, Advice For Successful Creativity
Medium - 11/29/17
Sometimes, Collaboration Hinders Creativity
Inc. - 11/25/17
Art In The Workplace Increases Creativity
Pacific Standard - 11/15/17

"Two [studies] replicated previous research, finding that people who are open to aesthetic experiences ‘felt more inspired in their daily lives, and in turn performed better on creativity tasks.’"
Oliver Sacks’ Passion-Driven Model Of Creativity
Brain Pickings - 11/9/17

"The common pattern in the natural cycle of creative evolution — we learn our own minds by finding out what we love; these models integrate into a sensibility; out of that sensibility arises the initial impulse for imitation, which, aided by the gradual acquisition of technical mastery, eventually ripens into original creation.”
Playwright Reflects On Consumption vs Creativity
Magenta - 11/9/17
Reflections On The Tension Between Productivity And Creativity
Kottke - 11/9/17
Jocelyn Glei Interviews Austin Kleon
Hurry Slowly - 11/7/17

"The notebook is the place where you figure out what’s going on inside you or what’s rattling around. And then, the keyboard is the place that you go to tell people about it.”
Conditions For Sustainable Creativity
Medium - 11/6/17
A Deep Look At Google’s Invention Factory
Atlantic - 11/1/17
A Professor Reflects On How To Be More Creative
Inside Higher Ed - 10/24/17
7 Good Tips For Living Creatively
Medium - 10/18/17
In Praise Of Bad Ideas When Brainstorming
Quartz - 10/12/17
4 Needs For Good Ideas: Scale, Frequency, Engagement, Diversity
Harvard Business Review - 10/9/17
A Really Good Creative Process, For All Ages, Really
KQED - 10/3/17
“For Better Brainstorming, Tell An Embarrassing Story”
Harvard Business Review - 10/2/17
Deconstructing Design Tools
Free Code Camp - 9/11/17
A Primer On Fair Use, And Three Simple Questions To Help [video]
Everything is a Remix - 9/10/17
A Unified Theory Of Design (Applicable To Most Anything)
Medium - 9/9/17
Listening To Vivaldi Stimulates Certain Kinds Of Creativity
Pacific Standard - 9/7/17
In Support Of Cultural Appropriation
New York Times - 8/30/17
Play As A Driver Of Creativity and Fresh Thought
Farnam Street - 8/21/17
How What We Know Can Impede Our Creativity
New York Times - 8/19/17

"The explanation may have to do with a tension between two kinds of thinking: what computer scientists call exploration and exploitation. When we face a new problem, we adults usually exploit the knowledge about the world we have acquired so far. We try to quickly find a pretty good solution that is close to the solutions we already have. On the other hand, exploration — trying something new — may lead us to a more unusual idea, a less obvious solution, a new piece of knowledge. But it may also mean that we waste time considering crazy possibilities that will never work, something both preschoolers and teenagers have been known to do.”
Improv And Design Thinking: “Yes, And” - Observe - Reflect - Make
UX Design - 8/11/17
Claude Shannon Reflects On Creative Thinking (1952)
Medium - 8/3/17
Some Thinking On The Relationship Between Creativity And Mastery
Quartz - 8/2/17
Maintenance Is Just As Important As Innovation
New York Times - 7/22/17
John Maeda And Three Kinds Of Design
Tinymce - 7/21/17

“Classical Design… Design Thinking… Computational Design”
Creatives Young And Old On Where Ideas Come From [Video]
Core77 - 7/17/17
More On How Being Busy Gets In The Way Of Creativity
Big Think - 7/10/17
Physical Proximity Makes A Difference In Prompting Creativity
MIT News - 7/9/17
A Great List Of Strategies For Fostering Curiosity In Children
Creativity Post - 6/27/17
Stanford D. School Provides Free Guide For Running A Design Sprint
Stanford - 6/22/17
11 Tough Truths About Creativity
The Next Web - 6/21/17
5 Practices To Facilitate Collaborative Creative Work
Stanford Social Innovation Review - 6/15/17
Wallace Stevens: The Artist, Reality, And The Need For Imagination
Brain Pickings - 6/12/17

"[The artist] must be able to abstract himself and also to abstract reality, which he does by placing it in his imagination… It is imperative for him to make a choice, to come to a decision regarding the imagination and reality; and he will find that it is not a choice of one over the other and not a decision that divides them, but something subtler, a recognition that here, too, as between these poles, the universal interdependence exists, and hence his choice and his decision must be that they are equal and inseparable.”
“Design Thinking Is Bull___” Says Designer [video]
99u - 6/7/17
Creative Ideas Come More Easily By Reframing The Problem
Harvard Business Review - 6/6/17
Creative Companies Have Better Bottom Lines
McKinsey - 6/1/17
Some Ways In Which A Little Disorder Can Lead To Creativity
99u - 5/24/17
We Need Free Time In Our Days To Be Creative
Jocelyn K. Glei - 5/16/17
Stepping Away From Problems Helps Generate Creative Solutions
Harvard Business Review - 5/10/17
Being Busy Is One Of The Biggest Obstacles To Being Creative
Quartz - 5/8/17
The Artist’s Eye: Seeing More At Once, Like The Composer’s Ear?
New Scientist - 4/13/17
“Why Idle Moments Are Crucial For Creativity”
BBC - 4/7/17
Museum Of Failure Highlights Creative Flops
CBC - 4/6/17
Many Creative People Schedule Time Differently
Cal Newport - 4/5/17

"But there’s another way of using time that’s common among people who make things, like programmers and writers. They generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can’t write or program well in units of an hour. That’s barely enough time to get started.”
Competition Sparks Creativity When Its Exciting, Not Stressful
Larry Ferlazzo - 4/2/17
Three Alternatives To Brainstorming
Fast Company - 3/28/17
Creativity Requires Both Alone And Together Time
Fast Company - 3/17/17
Beethoven’s Creative Lifestyle: Daily Schedule, Etc
Brain Pickings - 3/2/17
An Argument For Curiosity-Driven, Not Results-Driven, Research
Chronicle of Higher Education - 3/2/17
Visualizing Patterns Of Innovation At Apple And Google
Fast Company - 2/24/17
Americans And Chinese Have Different Interpretations Of What Is Creative
Harvard Business Review - 2/23/17
Some Creativity Is Better When Its Collaborative
Fast Company - 2/18/17
Artistic Advice From Thelonious Monk’s Journals
Kottke - 2/13/17
A Good, Long List Of Strategies To Help Persistence In Creative Work
Creativity Post - 2/13/17
David Byrne On What Makes A Creative School
David Byrne - 2/9/17
Some Scheduling Tips For Creative Productivity
Inc. - 2/8/17
Keeping A Dream Journal Can Boost Some Creativity
Pacific Standard - 1/4/17
“Art Is Theft” - An Animated Video About Creativity And Copying
Vimeo/Daniel Cordero - 1/1/17
A Collection Of Articles About Creativity
Medium - 12/22/16
Physicist David Bohm Reflects On Creativity
Brain Pickings - 12/20/16
Be Happier: Do One Creative Thing A Day
New York Magazine - 12/1/16
Some Creative Thinking Appears To Center In A Region Of The Brain
Pacific Standard - 11/30/16
Neil Gaiman: For More Ideas, Be More Bored
Cal Newport - 11/11/16
What Kills Creativity In Kids… And How To Avoid It
Creativity Post - 11/10/16
Happiness Isn’t Critical For—And Can Sometimes Inhibit—Creativity
Quartz - 10/23/16
9 Guidelines For Developing and Adopting Innovative Approaches
EdSurge - 10/22/16
10 Books on Creativity. Not The “Best” Books, But Good Ones.
Signature Reads - 10/17/16
Today's Copycat Culture Is A Boon For Creativity, A Bane For IP
Quartz - 10/17/16
11 Habits That Kill Organizational Innovation (…And Good Leadership?)
Steve Blank - 10/13/16
14 Components To Creativity That Work In Different Combinations
Quartz - 10/13/16
Mary Oliver, On Creativity
Brain Pickings - 10/12/16

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”
One Person’s Look At What Qualities Lead To Creative Work
Signature Reads - 10/11/16
"Famous Movie Scenes You Probably Didn’t Realize Were Borrowed From Paintings”
Messy Nessy Chic - 10/4/16
On How Boredom Sets The Stage For Creativity
Creativity Post - 9/28/16
Boredom Has Its Own Academic Field…(!)
New York Magazine - 9/27/16
Do Simpler, Boring Things Promote More Creativity?
Wired - 9/24/16
Hans Ulrich Obrist And How Creativity Arises From Connectivity
Huck - 9/24/16
7 (Surprising?) Facts About Creativity
Fast Company - 9/16/16
Creative Professionals On Collaborative Brainstorming
Fast Company - 9/12/16
How To Produce Good Ideas [video]
YouTube/Kirby Ferguson - 8/30/16
17 Brainstorming Techniques, Some Good, Some Not So Good
Inc. - 8/13/16
So Begin Standardized Tests For Creativity
Atlantic - 8/10/16
Gladwell: Conceptual Genius vs. Experimental Genius
Revisionist History - 7/27/16
All That’s New Is Old
New Statesman - 7/26/16
For Best Creative Work: Explore It, Then Leave It, Then Return To It
James Clear - 7/25/16

“Being creative isn't about being the first (or only) person to think of an idea. More often, creativity is about connecting ideas.”
Promote Innovation By Connecting People Around Passion
Harvard Business Review - 7/14/16
Gathering And Assessing Personality Types For Creative Teams
Harvard Business Review - 7/12/16
Meditation On Cognitive Load And Creativity
New York Times - 6/17/16
Brainstorm Questions, Not Ideas
Fast Company - 6/6/16
13 Types Of Sketches: And The Importance Of Sketching In Design
Core77 - 6/6/16
Bring Back Boredom To Spur Your Creativity
Fast Company - 5/24/16
How To Be An Artist With Soul In An Age Of Self-Promotion
New Yorker - 5/4/16
Nature Is The Original Creativity Guru
Misc Magazine - 5/1/16
SNHU Builds In House Innovation Facility
Campus Technology - 4/27/16
Constraints Enhance Creativity
Pacific Standard - 4/25/16
A Terrific List Of Traits And Actions Of Creative People
Scientific American - 4/17/16
On Led Zeppelin, Lawsuits, And The Nature Of Creativity
New Yorker - 4/14/16
A Short Reminder That We Regret What We _Don’t_ Do
Swissmiss - 4/2/16
On The Spread Of The Hackathon Beyond Tech
Harvard Business Review - 4/1/16
7 Great Principles Of Innovation Derived From Wide Ranging Sources
Creativity Post - 3/15/16
To Be More Creative, Imagine That You Are… More Creative
Telegraph - 3/4/16
The Neuroscience Of Creativity (Jargon Alert…)
Creativity Post - 2/24/16
Pursue Projects That Work By Trying To Kill Your Darlings (via Google)
Medium - 2/15/16
A Reminder Of How To Brainstorm Effectively
Inc. - 2/4/16
A Day In The Life Of The Creative Class
Format - 2/1/16
For More Creativity, Limit Rules, And Focus On Values And Joy
New York Times - 1/30/16
5 Ways Leaders Can Foster Creativity In The Workplace
Chicago Tribune - 1/25/16
Green: The Color Of Creativity?
Pacific Standard - 1/12/16
Highly Sensitive People And Creativity
Creativity Post - 1/11/16
Creativity: It Thrives in Contradiction And Complexity
Quartz - 1/4/16
The Crazy, Forward-Looking Ideas That Work Often Get Shut Down
Steve Blank - 12/15/15
Discursive Design: The Design Industry Turns Pedagogical
Core77 - 12/10/15
Find More Questions Before Searching For Creative Solutions
99u - 12/7/15
The Google Design Sprint: For Creative Problem Solving
HackingUI - 12/5/15
Authors Of “Disruptive Innovation” Clarify Misconceptions
Harvard Business Review - 12/1/15
On The Importance Of Subtraction
Austin Kleon - 12/1/15
Persistence As A Necessary Component Of Creativity
Harvard Business Review - 12/1/15
Deconstruct Problems To Generate More Creative Solutions
Harvard Business Review - 12/1/15
Creativity Requires A Flexible Way To Record Ideas
Fast Company - 11/30/15
Ikea’s New Innovation Isn’t About Making Better Ikea Products
Fast Company - 11/24/15
Recognizing Creativity Is Like Recognizing Affinity For A Sport
Creativity Post - 11/18/15
More Thoughts On What It Takes To Be Creative Successfully
Quartz - 10/8/15
On The Role Of Rivalry In Creativity
Aeon - 10/8/15
A Deep Analysis Of The Disruptive Innovation Theory
MIT Sloan Management Review - 9/15/15
A Systems Look At Successful Creativity: Networks & Relationships
Medium - 9/2/15
Skip The Instructions: Open Ended Play Improves Creative Work
Inc. - 8/20/15
Is Persistence The Key To Universal Creativity?
Pacific Standard - 8/12/15
Educators Needed To Understand How The Heck Creativity Happens
Pacific Standard - 7/30/15
Conflict And Resistance Can Be Creative Spurs
99u - 7/29/15
Focus On Details To Push Creative Thinking
Pacific Standard - 7/27/15
More Thoughts On Brainstorming Well
Inc. - 7/27/15
Analysis Of Songwriters: Expertise Takes Much Longer Than 10 Years
Pacific Standard - 7/15/15
Create First, Then Research. (via Natalie Portman)
99u - 7/15/15
Turing Tests For Prose, Sonnets, and DJing (!)
Dartmouth - 7/15/15
Creative Style: Are You Focused, Or Does Your Mind Wander?
Fast Company - 6/30/15
Pixar: Feedback Is Not Input; It’s Creative Collaboration
Creativity Post - 6/26/15
Pixar’s John Lasseter On How To Use Technology Creatively
Medium - 6/24/15
On The Need For Criticism To Drive Healthy Creativity
Stanford Graduate School of Business - 6/23/15
Does Following Lego Directions Reduce Creativity?
Geek Dad - 6/16/15
50 Books On Creativity
John Spencer - 6/13/15
An Algorithmic Approach To Measuring Creativity In Painting
MIT Technology Review - 6/10/15
Follow The Instructions Or Just Build: How LEGO Behavior Reflects Creativity
Research Gate - 6/1/15
Old Ideas From Other Disciplines Are Valuable In Your Discipline
Pacific Standard - 5/28/15
What Does Nostalgia Have To Do With Creativity?
Fast Company - 5/27/15
On The Importance Of Happiness For Creative Work
99u - 5/25/15
Don't Let Obsession Over Evidence Stifle Innovation
Conrad Wolfram - 5/22/15

"When you build something significantly new it isn't just a matter of formally assembling evidence from the past in a predictable way. A leap is needed, or several. Different insights. A new viewpoint. Often in practice these will occur from a mixture of observation, experience and what still appears to be very human-style intelligence. But wherever it comes from, it isn't straightforwardly “evidence-led"."
Research Drives Innovation. America Is Doing Less Research.
New York Times - 5/19/15
The Creative Life: Pretty Much Nailing It Here
Creativity Post - 5/14/15
Fueling Collaboration & Creativity: Recap of 2015 99u Conference
99u - 5/3/15
11 Ways Organizations Crush Creativity [video w/bad music]
Harvard Business Review - 4/24/15
Five Traits of Creative People
Fast Company - 4/20/15
When New Ideas Fail, And Why
Creativity Post - 4/16/15
Copying As Creativity In The Age Of Twitter
BuzzFeed - 4/15/15
On The Importance of Androgyny of Mind
Brain Pickings - 4/15/15
3 Reasons Brainstorming Works Better Online
Harvard Business Review - 4/2/15
Notes From The Creativity World Forum (In Oklahoma)
Oklahoma Gazette - 3/31/15
Being Tired Can Help Stimulate Creative Thinking
New York Magazine - 3/27/15
Memorization Is A Foundation Of Creativity
Edutopia - 3/26/15
A Reminder Of Why Group Brainstorming Doesn’t Work
Harvard Business Review - 3/25/15
4 Tips For Developing Individual Creativity; 3 Tips For Teams
Harvard Business Review - 2/23/15
Boost Creativity By Considering Your Many Roles
Pacific Standard - 1/29/15
Do Creative People Have Less “Sensory Gating”
Creativity Post - 1/26/15
Two Humorous Looks At Stages of Creative Work
Creativity Post - 1/22/15
Is Your Network The Best Predictor Of Success And Creativity?
Business Insider - 1/20/15
Apple Exec: Design Is Problem Solving With Changing Constraints
99u - 1/13/15
To Be More Creative, Break Rules. (But Be Judicious?)
99u - 1/6/15
11 Ways To Stoke Your Creativity
Fast Company - 12/22/14
Book Recommendations For Fostering Innovation
Ryan Bretag - 12/10/14
A Reminder To Kill Your Darlings
Farnam Street - 12/10/14
Forgetting Can Be Helpful To Your Creativity
Fast Company - 12/3/14
Kindness Kills Creativity; Criticism Helps It Grow. (Sort Of)
Creativity Post - 11/21/14
Keep It Loose, Keep It Creative
Brain Pickings - 11/19/14
Jony Ive on the Creative Process, and Imitation... err.. Theft
Dezeen - 11/13/14
Creativity and “Psychological Androgyny”
Brain Pickings - 11/7/14
Imitation As The Source Of Creativity
Aeon - 11/6/14
Political Correctness Boosts Creativity in Group Work
Cornell - 11/3/14
Pianist Bill Evans On Creative Problem Solving
Brain Pickings - 10/30/14
Clayton Christensen Defends Disruption, Describes Modularity
Business Insider - 10/28/14
To Be Creative, Focus On Solving Problems, Not Being Creative
Harvard Business Review - 10/22/14
How To Stay Creative As Your Expertise Increases
Inc. - 10/21/14
4 Principles of Creativity from Steven Johnson and PBS
Fast Company - 10/15/14
“Move Before You Are Ready” and Other Advice to Act Now
99u - 10/10/14
NPR Collects 5 TED Talks on Creativity
NPR - 10/3/14
What Is Creativity? How Can We Be More Creative? [Video]
YouTube/PBS - 10/3/14
Here are Two Search Engines For Metaphors
Big Think - 10/2/14
On Using Emptiness to Create Meaning
Harvard Business Review - 10/1/14
Your Creative Output Is Likely a Result of What You Input
Harvard Business Review - 9/15/14
Five Steps To Push Beyond Conventional Solutions
99u - 9/11/14
Glenn Gould and “Flow”
NPR - 9/4/14
Is Creativity Overhyped? Cutting Through the...
New Yorker - 9/2/14
Pursue Passion Projects During the First 90 Minutes of Your Day
99u - 8/20/14
Why Do Some Families Become Families of Artists?
New Yorker - 8/15/14
The Psychology of Creative Work (and Staying Healthy About It)
Brain Pickings - 8/12/14
Encouragement for Innovators in Established Organizations
Harvard Business Review - 8/12/14
Is Design Thinking the Best Way to Drive Innovation in Organizations?
Steve Blank - 7/30/14
From Brainstorming to Brainwriting (i.e. Think-Pair-Share)
Fast Company - 7/29/14
How Pixar Builds a Creative Culture
99u - 7/24/14
Spontaneous Creativity Takes a Lifetime of Habit Building
Farnam Street - 7/23/14
To Get Better at Your Work and Be More Creative: Do Something Else
99u - 6/30/14
Some White Noise Helps Creativity. Here’s How Much... [Study]
Creativity Post - 6/27/14
Tina Roth Eisenberg on Why Creating Is Better Than Complaining
99u - 6/26/14
On the Need for Solitude (and Participation) for Creative Work
Creativity Post - 6/23/14
5 Traits of Creative Places: Gravity, Tension, Heat, Speed, Generosity
Fast Company - 6/18/14

“Talented people want to contribute. To make a difference. They want to know they have a chance to do something important. Tapping into this requires encouraging trial and error.”
How to Do Design Research on the Cheap
Fast Company - 6/17/14
Artifacts From Creative People Can Increase Your Own Creativity
Pacific Standard - 6/11/14
Sleep Schedules of Some of History’s Most Creative People
New York Magazine - 6/8/14
Three Ways to Be More Creative... While Sleeping
Fast Company - 6/2/14
How Attention Determines Creativity and Insight
New Yorker - 5/28/14
Clean Your Desk to Be Productive; Keep It Messy For Creativity
Forbes - 5/23/14
To Be Creative: Make Junk, Lots of It, Regularly
Entrepreneur - 5/14/14
Career Advice for Creative People, from Daily Show Head Writer
Fast Company - 5/13/14
Eudora Welty’s Application Letter to The New Yorker
Brain Pickings - 5/12/14
Pranks Feed Creativity. Should We Encourage Them?
Time - 5/9/14
Lessons from Bill Watterson on Creativity
Fast Company - 5/7/14
Studying Abroad Makes More Complex and Creative Thinkers
Brilliant Blog - 4/28/14
People Are More Creative When They’re Walking
Stanford - 4/24/14
The Best Thinking and Creativity Comes From Combination
Farnam Street - 4/24/14
Do People With Hobbies Demonstrate Better Job Skills?
Pacific Standard - 4/16/14
James Patterson Shares His Storytelling Strategy
Fast Company - 4/16/14
To Assess Creativity, Deconstruct It
Pacific Standard - 4/4/14
Daily Routines of Some of History’s Great Minds and Artists
Huffington Post - 3/29/14
5 Lessons on Organizational Creativity from Pixar Alumni
Fast Company - 3/26/14

“Our conversations revealed recurring themes about applying Pixar's principles in other organizations: delight and storytelling as driving forces, the elimination of ego as management strategy, the idea that creativity can come from anyone, and the balance between patience and action.
Analogies: A Key to Creative Insight
Brilliant Blog - 3/26/14
Candor: How Pixar Catalyzes Creativity and Collaboration
Fast Company - 3/12/14
Exploring “Co-Creative” (Collaborative) Design in Education
Core77 - 3/10/14
How Constraints Promote Creativity
Fast Company - 3/10/14
18 Habits of Identified With Being Creative
Huffington Post - 3/4/14
How 50 Artists Break Through Creative Block
Brain Pickings - 2/28/14
What’s Up With That: Dishonesty Leads To More Creativity?
Pacific Standard - 2/20/14
How Improvisation (and Conversation) Promotes Creativity
Brilliant Blog - 2/17/14
At What Age Are We Most Creative?
Quartz - 2/15/14
Creativity Researcher James Kaufman Moves to UConn
National Endowment for the Arts - 2/13/14
7 Elements of Silicon Valley’s Culture of Innovation
Fast Company - 2/11/14
“Introduction to Creative Studies” Is Now A College Course
New York Times - 2/5/14
Duke Ellington and the Creativity of Combination
Brain Pickings - 2/4/14
Ingmar Bergman and the Importance of Solitude
Atlantic - 2/4/14
Portland Creates a Creative Laureate. One Year In, How’s It Going?
Pacific Standard - 1/23/14
Reclaim Your Mornings for Better Creative Productivity
Farnam Street - 1/21/14
Leonard Bernstein on What Motivates Art, Creativity
Brain Pickings - 1/13/14
What is Latent Inhibition, and How Does It Help Supply Creativity?
Fast Company - 1/10/14
A Tried and True Method for Mechanical Creativity: Subtraction
Forbes - 12/26/13
To be Creative, Learn to Speak Your Colleagues’ Social Language
Fast Company - 12/19/13
“Truly Creative Ideas Take A Very Long Time To Be Accepted....”
Slate - 12/6/13
EdLife: Special Section on Innovation in Higher Ed
New York Times - 11/3/13
Spreading Innovation
Phi Beta Kappan - 11/1/13
8 Reasons Why You Should Draw Your Thinking
Smashing - 10/10/13
Paradoxical Traits of Creative People
Fast Company - 9/4/13
Why Some Ideas Take a Long Time to Catch On
New Yorker - 7/29/13

“We yearn for frictionless, technological solutions. But people talking to people is still the way that norms and standards change.”
Advice for Being Creative, Successful, and Happy
Fast Company - 5/9/13
Walter Benjamin’s 13 Theses On Writing Are Also Rules For Creativity
Brain Pickings - 4/15/13
A Two-Step Approach To Innovation: Building Blocks & Metaphors
Farnam Street - 1/20/13
Metaphor as the Foundation for Innovation
Farnam Street - 1/20/13
Anais Nin: “Why Emotional Excess Is Essential To Writing & Creativity”
Brain Pickings - 9/3/12
On The Demographics Of The Most Creative Teams
Slate - 3/23/12
Jonah Lehrer on Ten Ways to Stimulate Creativity (See End of Article)
Wall Street Journal - 3/12/12
We’re More Creative When We’re... Groggy?
British Psychological Society - 1/18/12
...But Know When to Quit
99u - 1/1/12
A Detailed Look At Where New Ideas Come From
Strategy-Business - 11/23/10

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