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 New York Times 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.

For thirty years, Robert J. Sternberg has been among the most vocal critics of narrow conceptions of intelligence. In Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized Sternberg critically reviews and summarizes the best research available on human intelligence. He argues that any serious understanding of intelligence must go beyond the standard paper and pencil tests currently in use. In addition to analytical and quantitative abilities, a theory of intelligence must take account of peoples' creative abilities - their ability to go beyond given information and imagine new and exciting ways of reformulating old problems. It must also take into account peoples' ability to weigh options carefully and act prudently. Understanding one's own intellectual shortcomings and learning how to overcome, Sternberg argues, is just as important as developing one's strengths. As he weaves his way through decades of important research on these questions, Sternberg develops a vision of human intelligence that is far more nuanced and accurate than anything previously offered. Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized is essential reading for psychologists, cognitive scientists, educators, and organizational researchers. Robert J. Sternberg is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Tufts University. Prior to being at Tufts, he was IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, Professor of Management in the School of Management, and Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise at Yale University. This center, now relocated to Tufts, is dedicated to the advancement of theory, research, practice, and policy advancing the notion of intelligence as developing expertise, as a construct that is modifiable and capable, to some extent, of development throughout the lifespan. Author of over 1,100 articles, chapters, and books, Sternberg's research focuses on intelligence, creativity, and wisdom, and he has studied love and close relationships as well as hate.

People tend to think of creativity as a trait-a single attribute with which we are born that is relatively fixed in quantity. Many people also think of creativity as something that only very gifted people possess. This book challenges all of these notions. The basic idea is that there are multiple kinds of creativity, and that everyone can develop at least some of these kinds of creativity. The book considers the various kinds of creativity as they apply in domains such as science, literature, the arts, government, business, and sports. The most common kind of creativity may be conceptual replication, whereby someone produces a minor variant of work that has been produced before. This kind of creativity represents a "limiting case" of creative thought. Most successful inventions and scientific discoveries represent "forward incrementations," which basically take existing ideas and move them to the next step in the direction the field is already going. Often more radical are redirections, which take a field in a new direction, and reinitiations, which represent essentially a "starting over" of how people think about a given problem. The book discusses 8 kinds of creativity, and how they are similar to and different from each other. It is illustrated with many examples, and describes why it is necessary to distinguish among the kinds of creativity. --From publisher's description.

"Award-winning musician and founder of CloudID Creativity Lab David Usher believes we just need the right tools to help us reconnect with our imaginations in our day-to-day lives whether in the head office, the home office, or the artist's studio. Usher empowers readers to achieve more 'aha' moments through two cornerstone principles of creativity: freedom and structure. Using a mix of personal anecdotes and professional examples from the worlds of industry, technology, science, music, and art, he shows us that creativity is not magic; it is a learnable skill that any person or business can master. The dynamic full-colour design includes photographs, artwork and illustrations, as well as action pages to help readers start cultivating the habit of documenting their ideas for future execution."--Provided by publisher.