Creative Think

Favorite Creative Thinking Books

What are your favorite creative thinking books? Why?

Today is "Publication Day" for the 25th Anniversary Edition (fully revised, updated, and redesigned) of my book "A Whack on the Side of the Head." Naturally, I'm thrilled.

I got to thinking about my favorite creative thinking books. I've decided to list the ones that inspired me many years ago. So here goes (I'll limit myself to just five):

1. The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler. This is my very favorite "creative thinking" book. It came out in 1963, and I read it as a student in 1967. This is probably the best-written of all creativity books. Koestler, author of the landmark novel "Darkness At Noon," tackles the creative process with gusto. AOC is filled with great stories and anecdotes. Koestler coined the term "bi-sociation of matrices of thought" to describe the creative act, and he investigated it within the realms of science, humor, and art. I still read this book every couple years. Highly recommended.

2. Conceptual Blockbusting by Jim Adams. This book came out in the early 1970s (the edition I first read was published by the Stanford Alumni Association). Adams, an engineer and a practical academic, showed me just how interesting the creative process could be. It has a lot of classic "creativity" exercises in it. I was quite flattered when Adams wrote a blurb for the second edition of "Whack" in 1990.

3. Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono (1973) This book made me think hard and deep about just what the mind is doing when it's able to get off the beaten path. A real classic mind-stretcher.

4. Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution by Paul Watzlawick (1974) . Watzlawick was an Austrian born psychotherapist who founded the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto. Many great (off-beat) stories and examples to support his ideas about "creative reframing." This book still sells well.

5. Applied Imagination by Alex Osborne (from circa 1953, currently out of print, unfortunately). Osborne was the "O" in the famed (1940s-1970s) ad agency BBDO. Thus, he worked with real clients and was in the position of seeing efforts succeed and fail. He coined the term "brainstorming." He's also sometimes credited with originating the SCAMPER creative technique.

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You may notice that there are no books on this list that are later than the mid-1970s. There are two reasons for this.

First, I wanted to share with you the books that inspired me to go into business for myself as a creativity consultant in 1977.

And, second, I wanted to leave plenty of room for your favorites! (There have been many, many very good ones in the past thirty years.)

So once, again: What are your favorite creative thinking books? What would you recommend? Why?

Give Yourself A Whack on the Side of the Head

The more often you do something in the same way, the more difficult it is to think about doing it in any other way.

Break out of this "prison of familiarity" by disrupting your habitual thought patterns.

Write a love poem in the middle of the night . . . Eat ice cream for breakfast . . . Wear red sox . . . Visit a junk yard . . . Work the weekend . . . Take the slow way home . . . Sleep on the other side of the bed . . . Such jolts to your routines will lead to new ideas.

How can you whack your thinking? What would really disrupt the way you are currently thinking about your problem?

How would each of the following situations change the way in which you think about your issue:

• not being able to talk for a week
• breaking your leg
• losing your job
• suddenly growing ten years older
• suddenly becoming ten years younger
• swallowing a pill that gave you three times as much energy
• having to sleep fifteen hours a day
• your being forced to spend a night in a scary graveyard
• having your IQ increased by 50 points
• having your IQ decreased by 50 points
• having your deadline moved up to tomorrow morning
• having your budget cut by 75%
• having to crawl to work on your hands and knees
• having a good friend from your past allege that you did evil things
• suddenly becoming ten years old for a day
• a vicious civil war in your country
• heat waves in the winter and snowstorms in the summer.

How do you whack your thinking?

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The 25th Anniversary Edition (completely revised, redesigned, and updated) of the book "A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative" will be published by Business Plus on May 5, 2008. It is currently shipping from Amazon. The retail price is $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon). Yowie! Zowie!

Practice the Art of Forgetting

It's time for some wisdom from Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher whom I consider to be the world's first creativity teacher. His words today are: "Knowing many things doesn't teach insight."

As with all of Heraclitus' ideas, there are many ways to interpret this. What stands out for me, though, is this creative strategy:

Practice forgetting.

I think what he's getting at is this: forgetting what we know — at the appropriate time — can be an important means for gaining insight. Without the ability to forget, our minds remain cluttered with ready-made answers, and we're not motivated to ask the questions that lead our thinking to new ideas.

For example, one day on his regular walk past the local blacksmith's workshop on the island of Samos, the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras temporarily forgot that the banging sounds produced by the smith's hammering of iron bars were "noise" — his usual reaction — and instead viewed them as "information." He soon discovered that musical pitch is a function of the length of the material being struck — his first principle of mathematical physics.

Remember: everyone has the ability to forget. The art is knowing when to use it. Indeed, novelist Henry Miller once stated:

"My 'forgettery' has been just as important
to my success as my memory."

Some questions to think about: 

What conventional wisdom are you relying on? What would happen if you forgot the obvious answers that spring to mind and searched for new ones?

When Do You Get Your Ideas?

The 25th Anniversary Edition (completely revised and updated) of the book "A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative" will be published by Business Plus on May 5, 2008. It is  appearing in stores this week, and is currently shipping from Amazon. The retail price is $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon).

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Exercise: When do you get your ideas? During what kinds of activities and situations do you get your ideas? For example, doing routine work, as a response to questions, during physical exercise, late at night, driving, in the company of others, under stress, etc.

I have asked this question to probably a million people. The answers I've received can be grouped into two categories. The first is necessity, and is represented by replies such as:

• "When I'm faced with a problem."
• "When things break down, and I have to fix them."
• "When there's a need to be filled."
• "When the deadline is near . . . that's the ultimate inspiration."

These responses bear out the old adage that "necessity is the mother of invention."

But interestingly enough, an equal if not greater number of people get their ideas in the opposite situation, and they respond along these lines:

• "When I'm just playing around."
• "When I'm doing something else."
• "When I'm not taking myself too seriously."
• "After my second beer."

From this I conclude that: "Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father."

Indeed, I sincerely believe that a playful attitude is fundamental to creative thinking. I'll bet that you generate most of your new ideas when you're playing around in your mental playground. That's because your defenses are down, and there is little concern with the rules, practicality, or being wrong. When you play, you give yourself a license to try different approaches without fear of penalty.

How can you play with your problem?

Reverse Your Point of View

While poking around on the net, I discovered an ad produced by Leo Burnett Italia. It runs forty seconds: check it out.

This is a powerful ad. And I hope its message is heeded by those at whom it is directed.

But it reminded me of what a wonderful mind-opening technique looking at things in a reverse manner can be.

Here is one of my favorite examples of "reverse." I'll quote a section from my book, A Whack on the Side of the Head**, called "Reverse Living":

Life is tough. It takes up all your time, all your weekends, and what do you get at the end of it? Death, a great reward. The life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, and get it out of the way. Then you live for twenty years in an old age home, and then get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch and then you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You go to college and party until you’re ready for high school. Then you go to grade school, you become a little kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating, and you finish off as a gleam in somebody’s eye.

What can you look at backwards? How might you see it in a fresh way?

**The 25th Anniversary Edition (completely revised and updated) of the book "A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative" will be published by Business Plus on May 5, 2008. It is starting to appear in stores this week, and is currently shipping from Amazon. The retail price is $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon).

Don't Force It

Let's check in with the Creative Whack Pack for some inspiration. Today's card is "Don't Force It." This is what it says.

An architect built a cluster of office buildings around a central green. When construction was completed, the landscape crew asked him where he wanted the sidewalks. "Just plant the grass solidly between the buildings," was his reply.

By late summer the new lawn was laced with paths of trodden grass between the buildings. These paths turned in easy curves and were sized according to traffic flow.

In the fall, the architect simply paved the paths. Not only were the paths beautiful, they responded directly to user needs.

By putting an idea on your mental back burner, you allow yourself to put your problem in perspective. Sometimes we get so close to the problem that we lose sight of what we're trying to accomplish.

One advertising man told me that his strategy for coming up with ideas is to spend six weeks inundating himself with information about the client and its market. Then he'll go fishing for three days, and "let the ideas percolate their way to the top." Moral: If you allow yourself to get away from your problem, you put yourself in a position to see the big picture.

As the poet Doug King says:

"Learn to pause . . . or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."

What are you forcing in your issue? Where can you back off? Where has pausing helped you be more creative?

(Me? I'm going to the movies this afternoon!)

Avoid Arrogance

I've been reading the papers today. Hmmm. To sort things out I thought I'd draw some inspiration from the trusty Creative Whack Pack. Here goes. It's "Avoid Arrogance." Let's see what it says.

On the morning of the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte smugly assured his generals: "I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunchtime."

There is a fine line between a healthy sense of one's abilities and arrogance. If you're repeatedly successful, you're tempted to believe that you've found the formula for success and are no longer subject to human fallibility.

This is devastating to the creative process; in a world that is continually changing, every right idea is eventually the wrong one.

With an arrogant attitude, you cease paying attention to different points of view and information that contradicts your beliefs. You screen out the "boos," and amplify the "hurrahs."

Don't be blinded by arrogance. A little humility can help you steer clear of disaster.

Where is arrogance affecting you? How has it clouded how you think about your problem? Where is your ego interfering with thinking of alternatives?

Flex Your Risk Muscle

I'm in need of a little inspiration for a project I'm working on. What direction should I go? Time to reach into the Creative Whack Pack. It's card # 53: "Flex Your Risk Muscle." This is one that always demands some action. It reads:

Bull's-eye every time? If so, you're standing too close to the target. If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. Everyone has a "risk muscle." You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies and you're no longer able to take chances. How can you exercise your risk muscle? What kinds of risk can you take while pursuing your issue? What's the biggest, most sensible risk you can take?

I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, but three ideas come immediately to mind: 1) to call a person I'd been putting off for fear of not getting through or looking stupid; 2) getting some prototypes out for some feedback (even though I'm not sure they're quite ready — isn't that almost always the case?); and 3) being a little more adventuresome in my design.

I'm sure I'll think of other interpretations over the next few days.

I'm in need of a little inspiration for a project I'm working on. What direction should I go? Time to reach into the Creative Whack Pack. It's card # 53: "Flex Your Risk Muscle." This is one that always demands some action. It reads:

Bull's-eye every time? If so, you're standing too close to the target. If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. Everyone has a "risk muscle." You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies and you're no longer able to take chances. How can you exercise your risk muscle? What kinds of risk can you take while pursuing your issue? What's the biggest, most sensible risk you can take?

I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, but three ideas come immediately to mind: 1) to call a person I'd been putting off for fear of not getting through or looking stupid; 2) getting some prototypes out for some feedback (even though I'm not sure they're quite ready — isn't that almost always the case?); and 3) being a little more adventuresome in my design.

I'm sure I'll think of other interpretations over the next few days.

Use All Your Senses

To boost your creativity, pay attention to wide variety of different information.

If you're visually oriented, focus on the "sound" or the "smell" of a situation.

If you're analytically oriented, focus on how something feels.

If you're intuitive, concentrate on the logic.

What other senses can you use?

What is the smell of your current situation? What are the "below the surface" sounds? What are the subtlest colors? What other senses can you use to develop your idea?

What associations do the following spark in your mind that might be useful to your issue:

• The sound of fingernails scratching a blackboard
• The terrified howl of a man tormented by his inner demons
• The feeling of a dentist drilling in your teeth
• The taste of salt in your tea when you thought you had put in sugar
• The smell of fresh paint
• The smell of a shirt that has been worn for thirty days in a row
• The smell of sweet incense
• The feel of silk in your fingers
• The smell of mist from a large fountain
• The smell of fresh-brewed coffee
• The feeling of a tennis ball hitting the heart of your racket
• The feeling of the floor rolling beneath you during an earthquake
• The smell of rotten fish
• The sound of loud thunder crashing near you
• The taste of a fresh strawberry
• The smell of gasoline
• The feel of diving into a swimming pool on a hot day
• The sound of an air raid siren going off
• The smell of burning leaves
• The feeling of the warm sun through a glass window on a cold winter's day
• The taste and sound of biting into a crunchy apple
• The feeling of melancholy
• The sound and feeling of a very large crowd cheering at an athletic event
• The smell of day-old vomit
• The smell of an airport restroom that hasn't been cleaned in twelve hours
• The feeling of pushing yourself hard in an athletic event.

What specific sounds, smells, feelings, and tastes stimulate you?

Look to the Past

Let's check in with the Creative Whack Pack for some inspiration. Today's card is Look to the Past. This is what it says.

History is loaded with creative analogies. Napoleon marching on Moscow is really just project management. Mao waging a guerrilla war is like launching an ad campaign. What ideas from history can you apply to a current project?

The past is gone. We can't get it back. Nor should we want to. But history can give us some valuable questions to help us understand the present.

For example, I recently spent several weeks reading about the Peloponnesian War which took place nearly 25 centuries ago. I found this to be a quite useful prism to view current events, e.g., politics, ethics, and distant wars.

Pick a culture from the past. How would someone from that time deal with your issue?

How about from your own personal history? What were you doing in each of these times that might be useful to you now: ten years ago ... last week ... when you were a sophomore in high school ... exactly twelve months ago ... when you were two ... last spring ... the year you had your greatest athletic achievement ... the year you had your first big love ... the happiest day of your life ... the year you learned that life wasn't all fun and games.

What ideas from history can you apply to a current project?