Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention is a powerful book written by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Csikszentmihalyi offers deep insight into the creative process. Don’t worry if you cannot pronounce his name, this book is not a difficult read.

Overview

Drawing on 100 interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists to politicians and business leaders, poets and artists, as well as his 30 years of research on the subject, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous theory, Flow, to explore the creative process. His goal is to give the reader enough understanding about creativity and what leads to creative moments that they will be able reproduce creativity in their own lives.

My Take on the Book

I highly recommend you pick up a copy and begin working your way through it with a highlighter. This is one of those books with something for everyone.

This book is loaded with true stories and thoughts from real people. If you like illustrations read them, if not skip over the stories for a faster read.

Here is a selection of quotes from chapter five, The Flow of Creativity.

“The pursuit of a creative problem is rarely easy. In fact, in order to be enjoyable it should be hard, and of course so it is, almost by definition.” - Page 116

“When there are no external demands, entropy kicks in, and unless we understand what is happening, it takes over our body and our mind. We are generally torn between two opposite sets of instructions programmed into the brain: the least-effort imperative on one side, and the claims of creativity on the other.” - Page 110

“Another skill creative individuals develop: a personal approach, an internal model that allows them to put the problem into a manageable content.”- Page 118

After reading Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention we come to understand that creativity is a mix of environmental factors, technology, personality traits, skills, and more. We understand that there is no magic formula for creativity but a mix of creative elements; that our upbringing and personality do affect our creativity; but most importantly creativity is attainable for everyone.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 2:52 am and is filed under Innovation Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.