Without creativity, it would be difficult indeed to distinguish humans from apes. What makes us different-our language, values, artistic expression, scientific understanding, and technology-is the result of individual ingenuity that was recognized, rewarded, and transmitted through learning. We share 98 percent of our genetic makeup with chimpanzees. First, most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity. Here I want to mention only the two main ones. And a genuinely creative accomplishment is almost never the result of a sudden insight, a lightbulb flashing on in the dark, but comes after years of hard work.Ĭreativity is a central source of meaning in our lives for several reasons.
It is easier to enhance creativity by changing conditions in the environment than by trying to make people think more creatively. For one thing, as I will try to show, an idea or product that deserves the label creative arises from the synergy of many sources and not only from the mind of a single person. The real story of creativity is more difficult and strange than many overly optimistic accounts have claimed. There are no simple solutions in these pages and a few unfamiliar ideas.
It starts with a description of what creativity is, it reviews the way creative people work and live, and it ends with ideas about how to make your life more like that of the creative exemplars I studied. This book is about creativity, based on histories of contemporary people who know about it firsthand. Most important, he explains why creativity needs to be cultivated and is necessary for the future of our country, if not the world.
He discusses such ideas as why creative individuals are often seen as selfish and arrogant, and why the "tortured genius" is largely a myth. Drawing on nearly one hundred interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists, to politicians and business leaders, to poets and artists, as well as his thirty years of research on the subject, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous flow theory to explore the creative process. Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (“The leading researcher into ‘flow states.’” - Newsweek) reveals what leads to these moments-be it the excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab-so that this knowledge can be used to enrich people's lives. The classic study of the creative process from the bestselling author of Flow.Ĭreativity is about capturing those moments that make life worth living. “Although the benefits of this study to scholars are obvious, this thought-provoking mixture of scholarly and colloquial will enlighten inquisitive general readers, too.” - Library Journal (starred review)
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