IMAGINE: How Creativity Works (pdf) by Jonah Lehrer

“Jonah Lehrer’s new book confirms what his fans have known all along – that he knows more about science than a lot of scientists and more about writing than a lot of writers.”
—Malcolm Gladwell

Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms?

• at brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea?
• at the color blue can help you double your creative output?

From the 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 demon strates 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, and daydreaming productively, then he takes us out of our own heads to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective.

We’ll learn about Bob Dylan’s writing habits and the drug addiction of poets. We’ll meet a bartender who thinks like a chemist, and an autistic surfer who invented an entirely new surfing move. We’ll see why Elizabethan England experienced a creative explosion, and how Pixar designed its office space to get the most out of its talent. Col apsing 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.

CONTENTS

Introduction
ALONE

1. BOB DYLAN’S BRAIN
2. ALPHA WAVES (CONDITION BLUE)
3. THE UNCONCEALING
4. THE LETTING GO
5. THE OUTSIDER
TOGETHER
6. THE POWER OFQ
7. URBAN FRICTION
8. THE SHAKESPEARE PARADOX
Coda