Everyone that I know who has a messy desk claims that it’s a sign of creativity. I have to admit, I’ve been skeptical…it just sounds like a convenient excuse. Well, if you need an excuse for your messy desk, you will love this new scientific study from the University of Minnesota*, because it finds that… Read More Messy Desks Make People Creative
In the late 1970s, the psychologists Camilla Benbow and David Lubinski identified a highly talented group of 563 13-year-olds; all of them scored in the top one-half of one percent on the SAT. This study is known as the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY). These teenagers were given a broad range of psychometric tests, and… Read More Spatial Ability and Creativity
Check out Fast Company’s 10th annual issue devoted to “Innovation by Design”, showing how good design drives innovation. These are their ten key factors that drive the “new kind of creativity”, and each one is elaborated in one of the articles in this special issue: Design starts at the top. In innovative companies, the CEO… Read More Ten Lessons for Design-Driven Success
Inc. Magazine just published a review of my new book Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity. Reporter Christina DesMarais selected her favorite 25 techniques, out of more than 100 I wrote about in the book. DesMarais writes: The book is a gem, chock full of fascinating findings from research studies and a deep… Read More 25 Ways To Be More Creative
I am spending a couple of days at the University of Guelph, near Toronto in Canada. You probably haven’t heard of Guelph and if so, you’re wondering why would I be in Guelph, Canada? Because in the academic world of improvisation studies, Guelph looms large. Seven years ago, Professor Ajay Heble–the founding artistic director of the… Read More Improvisation Studies
The Creativity Guru 