The Art of Creative Thinking

Creativity isn't a switch that's flicked on or off; it's a way of seeing, engaging and responding to the world around you.

At school, creativity was suppressed and crushed. It was something that teachers and authorities actually feared. They regarded it as dangerous, something they couldn’t control. They steered students away from it in the same way they steered them away from drugs, burglary or gambling. At art college I found the opposite. The spirit was one in which mistakes were good. Where you could try and fail. There was no emphasis on getting it ‘right’. All around me were people experimenting for the sheer hell of it, doing things that made no sense – or rather doing things because they made no sense.

It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we discover new ideas. Doubt everyone and everything all the time – especially yourself.

Doubt is a key to unlocking new ideas. Einstein doubted Newton. Picasso doubted Michelangelo. Beethoven doubted Mozart. That’s why they moved things forward.

To be a successful person you often have to create a strong foundation with the bricks others throw at you.

Everyone needs to analyse and understand what makes them tick, like taking a clock apart to discover how it works. Self-knowledge will help you to understand what you have to offer that’s special.

Certainty is a convenient and easy way out of our discomfort. It is the mind's equivalent of fast food - to satisfy our hunger for answers with minimal effort.

To be true to an idea, you have to value expression over perfection, vitality over finish, movement over the static, and form over function. Put your personality before practicality and your individuality into everything. Ironing out impracticalities irons out what is unique.

We all come under pressure from our employers, family or friends to compromise, but to make something unique, to do something extraordinary, often requires that you refuse to compromise your ideals. You have no responsibility to live up to others' expectations, but you do have a responsibility to live up to your own expectations.

To flourish in any field of activity you need to gain a deep understanding of it.

It is more important to be the best version of yourself than a bad copy of someone else.

Creativity requires a mixture of unfettered imagination and practical application; random invention and playfulness

As I see it then, the formula runs something like this; a man must choose a path that will let his abilities function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his desires’ Hunter S. Thompson

The biggest competitive advantage is to do the right thing at the worst time.’ Bill Hewlett and David Packard

Children and the insane are great examples of how to think in an unfettered and unconstrained way.

The history of culture is one of negativity towards new work and new ideas, to a point where public annoyance can be seen as an endorsement.

The creative drive on with the projects that matter to them. If they feel what they’re doing is of real significance they devote all their energy and time to it. Doing what matters is what matters.

Power comes not from knowledge kept,’ said Gates, ‘but from knowledge shared.’ But don’t sit around waiting for your boss – if your company isn’t doing this already, don’t wait, start it up for them. Sharing your knowledge creates synergy: you’ll get more out than you put in. ‘If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.’ Margaret Fuller   Feeling competitive rather than collaborative?  Meet some of history’s great creative rivals here.