Mark Allen, Interested Person

Just look at poets, who often rely on literary forms with strict requirements, such as haikus and sonnets. At first glance, this writing method makes little sense, since the creative act then becomes much more difficult. Instead of composing freely, poets frustrate themselves with structural constraints. But that’s precisely the point. Unless poets are stumped by the form, unless they are forced to look beyond the obvious associations, they’ll never invent an original line. They’ll be stuck with clichés and conventions, with predictable adjectives and boring verbs. And this is why poetic forms are so important. When a poet needs to find a rhyming word with exactly three syllables or an adjective that fits the iambic scheme, he ends up uncovering all sorts of unexpected connections; the difficulty of the task accelerates the insight process.

quote from Imagine: How Creativity Works http://fnd.gs/I3erwN

Creativity is the residue of time wasted. —Albert Einstein

quote from Imagine: How Creativity Works http://fnd.gs/IxE8CB

Instead of insisting on constant concentration—requiring every employee to focus on his or her work for eight hours a day—3M encourages people to make time for activities that at first glance might seem unproductive. Are you struggling with a difficult technical problem? Take a walk across campus. (When I visited 3M, in the late winter, the fields were full of grazing deer and employees strolling in their puffy winter parkas.) Are you stuck on a challenge that seems impossible? Lie down on a couch by a sunny window. Daydream. Play a game of pinball. While 3M demands a high level of productivity—the parking lot was full of cars at 8:00 P.M.—it also encourages employees to take regular breaks.

quote from Imagine: How Creativity Works http://fnd.gs/IxE8mj

Why is a relaxed state of mind so important for creative insights? When our minds are at ease—when those alpha waves are rippling through the brain—we’re more likely to direct the spotlight of attention inward, toward that stream of remote associations emanating from the right hemisphere. In contrast, when we are diligently focused, our attention tends to be directed outward, toward the details of the problems we’re trying to solve.

quote from Imagine: How Creativity Works http://fnd.gs/I3eqZQ