The Creative Attitude: Learning to Ask and Answer the Right Questions (Hardcover)

by Roger C. Schank (Author), Peter Childers (Collaborator)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (July 14, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0026071703
• ISBN-13: 978-0026071703
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,139,008 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intelligence and Knowledge are best leaned not taught, September 19, 2000

By	Timothy Johnson (Taylor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews

I first came across Roger Schank's writing during my undergarduate studies at Eastern Michigan. In doing a research project on how the mind learns, I ventured into artificial intelligence (Schank's specialty). As a teacher I was quite taken by the idea of learning via inquiry or question. Though this is typically thought of as the Socratic method, it is surprising that so few of us are willing to utilize this concept. Schank takes you down a road where failure only enhances the possibilty for success; where questions open an entirely new world of answers. After reading this book, I wondered "why" anything followed tradition and set my own course for facilitating knowledge for myself and my students.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The last question is the answer.", January 2, 2003

By	John C. Dunbar (Sugar Land, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Roger Schank has written a great book on creativity. He shows how asking the right question(s) in the right place lead you to innovative solutions.

He describes how we think unconsciously using scripts. It is only when this script fails do we consciously start to think. He calls this an anomaly. It is by asking questions and using "remindings" as inputs to questions that we can develop creative solutions to these anomalies. Anomalies + Explanations = Creative Thought.

The author has thought very deeply on the creative process. You must read it several times to fully apply his techniques. He gives you plenty of lists and questions to use as suggestions. He tells you how to form questions, and how to tweak them.

This is one of the best books on creative thinking that I've read.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX