17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not ideal for the general reader, but others might benefit, March 3, 2010
This review is from: Creativity 101 (Psych 101) (Paperback)
This book by James Kaufman is essentially a literature review on academic research into creativity during the past half-century. As a result, the book isn't really an engaging read, and wading through the many studies gets tedious after a while, though Kaufman does ease the burden by writing clearly and throwing in nice dashes of humor.
My main issue with the book is that, while Kaufman is fairly thorough in reviewing the literature and is clearly well-versed in this area, he doesn't really offer much in terms of summaries and general conclusions. So here's my attempt to summarize the key points:
(1) Creativity is hard to precisely define and measure, which makes it hard to do creativity research and contributes to contradictory findings. But we can generally say that creativity is about coming up with something which is both (a) original and (b) useful in some way.
(2) Creativity is at least partly domain-specific.
(3) People who are reasonably experienced in a domain tend to agree on what counts as a creative contribution. So we can say that people often "know creativity when they see it," even if they can't define it. The exception is cases when a creative contribution is too far ahead of its time.
(4) Creators often have little understanding of their own creative process.
(5) The age at which one's creativity peaks tends to vary with the domain in which one is working.
(6) People with more raw output are more likely to produce something which is considered creative.
(7) There are different levels of creativity, and different people progress to different levels in different domains.
(8) Achieving greatness in a domain tends to take about a decade.
(9) Some environments (home, work, etc.) foster creativity more than others.
(10) Creative people tend to be more open to experience (less conservative), intrinsically motivated (which means they become more involved in tasks), intelligent, reflective, and introspective.
(11) Creativity isn't consistently or significantly correlated with mental illness, Western versus Eastern culture, or gender.
As far as whether I recommend this book, I would say it depends. For the general reader (like me), I think this book is short on practical insights, and my list of key points covers most of what can be extracted from the book, so you may want to skip actually reading the book. The book might work better as a text for an introductory university course on creativity, but it seems too short for that purpose. So perhaps the best audience is academics who are looking for a quick gateway into the creativity literature, but don't intend to specialize in creativity.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genuine Creativity, January 31, 2011
This review is from: Creativity 101 (Psych 101) (Paperback)
With all the crazy manuals out there that claim to enhance creativity, it was delightful to find a book that actually describes what it is, explains all the models for how it happens, and connects each point to empirical, verifiable facts. Funny how once you understand the components, it's easier to get more creative. Unlike cornball recommendations that appear in other books (like blathering out morning pages or going on journeys), this one actually makes folks more creative by explaining exactly what that means. Part of the joy comes from the creative, witty, and enjoyable nature of the writing. You finish wishing you could have a beer with the author and talk some more.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book for those wanting to learn about creativity research, January 11, 2011
This review is from: Creativity 101 (Psych 101) (Paperback)
The author did a wonderful job at helping the reader understand what creativity is and the areas it can be applied. The book is written in a fashion that makes it a pleasure to read. I look forward to reading more of James Kaufman's books.
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