Customer Reviews

Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation

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"Explaining Creativity" is one of the best introductions to the science of creativity. It develops a perspective on creativity---an approach known as the sociocultural model---and applies it to a striking range of areas. This sophisticated book requires an open mind. Readers looking for a treatise on the "healing power of the creative spirit" and related pop-psyc pseudoscience will not enjoy "Explaining Creativity," but readers curious to know scientific facts about creativity and innovation will get a lot out of it.

For a different perspective, see Robert Weisberg's fine book "Creativity."

I have rarely seen a text that focuses on creativity from a scientific perspective. Typically, I have heard of creativity as merely being a measure of how creative others within vicinity of your work think you are. While this may still seem true in the whole of society, rest assured that it is only seeming.

This book explores how the idea of creativity has evolved from the Individualist approach to the Contextualist approach with supporting research. In a society where Individualism is endemic, I feel it becomes even more important to understand how effective collaboration can bring about innovation as well as how our social environment in turn effects our generation of ideas.

I do not recommend this text for those with only a practitioners interest in the subject of bringing about innovation, however. (although there is a short section relevant to implementation)
This text focuses more on the theoretical aspects of creativity and innovation that have came about historically as well as recently.

An excellent overview of creativity research. Approachable for both layman and researcher. Interesting findings from much research over the years. An important piece in the perspectives on creativity.

Mr.Sawyer does a very good job on presenting conclusions and approaches in research on creativity. It looks like he is very enthusiastic about the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I would recommend readers interested in this fascinating field to look also for one of his books. I also recommend the Handbook of Creativity, that is a collection of articles on creativity. I learned some and enjoyed a lot reading Mr. Sawyer's book.

This is a academically written treatise by "a self-proclaimed" expert on creativity who loves music and has read mostly only his own writing, it appears.

He begins highly critical of the massive research done in the creativity research rield from 1950 to 1980 then praises the work of his contemporaries and his own work.

I wrote more challenging notes in the margins of my copy then he wrote on most of the pages.

Often I found in correct statements about fields he seems to have only shallow knowledge of. This often lead me to doubt the value of his writing about fields I have minimal knowledge of.

If you are looking for an overview of creativity research and no other such books are available then you might read this one but be cautious of the extremelly restrictive biases often provided.

From the back cover of the book:

Dean Keith Simonton, author of ORIGINS OF GENIUS: "Without doubt EXPLAINING CREATIVITY is the most comprehensive single-volume presentation of what we know about the creative process, person, and product. Besides that, the book is extremely well written. It would be my first recommendation for anyone fascinated with creativity in all of its complexities and manifestations. There's simply nothing better out there for either specialist or general reader."

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of FLOW: "An extremely knowledgeable, wide-ranging, integrative summary of how the social sciences understand creativity. Keith Sawyer has again produced an intelligent and valuable contribution to knowledge. This is a volume that any scholar or lay-person interested in what creativity entails will want to have."

Howard S. Becker, author of ART WORLDS: "Sawyer has put together a mountain of research from a variety of fields to create a unified approach to understanding how people manage to do something different. His book is readable and learned, origninal, but mindful of its relation to all that other work, and well worth the attention of anyone who wants to think seriously about innovation in the arts and in social organizations."

Having been a fine artist(painter) my whole life, I felt that the author was talking about me personally! So many aspects of my creativity that I took for granted or didn't understand were clearly explained.

This book would also benefit others, who do not understand the life of an artist,comprehend the mind-set of creative people.

Many myths are "busted" and it comes down to what Thomas Edison and myself have always said....." 10% creativity and the rest is very hard work or a "labour" of love!