The largest website for English phrases and quotes

The largest website for English phrases and quotes

Category: Jonah Lehrer

Insights, after all, come from the overlap between seemingly unrelated thoughts. They emerge when concepts are transposed, when the rules of one place are shifted to a new domain.

Science has discovered that, like any work of literature, the human genome is a text in need of commentary, for what Eliot said of poetry is also true of DNA: ‘all meanings depend on the key of interpretation.’ What makes us human, and what makes each of us his or her own human, is not simply the genes that we have buried into our base pairs, but how our cells, in dialogue with our environment, feed back to our DNA, changing the way we read ourselves. Life is a dialectic.

dna, genes, genome, life, literature, science

In fact, most of us see perseverance as a distinctly uncreative approach, the sort of strategy that people with mediocre ideas are forced to rely on.

creativity, perseverance

The only way to maximize group creativity—to make the whole more than the sum of its parts—is to encourage a candid discussion of mistakes. In part, this is because the acceptance of error reduces cost. When you believe your flaws will be quickly corrected by the group, you’re less worried about perfecting your contribution, which leads to a more candid conversation. We can only get it right when we talk about what we got wrong.

collaboration, creativity, groups, mistakes, right-and-wrong

The vocational approach at NOCCA (New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts) helps build grit in students. It teaches them how to be single-minded in pursuit of a goal, to sacrifice for the sake of a passion. The teachers demand hard work from their kids because they know, from personal experience, that creative success requires nothing less.

233, creative-arts, creativity, grit, motivation, success, work

…Why are corporations so fleeting?…Instead of imitating the freewheeling city, these businesses minimize the very interactions that lead to new ideas. They erect walls and establish hierarchies. They keep people from relaxing and having insights. They stifle conversations, discourage dissent, and suffocate social networks. Rather than maximizing employee creativity they become obsessed with minor efficiencies.

210, cities, corporations, creativity, culture

It doesn’t matter if people are playing jazz or writing poetry — if they want to be successful, they need to learn how to persist and persevere, how to keep on working until the work is done. Woody Allen famously declared that “eighty percent of success is showing up.” NOCCA (New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts) teaches kids how to show up again and again.

232, creativity, creativity-work, grit, imagination, success, work

The great ages did not perhaps produce much more talent than ours,’ [T.S.] Eliot wrote. ‘But less talent was wasted.

227, creativity, elizabethan, london, talent

And so we keep on thinking, because the next thought might be the answer.

creativity, imagination-reading, thinking

…the imagination is unleashed by constraints. You break out of the box by stepping into shackles.

constraints, creativity, imagination, limitations

Every creative journey begins with a problem. It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer. We have worked hard, but we’ve hit the wall. We have no idea what to do next.

creativity, determination

We see them most when we are o nnthe outside looking in

creativity, editors, imagination, inspiration, writers