Creativity starts with a spark, but how does that spark happen? I watched Netflix’s The Creative Brain to figure it out. Neuroscientist David Eagleman interviews various innovators on their mind-blowing processes. Here is the key take aways:
1. Science is creativity, not just art
2. Childhood toys can inspire future useful inventions
3. Creativity is thinking in new ways not done before
4. Animals have a direct path – people can go beyond direct purpose
5. Our brain can make new connections and process in limitless ways
6. The enlargement of the human cortex & pre-frontal cortex is the source of imagination
7. Have plenty of material for inventions
8. We try new ideas & consider the future to overcome instincts
9. Apply the same idea to unrelated things
10. Easy to criticize & hard to be a creator
11. Inputs in the brain are constantly being worked on
12. Combine several old ideas to make a new one
13. Refashion what already exists
14. Document stuff you find like a scrapbook
15. Jazz is combining many different beats
16. Time inspires change
17. Being original is not generation something out of nothing
18. Play with convention
19. Take ideas from everything
20. How can I use what previous masters did?
21. Life experiences are unique
22. Create the extraordinary from the ordinary
23. Explore painful emotions – creativity can heal
24. Creativity can save you from prison
25. You can be reborn through creativity
26. Your feelings are valid – you are not defined by your mistakes
27. Play with subjective & objective skills
28. Learn new skills
29. It is okay to be confused
30. Be willing to be wrong
31. Our brains are novelty seekers
32. Balance between the familiar & the new
33. Improvise once and a while
34. Go somewhere else with ideas
35. Weird can be good
36. Push comfort zone can be risky but rewarding
37. Success rises from the ashes of failures
38. You will dislike past works
39. Creativity can save you from poverty
40. You can learn math through geometric art
41. Teach through the arts
42. Remember the process
43. Creative is your greatest transformative tool