Wired to Create (Kaufman, Gregoire)

Wired to Create:  Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind
Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire, 2015
Penguin Publishing Group
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399174100


Summary
Is it possible to make sense of something as elusive as creativity?

Based on psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman’s groundbreaking research and Carolyn Gregoire’s popular article in the Huffington Post, Wired to Create offers a glimpse inside the “messy minds” of highly creative people.

Revealing the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, along with engaging examples of artists and innovators throughout history, the book shines a light on the practices and habits of mind that promote creative thinking.

Kaufman and Gregoire untangle a series of paradoxes—like mindfulness and daydreaming, seriousness and play, openness and sensitivity, and solitude and collaboration—to show that it is by embracing our own contradictions that we are able to tap into our deepest creativity.

Each chapter explores one of the ten attributes and habits of highly creative people:

• Imaginative Play
• Passion
• Daydreaming
• Solitude
• Intuition
• Openness to Experience
• Mindfulness
• Sensitivity
• Turning Adversity into Advantage
• Thinking Differently

With insights from the work and lives of Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Proust, David Foster Wallace, Thomas Edison, Josephine Baker, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, musician Thom Yorke, chess champion Josh Waitzkin, video-game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and many other creative luminaries, Wired to Create helps us better understand creativity—and shows us how to enrich this essential aspect of our lives. (From the publisher.)

Author Bios
Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., is scientific director of the Imagination Institute and investigates the measurement and development of imagination, creativity and well-being in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written or edited six previous books, including Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined (2013). He is also co-founder of The Creativity Post, host of The Psychology Podcast, and he writes the blog Beautiful Minds for Scientific American. Kaufman lives in Philadelphia. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
[T]he authors explore 10 “habits of mind” that great creative thinkers...cultivate in themselves.... By studying the standouts in creativity, they conclude, we can all learn how to enrich our well-being.... [N]ever pedantic, and always educational and inspiring.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Kaufman...and Gregoire...delineate the untidy ins and outs of inventiveness and how a person might also dislike his or her creative potential.... [An] explorative how-to guide...fascinating and clearly written. —Kaitlin Connors, Virginia Beach P.L.
Library Journal


For artistic people who've always wondered why they might not fit the norm, Kaufman and Gregoire provide some valid answers. For those curious about how writers, artists, and musicians manifest their art..., the authors pull back the curtains on the fascinating world of creativity.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Wired to Create...then take off on your own:

1. The authors say that "creative people tend to have messy minds." How so? They postulate that creativity is a contradictory trait. What are the conflicting mental states that creativity draws upon or fuses?

2. We generally consider the creative mind restricted to a select group of artists, scientists, writers, and musicians. Why do the authors suggest that personal creativity is important for everyone's sense of well-being, not just the geniuses?

2. Put another way, what does it mean to say that we are all "wired to create"?

3. Do you find Wired to Create empowering on a personal level? If you have never thought of yourself as particularly creative—but wish you were—how might you tap into some of the book's ideas in order to enhance the creative side of yourself?

4. Follow-up to Question 3: If you consider yourself a fairly (or very) creative individual, have you often felt alone or outside the norm? Why, according to Kaufman and Gregoire, is that experience not uncommon for creative people?

5. Do you have anyone in your life, a family member or friend, whom you consider highly creative? Is that person different—in terms of personality, life style, or career trajectory—from others you know?

6. Consider the 10 habits of mind the authors put forth. Which do you find yourself most aligned with? Which is most alien to you? Which habit do you wish you had but don't.

7. The authors draw from creative individuals in history, a fairly select group of geniuses. Whose story do you find most interesting, or perhaps relate to on a personal level?

8. Talk about some of the more recent neurological findings that explain the creative impulse. It was once believed, for instance, that creativity was restricted to the right side of the brain, but our understanding has changed. What else have scientists learned recently about creativity?

9. What have you learned from reading Wired to Create? What surprised you? Did the book inspire you to think differently about yourself and your own creative ability?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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