Wired to Create (Kaufman, Gregoire)

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.)

top of page (summary)