The art of creative thinking

'The East students are not as creative as the West', you might heard the saying a lot but couldn't argue, is this a truth or just a stereotype? What is creative thinking? And why does it matter?

When the apple fell down on Newton's head, he discovers Law of Universal Gravitation,while for me, maybe just cheering for free apple; When Edison failed thousands of times but still working on the experiment, which brings us lights, while for me, maybe give up easily thinking nothing can burn that long; When I read all the cases in IDEO, where an awful lot of creative solutions were given, I almost drop my jaw, surprised by all the amazing and brilliant ideas. How can some people think so different and creative?

We appreciate innovation, creative, and creative thinking, but honestly, what's all meaning of them and what's the difference? Does innovation means to create something new? I always like a quote in The Bible,'There's nothing new under the sun', while if there's nothing new, then where's the innovation come from? Is it possible about replacement? Just like there's a bird in the sky, and we place it with machine, then here comes the plane. There's beehive out there, and we place them with hotel room, then here comes the capsule hotel; is it possible about math?Just like bike plus battery, here comes electrically operated bike, and phone plus television, here comes video phone.

Creative thinking is an innate talent that you were born with and a set of skills that can be learned, developed, and utilized in daily problem solving; Creativity bringing into existence an idea that is new to you, and innovation is the practical application of creative ideas. It seems possible that we do not form new ideas out of nothing, only the creative minds can see possibilities in them or connections among them, and a creative thinker is to combine ideas or elements that are already exist.

This book mentioned 86 points of creative thinking, and it seems no connection between them, just like stars scattering in the sky, while every star to be one part of the starry night. I make a list of them, choose the star you like to read through and form your own starry night.

1.See what happens when you make something happen

2.Be a beginner, for ever

3.Blame Michelangelo

4.Be the medium of your medium

5.Don’t be someone else

6.Be a generator

7.Be committed to commitment

8.Be positive about negatives

9.Be practically useless

10.Don’t think about what others think about

11.Be perceptive about perception

12.Doubt everything all the time

13.Feel inadequate

14.Be naturally inspired

15.Don’t be an expert on yourself

16.Be stubborn about compromise

17.Be a weapon of mass creation

18.Get into what you’re into

19.Cut it out

20.Grow old without growing up

21.I fit ain’t broke, break it

22.Pick yourself up

23.Challenge the challenging

24.Find out how to find out

25.Leave an impression

26.Design a difference

27.Beas incompetent as possible

28.Be mature enough to be childish

29.Maintain momentum

30.Aspire to have no goals

31.Make the present a present

32.Open your mind

33.Pause for thoughtlessness

34.Plan to have more accidents

35.If you can’t be really good, be really bad

36.Be a conservative revolutionary

37.Raise the dead

38.Work the hours that work for you

39.Search without finding

40.Don’t overlook the overlooked

41.Put the right thing in the wrong place

42.Stay hungry

43.Surprise yourself

44.Take advantage of a disadvantage

45.Throw truth bombs

46.Suspend judgement

47.Throw yourself into yourself

48.Use shock and awe

49.Value obscurity

50.If something doesn’t need improving, improve it

51.Value shared values

52.Light a fire in your mind

53.Discover how to discover

54.To stand out, work out what you stand for

55.To achieve something, do nothing

56.Search high and low

57.Get into credit

58.Mine your mind

59.Look forward to disappointment

60.Think with your feelings

61.Bring chaos to order

62.Takewhat you need

63.Remake,then remake the remake

64.Becurious about curiosity

65.Becomeanonymous

66.Achievethe perfect work-life balance

67.Makewhat you say unforgettable

68.Don’texperiment, be an experiment

69.Stopmissing opportunities

70.Contradictyourself more often

71.Takejokes seriously

72.Lookover the horizon

73.Gofrom A to B via Z

74.Immerseyourself

75.Neverleave improvisation to chance

76.Rejectacceptance and accept rejection

77.Beas annoying as possible

78.Cross-pollinate

79.Stayplayful

80.Don’tbe recessive in a recession

81.Projectyourself into the future

82.Getout of your mind

83.Boxyour way out of boxes

84.Tolearn, teach

85.Bean everyday radical

86.Makefreedom a career

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