Best Overview of Similarities in Creative Lives
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Many have written about creativity, but few have considered creativity in the context of a cognitive model. Professor Gardner has added greatly to my understanding of what creative people's lives are like, by focusing on people from a variety of fields (from politics, to dance, to music, to physics, to poetry). A key lesson for me was that creativity can cause problems for the creative person. Having seen some of the bad habits outlined in this book, we can each see how we can become more creative and also avoid some of the pitfalls. Clearly, creativity can become an obsession, since it turns out to be so pleasurable to creative people. Creative people would clearly benefit from a series of questions that prompt them into considering the relevance and approriateness of their lives. I especially liked how Professor Gardner suggested what additional research should be done. I hope someone is working on these questions, now. I am a business person, and did not expect to learn much that would help in business. I was happily surprised to find that I did. An important lesson is that creative people need the right kind of emotional and social support in order to be most effective in not only creating more, but also in making their creations more useful for us all. I also recommend CREATIVITY IN CONTEXT and CORPORATE CREATIVITY, as good books for business people to read on the subject of creativity. But having read many dozens of books on creativity, I still recommend that you start with this one.
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An interesting book examining the creative process.
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I found this book to be a very interesting read. As a public educator, I a enjoy books that take me out of the framework or box that I view the learning process. Creative Minds made me examine and understand the creative process over a span of a lifetime and mentally note the types of blockers in the early lives of these extraordinary individuals. The book also emphasized for me the differing intelligences in the human race and the conditions necessary for creative breakthroughs. Creating Minds is an excellent reflective read for public educators
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creativity is a personal journy
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everyone creates everyday, no one is more creative then the other, everyone gets there turn to be recognized, if thats what they dream, or if someone else dreams, art is personality, no ones personality is the same,
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Best Overview of Similarities in Creative Lives
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Many have written about creativity, but few have considered creativity in the context of a cognitive model. Professor Gardner has added greatly to my understanding of what creative people's lives are like, by focusing on people from a variety of fields (from politics, to dance, to music, to physics, to poetry). A key lesson for me was that creativity can cause problems for the creative person. Having seen some of the bad habits outlined in this book, we can each see how we can become more creative and also avoid some of the pitfalls. Clearly, creativity can become an obsession, since it turns out to be so pleasurable to creative people. Creative people would clearly benefit from a series of questions that prompt them into considering the relevance and approriateness of their lives. I especially liked how Professor Gardner suggested what additional research should be done. I hope someone is working on these questions, now. I am a business person, and did not expect to learn much that would help in business. I was happily surprised to find that I did. An important lesson is that creative people need the right kind of emotional and social support in order to be most effective in not only creating more, but also in making their creations more useful for us all. I also recommend CREATIVITY IN CONTEXT and CORPORATE CREATIVITY, as good books for business people to read on the subject of creativity.
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Good read + some reservations on the general approach
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To me, it is of great interest in itself to read about the lives of these seven remarkable individuals. Gardner gives us an account of their lives looking through the window of his theories on creativity. While not 100% convincing in all that he proposes, sometimes resorting to seeing what he wants to see (rather than reporting what he sees), Creating Minds is a valuable attempt at identifying the nature of creativity. I think the book fails to provide a case for the argument that creativity is characterized by "a special amalgam of the childlike and the adultlike." As long as the following question goes unanswered it's only too tempting to rush to conclusions: Do creative individuals retain childlike qualities more than other people, and how exactly do they benefit from doing so? This question epitomizes my general unease with Gardner's study of creativity. If we only look at creative people, how can we understand in which ways and how they stand apart from 'normal people'? Finally, I am not so sure about the significance of that modern era talk.
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