‘The Art of Creative Thinking’
‘The Art of Creative Thinking’ by John Adair
Chapter 3 Make the Strange Familiar and the Familiar Strange
As Seneca said, ‘Familiarity reduces the greatness of things.’ Seeing them as strange, odd, problematic, unsatisfactory or only half-known restarts the engines of your minds. Remember the saying that God hides things from us by putting them near to us.
Chapter 5 Practise serendipity
There are two ways of doing things. You can decide exactly what you want to do and make a list on a piece of paper and then do it all precisely.
Or you can have a rough idea of what you want, hope to set off in the right direction and probably end up with something quite different. Then you realize it isn’t such a bad thing after all.
You are more likely to be serendipitous if you have a wide span of attention and a broad range of interests.
Chapter 7 Curiosity
Thinking is a way of trying to find out for yourself. If you always blindly accepted what others told you there would be nothing to be curious about.
Chapter 8 Keep your Eyes Open
Observation implies attempting to see a person, object or scene as if you had never seen it before in your life. What really teaches us, it has been said, is not experience, but observation.
Chapter 9 Listen for Ideas
A good listener will have curiosity, that all-essential desire to learn.
Your first priority is to grasp fully what the other person is actually saying, especially if it is a new and therefore strange idea to you.
Chapter 14 Do not wait for inspiration
We just have to believe that there are words and music in the air, so to speak, if we tune in our instruments to the right wavelengths.
Negative feelings of fear, anxiety or worry, even anxiety that inspiration will never come or never return — — are antithetical (相反)to this basic attitude of trust.
Chapter 15 Sharpen your Analytical Skills
Are you willing to devote some time and effort to the problems that face you? See them not as problems but opportunities to practise your skills as a thinker.
Chapter 16 Suspend Judgment
It is useful to hear another person’s perspective on the problem. They may have relevant experience or knowledge. They are likely to spot and challenge your unconscious assumptions. They can lead you to question your preconceptions and what you believe are facts.
But you do not need over-critical people.
Chapter 18 Drift, wait and obey
Leonardo da Vinci: ‘To develop a complete mind:
Study the science of art;
Study the art of science.
Learn how to see.
Realize that everything connects to everything else.’
A person is judged not by his or her answers but by the questions they ask.
Chapter 21 Think creatively about your life
Nikolai Berdyaev, ‘Creativeness and a creative attitude to life as a whole is not man’s right, it is his duty.’
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