Reviews (5)

Innovate To Win
"The Second Cycle: Winning the War Against Bureaucracy," has a lot of variety and its title containing the term "bureaucracy" may be misleading to some."Innovation" is in the title also, and much more prominent on the cover, and the book.
Fight Tomorrow's Bloat
Many have wondered how once nimble and creative organizations transform themselves into complacent, bloated bureaucracies.
Wars destroy, your goal should be to modify your bureaucratic structure
There is an old saying that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Most of us would amend that to be, death, taxes and bureaucracy. When humans developed agriculture, which led to the growth of cities, there was a need for accurate records. This led to the rise of bureaucracy and for better or worse, humans have been fighting it ever since.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Creative Ability    5. Creative ability in business    6. Industrial Economics (General)    7. Industrial management    8. Industries - General    9. Leadership    10. Leadership In Business    11. Management - General    12. Organizational Behavior    13. Strategic Planning    14. Success in business    15. Business & Economics / Systems & Planning    16. Business & Management   

Reviews (4)

Funny and simple reasons why we sometimes don't create
This is a book of cartoons with captions that are the myriad excuses for why we
What NOT To Do!
As a published writer/poet, I find that sometimes I get bogged down with the mundane: paying bills, worrying about my job, in short: procrastination. When I finally turned on my computer to work on my manuscript, I found my mind wandering in all directions except on my story. So, I turned it off and did something else.
Not what I was looking for
By the title, I was thinking this would be a humorous book about how things happen to interfere with what you want to do most as an artist, or at least how things come up when you are supposed to be working on projects. Instead, I did not find it humorous at all, it has more of a negative/cynical sense of humor. The majority of the cartoons were what excuses you can use to not create art. I'm sure someone who appreciates sarcastic or cynical humor would like it, but it wasn't for me. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Caricatures and cartoons    3. Creation (Literary, artistic,    4. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)    5. Creative Ability    6. Creativity    7. Humor    8. Inspiration & Personal Growth    9. New Age    10. New Age / Body, Mind & Spirit    11. Psychology    12. Self-defeating behavior    13. Spirituality - General    14. Body, Mind & Spirit / Spirituality / General   

Subjects:  1. Cognition    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Creative Ability    4. Creative thinking    5. Creativity    6. Psychology    7. Cognition & cognitive psychology    8. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology   

Subjects:  1. Creative Ability    2. Psychology   

Editorial Review

What makes an Einstein happen? How is it that some kids grow up to be Nobel laureates while others, seemingly their equals, go on to undistinguished careers?Dean Simonton, professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis, has striven to understand this phenomenon for years and has compiled his insights and research in Read more

Reviews (8)

Excellent
One of the best books I've read in years.
Darwin in the mind
Studies abound on the causes of outstanding human accomplishment.A glance at Simonton's bibliography will confirm that observation.His own efforts to define the roots of creativity are of long standing.This work artfully assembles this wealth of information, placing it squarely within a "Darwinian perspective".With a modest disclaimer, Simonton sees this book as "one long argument", the phrase Darwin applied to Origin.He's correct to do so.This book exemplifies how far Darwin's ingenious idea of natural selection can reach.Simonton's well organised and clearly presented survey of the roots of creativity is an noteworthy effort. Great, but ponderous, exposition on Genius and Creativity
I don't know how the author did it, but he produced a great book that was both ponderous and a real page-turner.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1809-1882    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Creative Ability    4. Creativity    5. Darwin, Charles,    6. Genius    7. Intelligence    8. Psychology    9. Darwin, Charles    10. History of ideas, intellectual history    11. Psychology & Psychiatry / Creative Ability    12. Psychology | Cognitive   

Reviews (2)

A Good Read!
Mihaly Csikszentmihaly presents a detailed examination of motivation based on a study of a half-dozen groups of people involved in recreational pursuits: rock climbers, composers, dancers, chess players and basketball players. He chose these groups in an effort to understand more fully what motivates people to engage in activities that are extremely challenging or offer few external rewards. Although some of his conclusions may be of interest to executives and managers seeking ways to motivate employees, most readers will find this academic study too detailed. Some of the interview comments are interesting, but much of the book describes survey results, a discussion that non-statisticians may be hard put to follow. Because of this complexity and because of the book's somewhat dense prose, we [...] recommend this 25-year-old reissued classic primarily to scholars or to those who are intensely curious about the nuts-and-bolts of motivation. But any human resources professional or leadership specialist should have at least a passing familiarity with its concepts and contents.
When good observations meet bad metaphors.
One of the major conceits in the history of psychology is that the act of paying attention can be a portal to amazing or magical things. Pay attention to a swinging watch and you become hypnotized, focus on yourbelly button or a mantra and you enter a blissful meditative state, andconcentrate real hard while tapping your shoes together and you just mayget to Kansas. The latest wonderful mind state that occurs thanks to payingattention is 'flow'. Upon interviewing a few thousand people as they wentabout their ordinary lives, Dr. C. discovered that many of them reported astate of pleasure or even ecstasy when they engaged in demanding tasks thatchallenged them to the limits of their capabilities. The fact that mountainclimbers, artists, doctors, etc. reported some real good feelings whilehaving to rapidly shift their attention to stay on a ledge, keepinspiration, or keep a patient alive seemed to indicate once again thatattention, if focused just right, can be a portal to some mighty goodthings. In this his first book on the topic of flow, Dr. C. waxes poeticabout how flow represents a heightened sense of self, undreamed level ofconsciousness and so on, without grounding any of it to actual neuralprocesses. Dr. C.'s house of metaphorical cards however collapses ifattention was not the antecedent for flow, but the stuff of flow itself.The critical question that Dr. C. studiously avoids is whether attention isin itself a pleasurable or hedonic thing. Modern research inneuropsychology answers the question in the affirmative, as it is wellknown that when attention rapidly shifts between a host of importantprecepts, the neuromodulator dopamine is released that keeps us rooted,alert, promotes efficiency in thinking, and feels good to boot. Dr. C. doesnot concern himself to explore any of these findings, preferring instead toview attention as a portal to all those good metaphysical feelings, and nota source of those good feelings themselves. But again, if Dr. C. actuallywas intent on finding out what flow actually is, instead of reveling in itspoetry, his book would be shorter by two thirds, and lose itsrepresentation as a model for vacuous New Age thinking, which in totorepresents the intellectual con of the 20th century. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Creative Ability    2. Emotions    3. Games    4. General    5. Mental Health    6. Play    7. Pleasure    8. Psychological aspects    9. Psychology    10. Psychology Of Play    11. Work    12. Physiological & neuro-psychology    13. Psychology & Psychiatry / Psychotherapy    14. Sports psychology   

Reviews (3)

Interesting insights about creativity
I found Rothenberg's insights about the characteristics of creativity the most meaningful ideas in the book.He has learned several methods of those who are creative, and these are helpful anyone wanting to be creative or help someone else like a child become creative.
Rothenberg's false prophecy
Rothenberg's 1994 book claims to have supposedly "debunked" the "myth" between creativity and madness based on his "new findings and old stereotypes" that many geniuses such as aristotle have proclaimed a link between the two for thousands of years.He states that previous studies linking bipolar disorder to creativity were biased and a link to schizophrenia is nonexistent.He bases this on sketchy evidence with nobel laureates where there responses to a creativity test called a word association test had a slightly different response style then psychotics.He then comes to the narrow conclusion that creativity is mostly based on juxtaposition and homospatial thinking which he contends is the part of the test that nobel laureates have scored high in and psychotics didn't based on the results of his word association test. A Psychiatrist Looks at Creativity
Rothenberg looks at creativity from the perspective of a scientist.He examines psychological ideas- Freudian, depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia; linguistic trends- use of alliteration, metaphors, rhymes;personality characteristics- motivated, determined, and able to organizeone's ideas; and relates them all to his search for answers to why some cancreate such wonderful works of art.He dispells myths aboutcreativity being some mystical birth-right that only the chosen fewpossess, and implies the conclusion that creativity is more the product ofan aware mind and feeling human being than tormented genius.Good book,quick read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Creative Ability    2. Creativity    3. Psychology    4. Clinical psychology    5. Cognition & cognitive psychology    6. Science / History    7. The self, ego, identity, personality   

Reviews (7)

Excellent- but not light- reading
This book was purchased as a text for school- I don't believe I would be inclined to pick this one off the shelves and purchase it on my own for pleasure after some perusing. Arnheim has revised this text over the years, and this final version (according to him in the preface) is much more comprehensive. I would say that is a classic understatement by him. His style reminds me more of undergraduate psychology texts I had read. Dense, not a lot of pictures, and a lot of philosophical concepts on the nature of art. However, like all things, rewarding in the depth available in the text. Just don't try to digest it all at once, and don't be distracted. If you are, you'll find yourself reading passages over again.

Good theory book for designers and artists
It articulates the way we look at art both obvious and non-obvious. Related to optical illusions and our vision.Good book for both artists and non-artists to analyse why we see things the way we do without going too much into the neurological part of it.
the true gateway to perception
If you want to learn why the things are seen in the way they are seen or want to control the look of your objects to build up as a concrete whole, wheter in a motion picture, a paint, a photograph, architecture, sculpture, a graphical design piece, or more strictly speaking, if you ever asked yourself what is a line, what makes a triangle more interesting than a square, why my piece of design looks unstable, and start to think that you are going mad :) this is the decisive beginning for understanding visual communication... Must be bought together with "The Power of the Center" for a complete look... Basics of geometry, psychology, philosophy and history of art are required... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Creative Ability    4. Psychology    5. Reference    6. Visual perception    7. Art / General    8. Theory of art   

Subjects:  1. Congresses    2. Creative Ability    3. Creative thinking    4. Education    5. General    6. Psychology    7. Child & developmental psychology    8. Education / General   

Subjects:  1. Aesthetics    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Creative Ability    4. Philosophy    5. Philosophy & Social Aspects    6. Psychology    7. Art/General    8. Cognition & cognitive psychology    9. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology    10. Psychology/Creative Ability    11. Science/Essays    12. Science/Philosophy & Social Aspects   

Reviews (1)

Less reveals Moore
This little book contains four lectures Moore gave in Dallas in the early eighties.In it you'll enjoy a refreshing jump into the river of rituals, learn to distinguish myth from mytholoogy (with a little help from Jung), dream of more green in the city, and cultivate some culture with every Medici's favourite philosopher, Ficino (the best of 1462).I'm sure myth lovers and archetypal ponderers will enjoy these little essays full of big ideas as much as I have. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Creative Ability    2. History & Surveys - Modern    3. Philosophy    4. Psychology   

Subjects:  1. Congresses    2. Creative Ability    3. Creative thinking    4. Education    5. General    6. Psychology    7. Child & developmental psychology    8. Education / General   

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. 20th century    3. Art    4. Art & Art Instruction    5. Art, Mexican    6. Criticism    7. History - General    8. Indian influences    9. Indian mythology    10. Subjects & Themes - Religious    11. Psychology & Psychiatry / Creative Ability    12. The Arts   

Reviews (2)

The wrong approach?
The idea of seeking to better understand human creativity through comparing it to certain kinds of computer operation , I must admit, seemed to me , at the outset , less than exciting. This is not to say that the Boden approach of exploring conceptual spaces in the mind, transforming them through computational concepts drawn from artificial intelligence, and through this revealing certain insights into human creativity- is totally barren or meaningless. I myself do not really feel I have the qualification to say, whether some of these insights might be useful or not.
Superb
The nature and origins of creativity is of great interest in the field of human psychology, and research on creativity has occupied the time of many individuals. This book, written by an individual well recognized in the field, gives a fascinating account of her ideas on creativity, and has been a major influence for those attempting to realize creativity in non-human machines. Throughout its pages, the author attempts not only to define creativity, but also to give criteria for distinguishing new ideas that are creative from simply new ideas. The most important goal of the book though is to frame the nature of creativity in a computational paradigm.
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Subjects:  1. Artificial intelligence    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Creative Ability    4. General    5. Philosophy    6. Psychology    7. Cognition & cognitive psychology    8. Philosophy / General    9. Philosophy of mind    10. Theory of art   

Reviews (4)

About the book
Great ideas are not easy to cultivate. They need rich soil, attention, and encouragement to take root and grow. Jim Adam's classic, CONCEPTUAL BLOCKBUSTING, was a handbook to weeding your garden, to clearing your mind of rubbish that stifles creative thought. THE CARE & FEEDING OF IDEAS is its long-awaited sequel, a guide to creating a greenhouse environment in which ideas can thrive.
About the Book--------
Explains the creative process, looking at such areas as brain chemistry, memory, the senses, and personality and shows readers how to create the proper environment to nurture creativity.

Excellent resource!
A great resource for blocked screenwriters!I recommend it to all my seminar students! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Change (Psychology)    2. Creative Ability    3. Creative thinking    4. Creativity    5. Problem solving    6. Psychology   

Subjects:  1. Creative Ability    2. Family / Parenting / Childbirth    3. General    4. Metaphysics    5. Philosophy    6. Spanish: Adult Nonfiction   

Reviews (5)

One of the best on the subject of aging well....
Was perplexed by a negative review of this book, so I wanted to find out, firsthand what the author really said and I am so glad I did. Nowhere does the author chastises older people who try to take care of their health. Just the opposite.
The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life
This "easy-read" book offers both professional and lay people alike a very refreshing and encouraging perspective on maturity.When coupled with a gentle sense of spirituality and wisdom which comes from life experience, it should help the reader to establish and reinforce a sense of purpose and resilience that engenders hope and creativity unimagined by most youth.This book is to become a part of my professional counseling practice for senior patients to read and discuss as they search for a deeper meaning and ultimate purpose in their lives.In a sense, I anticipate it will help to set the stage for welcoming passions of an existential nature, heretofore unknown in many individual's lives.

A gift to midlifers!
If ever there was any question about our ability to make meaningful contributions at midlife, this book will dispell all doubt! I found the continual notes (on the outer edges of the pages) encouraging, as they documented the multiple contributions made by individuals of "advanced" years. This is absolutely exciting, and gives me hope for the future! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aging    2. Creative Ability    3. Creative ability in old age    4. Creativity    5. Gerontology    6. Middle age    7. Psychological aspects    8. Psychology    9. Mind, body, spirit: mysticism & self-awareness   

Reviews (4)

Thought-Provoking, Well-Organized
Creativity is so important, readers are offered a wide range of books on the topic. This one has several advantages that make it worth the investment of your time and money. It was only a mission statement...(thank you Cameron Crowe)
This beautiful book is an experience in what sustains,inspires and invigorates the soul.I believe this book is one of the first of what will eventually be seen as a reconciliation of the masculine and feminine principles in business,and more importantly,in life.Every time I pick this book up I learn something.Within these pages are are an invitation to discover yourself,to enroll and employ yourself as student and teacher in the only school or business that ever mattered,your life.

the abyss looked back
Ms. Meyer has written a book that not only describes her own experiencesembracing Creativity, but also shares a range of observations andsuggestions which WILL have an impact on your life. I always want tocongratulate an artist for having the courage to be honest; for being braveenough to bare their soul; share their thoughts. Pamela deserves thanks fordoing so in this book. Every artist who has ever risked ridicule -- or evenworse, just plain obscurity -- deserves to know when their creation hastouched someone. This book touched me and has made a difference in my life.What more could you want as a reader? Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business/Economics    3. Creative Ability    4. Creative thinking    5. Creativity    6. General    7. Motivational    8. Psychological aspects    9. Psychology    10. Psychology Of Special Subjects    11. Work    12. Business & Economics / Management    13. Cognition & cognitive psychology   

Reviews (2)

Wonderful book!
Very different from other more popular books on creativity, like The Artist Way, for example, wich compared with this is just what it is anyway, an empty pretentious book with a beatiful cover whose only object seems to be to make you feel oh, so special, so arty, so morningpage like (actually not a discovery of the author, it was mentioned half a century before in the wonderful "So you want to write" and in Dorothea Brenda's book about writing. "Higher Creativity" actually teachs you many things. Wonderful and interesting facts. It gives you a completely fresh new look on the world and in yourself.It gives you not only the technics but, more important, the why, the base of the thinking to understand why you are more than what you think you are.
Our biases keep us from reading books like this
I have not finished this book, but I have about 3 hours invested in it.It's message had an impact in my state of mind that gave me a sense of optimism as to what is possible if we can learn to treat our bodies and our mind as a resource we have learned to keep under tight control.The message really gets down to why are we not creative, and if you can learn this, you can understand how the exercises he gives can lead to higher levels of creativity, not just when you want to be more creative, but throughout the day.Read more

Subjects:  1. Creative Ability    2. Insight    3. Psychology    4. Research & Methodology    5. Subconsciousness    6. Mind, body, spirit: mysticism & self-awareness    7. Psychology & Psychiatry / Creative Ability   

Subjects:  1. Creation (Literary, artistic,    2. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)    3. Creative Ability    4. Object relations    5. Object relations (Psychoanalysis)    6. Psychic trauma    7. Psychological aspects    8. Psychology    9. Cognition & cognitive psychology    10. Gender studies    11. Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory    12. Psychology & Psychiatry / General    13. Psychotherapy