#410: The Routine Habits of Breakthrough Thinkers, with Jeremy Utley
You face plenty of problems.
But you have a scarcity of good solutions.
Stanford Professor Jeremy Utley can help.
He says that solving complex problems requires creativity. And creativity comes from deliberate practice.
It’s not an innate talent. It’s a skill. And it’s useful in any occupation, from accounting to zookeeping.
Jeremy speaks and writes on the history of invention, discovery, creativity, and innovation. He also leads Stanford d.school’s work with professionals.
Today he talks to us about how some of the greatest innovators produce new ideas. He tells us about their creative process.
He describes how researchers and authors improve their skills.
And he shares pointers to help you understand how to do the same.
Timing of discussion points as per November 2022:
0:05: How to focus while staying open to creativity
03:20: Definition of creativity
8:10: The Einstein effect
11:05: Different cognitive biases faced
14:45: The idea quota
16:59: Where ideas come from: the Lego analogy
19:37: How Ben Franklin honed his creativity
23:51: Capturing inspiration
29:02: The second half of idea flow: validation and implementation
35:32: Working on questioning ingrained assumptions
39:55: The importance of reviewing the problems in your life
44:16: The roles of creative collaboration and distributed reasoning
48:32: The argument for quantity over quality
50:06: The value of bad ideas
Enjoy!
Resources Mentioned:
- Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters, by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klehban | Book
- Inflation, Explained, with Paula Pant | Podcast episode
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