Improving Creativity: Hegarty on Creativity

Creativity is again and again associated with art, and subsequently seen as something that cannot be defined or measured. And to a certain extent that is sometimes true (i.e. in the eye of the beholder).

But anyone who has read works like James Webb Young’s now 50+ year old book “A Technique for Producing Ideas” knows that we as humans have processes to creativty - whether consciously or not.

And this for me is something I try to seek out; I consciously look for ways to improve creativity, learning from those who seem to be brilliant at it.

Which brings me to one of my all time favourite books: Hegarty on Creativity. It’s described as “a pocket bible of creative thinking, aimed at provoking, challenging, and inspiring greater heights of innovation”.

I highly recommend you grab a copy of this tiny and inexpensive hardback book from Amazon, it’ll take you a mere few hours to read, and the lessons in it are obvious yet insightful. Here’s my favourite few pieces of inspiration from the book, ones that I keep coming back to time and time again.

On Chaos vs Process

“Chaos can be exactly that & result in nothing usable. But equally process can be dangerous because instead of liberating creativity it restricts it.”

On Simple Truths

“The power of reduction, means taking a complex thought & reducing it down to a simple, powerful message.”

“The greatest strategy you can employ is the truth. It is handy, also, because you can always remember what you’ve said.”

On Storytelling

“A story always leaves you feeling something. And despite all our advances, all our supposed sophistication, listening to a great story, told brilliantly, still enthrals us the most.”

On Collaboration

“It’s all very friendly and inclusive but be careful: collaboration can easily turn into consensus.”