it took me several readings (and lots of highlighting) of this book to finally understand what the author is trying to say. i saw some glimmers of meaning initially which kept this on my bookshelf, and then finally, it flashed on me in my third of fourth reading over a decade. here is a jist of my understanding which i hope helps someone.
we are caught up in mechanical thought patterns most of the time. even when we are solving problems, we utilize canned procedures that we have imbibed. our perception carves out the world into fixed categories or ideas and we perceive via canned/habitual thought movements (beliefs) - which leads to mechanical reactions and responses. and most of us are not even aware of this and think this is the reality of what there is. so the first step would be to develop some awareness of the thought movements which arguably is a form of mindful awareness.
the author suggests a way of perceiving - call it mindful attention or whatever, which is able to see a unity without seeing from a lens of carved out concepts in its field of perception - and then is able to grasp possibly new similarities and differences and proportions amongst existing ideas which could lead to the formation of new concepts - since a concept/idea could be identified/defined by its perceived measurable properties. so, this sort of perception ties into new concept/property formation which is creativity.
call it unbiased listening which is able to both see a unity but at the same time is able to contrast that unity against the belief-biased glasses that we are prone to seeing the world with - so we are able to learn and update the concept structure. like how a baby learns by interacting with the world.
but the habitual movements of perception are so strongly ingrained in us (eg riding a bicycle) that i assume it is very difficult to develop the form of perception that the author is advocating - not to mention, that our normal way of belief-based-perception works reasonably well for most of us most of the time. which is why creativity only happens in brief flashes for most of us and the rest of the time is spent in the routine whirring of the thought machinery
crudely the creativity procedure would be:
1) get into a mode of unbiased mindful awareness/perception
2) perceive similarities/differences/proportions against exiting concepts
3) this may result in perception of new concepts or updation existing concepts
the reader needs to be patient with this book - and the author could have made it easier to grasp, but i suspect the nature of creativity is such that it rejects any canned definitions making it harder to describe.
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So you think you're creative?
Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2018
