last highlighted date: 2024-10-29
Highlights
- you can be nonconformist and original without getting shunned, as well as some of the originals who have challenged the status quo and pushed innovation throughout history.
- In today’s context, originals are people who not only dream up novel ideas and shake up the status quo, but who also take the initiative to make their unique vision a reality.
- , the tendency to install Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox was tied to problem-solving abilities that, in turn, allow these employees to stay in their jobs an average of 15% longer.
- Quantity leads to quality when it comes to generating great ideas.
- Psychologist Dean Simonton, renowned for his study of creative productivity, demonstrated in his research that highly creative individuals don’t necessarily produce better ideas, rather they just make more of them. By creating a larger volume of work, they had a higher probability of developing a small handful of brilliant ideas.
- For instance, Picasso’s entire body of work includes countless rugs and prints, 2,800 ceramics, 1,800 paintings, 1,200 sculptures, and more than 12,000 drawings. And yet, only a small number of these pieces gave Picasso his success and status as international art icon. In other words, when it comes to quantity and quality, you can’t have one without the other.
- Simonton found that Beethoven judged his work quite differently than later experts did.
- To create great ideas, we need to take it slow. That could mean taking a detour and procrastinating, or just making the time here and there to relax under a tree.
- Would you have guessed that Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous line was the result of procrastination? King was set to give a speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but didn’t even start writing the speech until the night before. King’s iconic, I Have a Dream line was partially improvised. Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson cried out during King’s speech, imploring him, Tell them about the dream, Martin. Tell them about the dream. King abandoned his script and began to speak freely about his inspiring vision of the American future.
- Zygarnik effect. The phenomenon, named after Russian psychologist Bluma Zygarnik, describes the way that our mind stays open to new ideas and insights, even after we attempt to finish a task and give up. Essentially, King’s unfinished speech left room for his brain to come up with brilliant lines. For great originals, procrastination is a key strategy. It allows them to make gradual progress while remaining open to a range of possibilities.
- Leonardo da Vinci is another example of history’s prolific procrastinators. He began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503, then abandoned the project before returning to the painting some years later. The Mona Lisa was finally completed in 1519, 16 years later.
- A massive study conducted across non-profit, service, retail and manufacturing companies revealed that the more frequently employees voiced their ideas and concerns to their superiors, the less likely they were to receive raises and promotions over a two-year period.
- what can you do to get people on board? Strangely enough, your best option is to tell people why they should not accept your proposals.
- Photos of ourselves can be cringeworthy and off-putting. Why is this? Well, because we’re seeing ourselves from an unfamiliar angle. It’s a classic human tendency to reject things that aren’t familiar to us, even our own images.
- Research shows that exposing people to new ideas more often will make them more receptive over time. So, speak up and repeat yourself. To make this easier, keep your ideas short and snappy.
- The best collaborators are the ones that love to prove you wrong. Regardless of what you’re pursuing, if you only listen to people who praise you, you probably won’t get very far.
- Instead, read about some of the toughest problems facing your workplace or community today. By generating ideas that respond to unsolved issues, you can be sure that you’re coming up with solutions that are original and worthwhile.