Creativity is not a binary, either-you-have-it-or-you-don’t sort of thing. David Kelley once told me, “People fail to realize that the first-order goal is to be getting in practice. The first step is training your mind to think differently.”

David Ogilvy attributed difficulties with original thinking to what he dubbed “the tyranny of reason.” Here are a few superrational escape techniques...

What is your regular creative training regimen? David Kelley once told me, “I think people fail to realize that the first-order goal is to be getting in practice. The first step is training your mind to think differently.”

David Kelley advises his students to make a practice that’s been taught at Stanford for decades. It’s the same thing Seinfeld does, and it’s a simple technique anyone wanting to do some breakthrough thinking can employ.

I once asked David Kelley what he would say to someone who’s intimidated by the volume of material required to get to a good idea. (Depending on one’s field, research suggests anywhere from ~200 on the low end to ~10,000 on the high end)…

One thing I'm always wondering is, "How do leaders create an environment where creativity can thrive?" A few fresh answers have popped on the radar recently, for the benefit of fellow practitioners...

The other day, my friend and mentor David Kelley told me about a famous old assignment legendary Stanford professor Bob McKim used to give his students: he would tell them to keep a bug list. Mind you, this was decades before programming language became common parlance…