Amos Tversky said, "The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours." Here are some tactics for productively wasting hours…

We've all been there: struggling against some challenge, banging our head against the wall. Even Albert Einstein. How he broke through teaches us something fundamental about creativity.

Here’s one of the most popular tools we teach at Stanford. A simple, structured way to “think outside the box” and court the muse when you feel stuck on a problem.

For breakthroughs to happen, we need to make new connections. These connections aren’t just the function of new input, though; we’ve got to create space to realize them, too.

We crave innovation that’s buttoned up nice and neat. But the creative process rarely is. It is “non-linear.” But we often eliminate the variability which drives unexpected outcomes.

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

Bossy Cosmetics Founder and CEO Aishetu Dozie shares an insight with profound implications for finding purpose in work.

When all of our time is spoken for, we short-change the longer-duration gestation required to form insights and think creatively. Bezos’ trick? He schedules unscheduled time.

Our instinct is to retreat inwardly when tasked with the challenge of coming up with ideas. Instead, we should get out. Here’s my favorite way to find ideas.

David Ogilvy said, “The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape the tyranny of reason.” Sound impossible? Here’s how to do it.

Who doesn’t feel a little guilty taking a nap? But they’re a powerful means of tapping into the subconscious! Salvador Dalí’s “Slumber With A Key” relieves guilt, and the fear of wasted time.

When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, it was nothing more than an absent-minded, off-handed comment during an after-hours diversion. Turns out, that’s how many insights are discovered.

Sometimes, the best way forward in solving a problem is to allow yourself to retreat. Operative word here being, “allow.” It is profoundly uncomfortable to choose to work differently, when it doesn’t really look like work.

One of Google’s stratospheric successes might never have reached escape velocity if folks weren’t allowed to indulge pet projects. Here’s the inside scoop.

David Ogilvy attributed many business leaders’ difficulty with original thinking to what he dubbed “the tyranny of reason.” Austrian filmmaker Markus Mooslechner shared a few superrational techniques for escape with me at SXSW.

“Smarter is better.” It’s hard to imagine arguing with this premise. And yet, that’s not what the data suggest, and it’s not what the history of innovation teaches us, either. What we really need is permission to do the dumb stuff geniuses do.

Mind wandering is often a criticism or accusation. That’s a shame, because it’s essential to creativity: it enables the synthesis of unexpected connections, and the formulation of insights and fresh ideas.

One of the greatest challenges on the journey to creative mastery is that the “rules” of creative genius fly in the face of the normal, smart thing to do. Stories from Seinfeld and others encourage me to persist in the wrong direction.

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the most celebrated architects of the twentieth century. You might be surprised to see the two routine habits that produced such breakthrough thinking.

Napping really works as a means to tap into the subconscious. But There’s a great deal of misunderstanding of what it takes to trigger a hypnagogic state. Salvador DalÍ’s “Slumber With A Key” relieves guilt, and the suspicion of wasted time.