The need to “think outside the box” seems obvious. A few Nobel Prize winners share their thoughts on how to do it. (It’s not nearly as complicated as you might think.)

What do Elon Musk and Albert Einstein have in common? Both of them were willing to examine things that other people dismissed as too trivial to warrant their attention.

The rules for what smart people are supposed to do are often at odds with what those same smart people do to court a breakthrough. What gives?

Richard Feynman advised would-be geniuses, “You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind…” Here’s how breakthroughs get started.

A fascinating psychology study reveals a disturbing truth: the world around is ripe with potential inspiration that is far too often unrealized simply because we aren’t looking.

Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” But to connect, you’ve got to disconnect, too. A growing body of research demonstrates the benefits of literally “looking at nothing.”

Marcus Hollinger is a modern day renaissance man. A steady gig as SVP of Reach Records didn’t keep him from starting coffee company on the side. Far from sapping him of creative energy, the side-hustle fuels fresh thinking.

Linus Pauling succinctly describes the essence of productive creativity: “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” Sounds simple enough. But just how many is “lots”?

We are all busy. The most effective innovators wield their calendar to enhance their practice, rather than be a victim of their schedule. Here’s how to structure your time differently.

“Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind… In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them…” —Steve Jobs

The need to “think outside the box” is a common refrain.

But how does one do it?

It’s not nearly as complicated as you might think.

For all the talk about overcoming creative blocks and getting unstuck, we can neglect an important reality: A block is essential to a breakthrough! We need to learn to cherish them, and seek them, too…

“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.

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.

When you perform a calendar audit, consider the collaboration layer. Ask these three questions to identify gaps in your portfolio of perspectives.

Amidst the frenzied pace of life, it’s tempting to veg out whenever there’s a down moment. “Doomscrolling” is real! Instead of whittling away the hours, creative geniuses make good use of found time.

Why aren’t we more like Einstein? Here’s a powerful daily habit to short-circuit the Einstellung Effect, a cognitive bias that threatens the creativity of both experienced and novice innovators.

It is the things that never occur to us that often cause the biggest problems. There are entire schools of thought dedicated to unearthing assumptions, rooting out bias, etc. Here are two simple bias checks worth regularly revisiting.

What do Elon Musk and Albert Einstein have in common? Both of them were willing to examine things that other people dismissed as too trivial to warrant their attention.

John Steinbeck said, “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.” Reid Hoffman deliberately puts items on the agenda of tonight’s meeting.