Originals (book)

🔗Connect

🔼Topic:: Creativity (MOC)

✒️ Note-Making

💡Clarify

🔈 Summary of main ideas

1. Creativity is creative destruction - a truly creative idea is not a marginal improvement of the existing. It is the courage to detach yourself from the defaults of the world, and ways of thinking, to come up with something new.
2. Create many, then filter - instead of going after the "one perfect creation", create many attempts simultaneously. Experiment and learn from your mistakes. After you have many available options, narrow it down with the help of fellow creators to get good feedback and external perspective to avoid false positives or false negatives. Seek specifically the feedback of those who reject your ideas, or create "devil's advocates" if necessary. The more diverse opinions that provides feedback, the better your way to validate the truthiness of your idea.
3. Be patient - There is an advantage in patience, in moving slowly. You could watch others' mistakes and learn from them, you can wait for the right opportunity, and testing new ideas along the way rather than committing too early.
4. Every idea needs supporters - without a coalition, even a good idea will die. Be honest about the disadvantages of your idea, stay close to your opposers because their opinion is key for improvement. Focus on transparency and constructive feedback, avoid attaching the idea's value to the person, and remember that it takes time to persuade others, and that your perspective doesn't magically generated within others' minds.
5. Trigger your "go" system - Use your negative emotions such as anger, stress and fear as fuel for action. Use the people around you to gain the confidence you need to keep on going, and be fueled by both the progress you've already made, and the long road ahead to continue on.

🗒️Relate

⛓ by following this method, what will happen? What is the goal of this book?

🔍Critique

✅ relevant research, metaphors or examples that helps to convey the argument

❌ the logical jumps, holes or simply cases where it is wrong... i find some of the points confusing, not necessarily contradicting, but confusing, for example:

1. he says that the problem is filtering, not generating - but the solution is to generate a lot
2. he says that feedback is a good solution, but then talks about how it can go wrong in many many ways
3. he says that experts might get entrenched by their way of doing things, but then supports the intuition of expert creators from the same field. and then at the end he discourages the intuition of experts for a more scientific approach. in the end, the book is divided into sections that are loosely connected, and sometimes the connection to the main theme (originality) is... weak.

🧱 Implementations and limitations of it are... in the end it seems that the process of being original is still as elusive as before i started reading the book. the best thing that i can do is to implement habits that will likely increase my chances of improving my authenticity and creative thinking, but not even sure by how much, or how to implement them.

🗨️Review

💭 my opinions on the book, the writers style...

🖼️Outline

📒 Notes

Intro

originality isn't originality in the sense of a new thought, but rather a mix of existing thoughts in a new Context.

How to Be Original

1. be curious - look at the Defaults of each field and question them, understand why they exist and what is their logic/tendencies. Critical Thinking Curiosity
2. be courageous - some of the defaults are probably arbitrary, lack logic, or wasteful. have the courage to go against the default. courage
3. don't be afraid of failures - if you try to avoid Failure, you will stick to the "tried and true" and wont take the risk of trying something new that might be revolutionary winner or loser game

therefore, originality is an act of Creative Destruction This is especially true at work, since it requires Psychological safety

We tend to think that originals and entrepreneurs are risk takers, but they are actually risk mitigators. For example most of them kept their day job while starting the business. Pivot. Advantages: 4. Fallback option - When you have a "fallback" option, you are more inclined to see the errors and failures you make, and adjust accordingly so you can build the business to last instead of "this has to succeed" 5. Flexibility - you have greater flexibility with trail and error and trying new original ideas since failure is less painful. Experimentation

Part 1 - risk Management for Originals

Chapter 1 - Creative Destruction

Our main problem is not to generate original ideas, but rather selecting/filtering the good from the bad.

We are bad at evaluating our own ideas, usually due to Conformation Bias. Either we get false positives (thinking a bad idea is good) or false negatives (thinking a good idea is bad).

The solution usually is to generate a lot of ideas instead of focusing on just one. Multitrack It takes time to create an original idea, especially since the first ones are usually more conformist than the rest First Batch Trash, so you have to make a lot of misses\failures until you strike gold. practice beats perfection

Creative Destruction The Risky Business of Going Against the Grain

• nothing is completely original, in the sense that all of our ideas are influenced by what we learn from the world around us. We are constantly borrowing thoughts,
• originality involves introducing and advancing an idea that’s relatively unusual within a particular domain, and that has the potential to improve it.
• Instead of accepting the default, you take a bit of initiative to seek out an option that might be better. And that act of initiative, however tiny, is a window into what you do at work.
• “People who suffer the most from a given state of affairs are paradoxically the least likely to question, challenge, reject, or change it.”
• The starting point is curiosity: pondering why the default exists in the first place.
• When achievement motivation goes sky-high, it can crowd out originality: The more you value achievement, the more you come to dread failure. Instead of aiming for unique accomplishments, the intense desire to succeed leads us to strive for guaranteed success.
• originality is an act of creative destruction.
• the people who move the world forward with original ideas are rarely paragons of conviction and commitment.
• If you’re risk averse and have some doubts about the feasibility of your ideas, it’s likely that your business will be built to last.
• Having a sense of security in one realm gives us the freedom to be original in another.

Chapter 2 - Blind Investors and One-eyed Investors

The best way to filter is to get Feedback, but from who? Novices might make false negatives due to Conformism, and experts might be too entrenched Attachment and rigid in their way of thinking. So who? The answer is other creators, or people inclined to be in creative mode, to consider new out of the box ideas without being too involved in the subject peer support

how to encourage creative mode? practice arts

how to discourage creative mode? trust your intuition in a field you don't have expertise in, this will create false positives.

Blind Inventors and One-Eyed Investors The Art and Science of Recognizing Original Ideas

• the biggest barrier to originality is not idea generation—it’s idea selection.
• we tend to be overconfident when we evaluate ourselves.
• most prolific people not only have the highest originality; they also generate their most original output during the periods in which they produce the largest volume.
• Many people fail to achieve originality because they generate a few ideas and then obsess about refining them to perfection.
• our first ideas are often the most conventional—the closest to the default that already exists. It’s only after we’ve ruled out the obvious that we have the greatest freedom to consider the more remote possibilities.
• The best way to get better at judging our ideas is to gather feedback.
• Conviction in our ideas is dangerous not only because it leaves us vulnerable to false positives, but also because it stops us from generating the requisite variety to reach our creative potential.
• In the face of uncertainty, our first instinct is often to reject novelty, looking for reasons why unfamiliar concepts might fail.
• the more expertise and experience people gain, the more entrenched they become in a particular way of viewing the world.
• Just spending six minutes developing original ideas made them more open to novelty, improving their ability to see the potential in something unusual.
• Once you take on a managerial role, it’s hard to avoid letting an evaluative mindset creep in to cause false negatives.
• it’s not just that a certain kind of original person seeks out exposure to the arts. The arts also serve in turn as a powerful source of creative insight.
• being a creator in one particular area doesn’t make you a great forecaster in others.
• intuitions are only trustworthy when people build up experience making judgments in a predictable environment.
• we want to forecast whether the originators of a novel idea will make it successful, we need to look beyond the enthusiasm they express about their ideas and focus on the enthusiasm for execution that they reveal through their actions.

Chapter 3 Speaking Truth

how to convince others (especially when encountering resistance) do an Accusation audit, be open, clear and direct about your opinion's weaknesses, drawbacks and doubts. (Related:: Vulnerability ). it helps you by:

1. building trust - when people hear only the positive, they are skeptical and defensive. This audit lowers their guards and enables Trust
2. making it harder to think about other weaknesses - by listing your weaknesses, it focuses the audience on those things and makes it harder for them to think about new ones Framing
3. you are perceived as smarter. - A person who has self awareness and is transparent about it seems as a more intelligent and insightful person.

also, while the idea is familiar to you, it is foreign to others, so in order for it to sink in, it has to be repeated, and have patience. spaced repetition When you speak up, remember that in order to be heard, or to exercise power, you have to have the reputation, or the credit to do so before. Be someone who delivers, who get things done, prove your worth, then they will listen to you.

To change a situation, we can either speak up, or leave Organizational Conflict, persisting or neglecting only maintains the status quo and leads to worse outcomes in the long run.

Out on a Limb Speaking Truth to Power

• it’s actually more effective to adopt Griscom’s form of powerless communication by accentuating the flaws in your idea.
• Just as presenting negatives can ironically make it more difficult for audiences to think of them, speaking up effectively depends on making the positive features easier to process.
• This explains why we often undercommunicate our ideas. They’re already so familiar to us that we underestimate how much exposure an audience needs to comprehend and buy into them.
• If we want people to accept our original ideas, we need to speak up about them, then rinse and repeat.
• An unfamiliar idea requires more effort to understand. The more we see, hear, and touch it, the more comfortable we become with it, and the less threatening it is.
• Only when you believe your actions matter and care deeply will you consider speaking up.
• In the quest for originality, neglect isn’t an option. Persistence is a temporary route to earning the right to speak up. But in the long run, like neglect, persistence maintains the status quo and falls short of resolving your dissatisfaction. To change the situation, exit and voice are the only viable alternatives.

Part 2 - Originality Scaling (timing + coalition)

Chapter 4 Timing

Procrastination can be harmful to productivity but useful for creativity. when we procrastinate, the task lives on in our mind, in the back-burner, which allows us to consider new approaches instead of the default one Attention Residue.

Also, it helps us avoid Path Dependence by not being limited to our initial plan, but rather keep on experimenting and combining new ideas in a fluid way.

in summary, its not always helpful to be first, or to rush into a project. its best to wait for it, because:

1. if you don't rush in, you can learn from the mistakes of others
2. you don't have to commit to a specific idea, rather keep on generating new ones and test their value
3. you can wait for a good opportunity to present your idea, when the "world" is ready for it

Fools Rush In Timing, Strategic Procrastination, and the First-Mover Disadvantage

• when you put off a task, you buy yourself time to engage in divergent thinking rather than foreclosing on one particular idea. As a result, you consider a wider range of original concepts and ultimately choose a more novel direction.
• Procrastination may be the enemy of productivity, but it can be a resource for creativity.
• people have a better memory for incomplete than complete tasks. Once a task is finished, we stop thinking about it. But when it is interrupted and left undone, it stays active in our minds.
• procrastination has another benefit: it keeps us open to improvisation. When we plan well in advance, we often stick to the structure we’ve created, closing the door to creative possibilities that might spring into our fields of vision.
• Great originals are great procrastinators, but they don’t skip planning altogether. They procrastinate strategically, making gradual progress by testing and refining different possibilities.
• To sustain our originality as we age and accumulate expertise, our best bet is to adopt an experimental approach.

Chapter 5 - Coalition

Shared values are often a separating factor instead of unifying. The more you cling to your beliefs, the harder it is for you to accept other moderate views. The key is sharing a tactic, like when everybody sings the anthem together, the how unifies us more than the why Try to turn your enemies into your allies, if you will succeed they will be your strongest supporters.

Goldilocks and the Trojan Horse Creating and Maintaining Coalitions

• building effective coalitions involves striking a delicate balance between venerable virtues and pragmatic policies.
• The more strongly you identify with an extreme group, the harder you seek to differentiate yourself from more moderate groups that threaten your values.
• In seeking alliances with groups that share our values, we overlook the importance of sharing our strategic tactics.
• “It takes more emotional energy and coping resources to deal with individuals who are inconsistent.”
• our best allies aren’t the people who have supported us all along. They’re the ones who started out against us and then came around to our side.

Part 3 - Sustaining Originality

Chapter 6 Nurture Originality

Laterborns are more likely to be original than firstborns, because they cannot compete with them in terms of education or achievements, since they have a head start, so they take more risks as their strategy. Firstborns are more responsible and rule-abiding, which makes their younger siblings more rebellious.

how to make sure they rebel in the right way?

1. instead of hard rules, use reasoning, treat them as adults and try to explain the logic behind your expectations and the consequences of their actions. developing capabilities. give them freedom and autonomy.
2. praise the virtue, not the action. say "you are kind", instead of "it is kind to give to others". when you praise the virtue, it connects between the action and your identity What we do is not who we are. * however i remember that in order to create a Growth Mindset you need to praise the action, not the person, so that he will understand that he has room to grow, and keep on improving. also, if praising the person is good since it is attached to the identity, then when criticizing you have to condemn the action, not the person, so that he will not think of himself as a bad person who is unable to change. how to give praises
3. provide them with Role Models

Rebel with a Cause How Siblings, Parents, and Mentors Nurture Originality

• although firstborns tend to be more dominant, conscientious, and ambitious, laterborns are more open to taking risks and embracing original ideas. Firstborns tend to defend the status quo; laterborns are inclined to challenge it.*
• Parents of highly creative children had an average of less than one rule and tended to “place emphasis on moral values, rather than on specific rules,”
• The dual moral emotions of empathy and guilt activate the desire to right wrongs of the past and behave better in the future.
• When our character is praised, we internalize it as part of our identities. Instead of seeing ourselves as engaging in isolated moral acts, we start to develop a more unified self-concept as a moral person.
• We can afford to give children a great deal of freedom if we explain the consequences of their actions on others and emphasize how the right moral choices demonstrate good character.
• If we want to encourage originality, the best step we can take is to raise our children’s aspirations by introducing them to different kinds of role models.

Part 4 - Barriers for Originality

Chapter 7 - Rethinking Group Thinking

the enemy of originality is group thinking. when people conform to norm and power instead of thinking and criticizing for themselves. but group thinking is not necessarily link to a cohesion of a group. on the contrary, groups with a strong culture and motivation for the success of the group tend to be more original.

it is important to provide a place for minority opinions Diversity, these help not because they are right, but rather because they create a culture of self verification and thinking in new ways. John Stuart Mill (philosopher) which said the same thing about pluralism of opinions/truths.

such option is to create a "devil's advocate" or more realistically, a group of diverse people which will operate as the canary in the mines, warning from negative consequences and advising against popular opinion. as part of that, it is important to encourage people to speak up and voice concerns, not only solutions.

the main example throughout this chapter is Bridgewater. a company that has about 200 principles of ethics and takes great care about building a good motivated culture of diverse people and opinions. if there is an example of idea meritocracy or radical Transparency its this, since disagreements are solved openly and by people who are ranked by their believability on several metrics, similar to the statistics of baseball players. also there is a strong culture of speak up even when its up the chain, everyone can criticize the CEO, its not only accepted but appreciated.

Rethinking Groupthink The Myths of Strong Cultures, Cults, and Devil’s Advocates

• Groupthink is the enemy of originality; people feel pressured to conform to the dominant, default views instead of championing diversity of thought.
• cohesive groups weren’t more likely to seek agreement and dismiss divergent opinions. In fact, in many cases, cohesive groups tended to make better business decisions.
• “Minority viewpoints are important, not because they tend to prevail but because they stimulate divergent attention and thought,”
• evidence suggests that social bonds don’t drive groupthink; the culprits are overconfidence and reputational concerns.
• If you’re going to build a strong culture, it’s paramount to make diversity one of your core values.

Chapter 8 - when to Rock the Boat and when to Let it Slide

how to spark action and motivation in an effective way.

First is the way we perceive (and utilize) fear and positive emotions Thinking positively when we're getting ready or debating over an action can be harmful, it can make us complacent and delusional. it is best to be pessimic, if you do it right. done correctly, you can harness Stress and Fear into action and motivation Emotional Aikido, otherwise you will fall for depression and inaction.

Fear can allow us to understand the weaknesses of ourselves/our actions and prepare accordingly. in each of us there is a "go" system and a "stop" system, the fear fuels us for action, the second clears it and presses on the breaks. fear, since it is a strong emotion can be a fueling force for our "go" system, so we should treat it as that, and not try to suppress it and "calm down".

A second aspect of triggering our go system is our viewpoint. if doing the action is not risky, we should focus on the benefits from preforming the action. if it is risky, we should focus on the harms we have now, and what we will (continue to) lose if you don't preform the action. it is because we as humans are loss aversion, so only when the loss seems certain we will be forced to do an action. similarly, when we are starting to lose our commitment, we should focus on the progress we already made, see how far we've come, be proud of ourselves. but when we have renewed our commitment, we should focus on the way we still have to go, let the distance fuel our purpose and drive to move ahead as far as possible.

A third aspect is the society around us. is it hard to trigger the go system when we are all alone, when it seems that we have no other supporters. that's why we need to make it as easy as possible for others to speak up and show that we are not alone. small actions, and even just one person can reduce Friction and enable us to trigger the go system.

A forth aspect is anger. same as fear, we can either be destroyed by it, or fueled by it. we think that venting will allow us to calm down and focus, but venting only focuses us on the wrong things. it is focusing us on the harm done and on the one who caused it, instead of those who were hurt. replacing venting with justice, compassion and mercy is the right way to turn anger into a fuel for the go system.

Rocking the Boat and Keeping It Steady Managing Anxiety, Apathy, Ambivalence, and Anger

• Their confidence springs not from ignorance or delusions about the difficulties ahead, but from a realistic appraisal and an exhaustive plan.
• “The trick is to make fear your friend,” he notes. “Fear forces you to prepare more rigorously and see potential problems more quickly.”
• once we’ve settled on a course of action, when anxieties creep in, it’s better to think like a defensive pessimist and confront them directly.
• Merely knowing that you’re not the only resister makes it substantially easier to reject the crowd. Emotional strength can be found even in small numbers.
• Taking a risk is more appealing when they’re faced with a guaranteed loss if they don’t. The prospect of a certain loss brings the go system online.
• When our commitment is wavering, the best way to stay on track is to consider the progress we’ve already made.
• Once commitment is fortified, instead of glancing in the rearview mirror, it’s better to look forward by highlighting the work left to be done.
• Venting doesn’t extinguish the flame of anger; it feeds it.
• To channel anger productively, instead of venting about the harm that a perpetrator has done, we need to reflect on the victims who have suffered from it.