Creative Intelligence Harnessing the Power to Create, Connect, and Inspire5stars

 

 

Remembering our Creativity

By Bruce Nussbaum

Harper, $28.99,  368 pages

Bruce Nussbaum’s background as an editor at Business Week and an instructor at Parsons The New School for Design provide him with a unique perspective. Creative Intelligence progresses nicely from descriptions of what creativity is to how it develops and can be reinforced or discouraged. His utilization of stories of people with familiar names or drawn from familiar places eases us into not only his topic but also his point of view on the importance of creativity as well as its prevalence. As he discusses the competencies of creative intelligence, we get glimpses of our own use of each of them; and he encourages that. The wrap up section of the book is about the economic value of creativity and how the current economic theories have left us bereft and diminished our economic return as well as been the base of the recession. Though the topic may lend itself to boredom, Nussbaum keeps the pace lively enough to make the book enjoyable.

 “We need to stop searching for some magical place in the brain where creativity resided. We need to believe in our own abilities to create and to improve upon our creative skills by teaming up with the right people. We need to stop studying creativity just in labs-and recognize that it’s all around us: in the stories of great painters and their rivals, in the meals we cook using a bit of one recipe and a bit of another, in the games we play with our kids.” p. 28

Reviewed by Mary-Lynne Monroe

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