Do you suffer from sadness, gloom, and frequent “blues”?  Those of us in this boat may be gifted with traits that improve creativity and result in successful art and innovation. I have worked with depression through my childhood and most of my adult life. In my later years, it eased up. I work with a

So now let’s tackle the idea that we are getting “new” ideas. New to us, maybe, but there are no new or original new ideas in truth. What our brains do is connect ideas that have already floated about in the universe for time eternal to give you a new “idea” or approach or a

After the seedbop, it’s about the slog to the finish line – the cutting-edge artwork, the ground-breaking solution to a complex and thorny problem, the innovation that sets you ahead of your competitors. Even those of us who aren’t going to become MacArthur geniuses or viral Ted Talk speakers need the grit to fulfill our

But it isn’t all about letting go, having that insightful seed bop you on the side of the head, and then skipping happily down the yellow brick road toward the promised land. Once that insight comes, the real work begins. Even though 3M has incorporated play and napping into their corporate culture, they don’t rely

In second grade, I was selected for a research project at Long Beach State. Twice a week, a bus would pick up Howard Dyke and me from David Burcham Elementary School and take us to campus. There was a math room and an art room, and we’d go back and forth between the rooms completing

There is a famous story about the invention of the Swiffer, which came about not through careful research but from a serendipitous moment of realization. Says inventor Harry West “ I can’t begin to explain why the idea arrived then; I was too grateful to ask too many questions.” “The sheer secrecy of creativity –