Isaac Asimov on Creativity

The Creative Rebellion • Dispatch #014 • 2.5 min. read • 499 words

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Hi Reader,

How do people get new ideas?

This is a question many of us wonder, even as creatives. We don't always understand how we come up with new ideas. But in a world increasingly powered by AI, copy/paste creativity, reboots, and remakes, new ideas (originality) will make your work stand out from the sea of sameness.

So, how do we get new ideas?

Back in 1959, Arthur Obermayer, a scientist at Allied Research Associates in Boston, was part of a team tasked by the government to think "out of the box" to come up with creative approaches for a ballistic missile defense system. He asked his friend, Isaac Asimov, a prolific sci-fi author who wrote and edited over 500 books in his 53-year career, to help.

Although Asimov only attended a few meetings before leaving the project, he did write an essay on creativity that was never published anywhere else. In 2014, it was shared on the MIT Technology Review as: Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?” - A 1959 Essay by Isaac Asimov on Creativity.

A lot of the essay is on how to work creatively as a group, but Asimov had a very important point about how the best creative ideas usually come when an individual is working alone.

Of course, new ideas can seem obvious once someone else has come up with them, but the process of arriving at new ideas involves several crucial factors. Here's the basic formula Asimov gave for creativity:

• Proficiency

• Daring

The requirement to make that connection between item 1 and item 2 is "daring." A creative person who is:

• Isolation

So what's the equation for a creative person who is capable of coming up with new ideas?

Proficiency in their field + ability to make a connection between 2 disparate ideas + a dash of daring + a bit of eccentricity + isolation = original ideas

Simple enough, right?

Do you struggle coming up with original ideas or with executing on your ideas? Reply to this email and let me know!

Until next Saturday...

Stay rebellious,

Travis

P.S. If you found this helpful, please forward it to a friend. (If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe here!)

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Quick Inspiration

• Listen: Lost at Sea - Rob Grant & Lana Del Rey (3:07 min)
• Read: For a More Creative Brain Follow These 5 Steps - James Clear (6 min)
• Watch: Creative thinking - how to get out of the box and generate ideas - Giovanni Corazza at TEDxRoma (13:38 min)

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Deeper Inspiration

​Atomic Habits by James Clear​

Little things done consistently over a long period of time make a big difference. (4.8 stars on Amazon, 4.4 stars on Goodreads)

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