Summary of The Art of Creative Thinking by John Adair

Creative Thinking is simply the art of coming up with new ideas. Ideas that are innovative and solve problems. The importance of creative thinking cannot be over-emphasized. It makes you stay ahead of others. Entrepreneurs and leaders who think creatively are the ones that lead innovation and creativity in the world. Creative thinking in your personal life leads you into new paths of creative activity.

In this book, the author gave practical steps on how to increase creative thinking and become a more creative thinker.

1. Everything we need to create anything is within the universe. That is, you do not need to form creative ideas from the air. Creative imagination needs something to work on and connect things that seem unrelated to form creative ideas.
2. Use the stepping stones of analogy. Thinking by analogy, or analogizing, plays a key part in creative thinking. Nature contains so many models we could adopt to solve modern problems. We just need to train our creative minds to recognize them and the analogy of how they work. For example, most principles can be found in nature like division of labor showcased by bees.
3. Make the strange familiar and the familiar strange. Thinking about something new or strange by analogizing it with something you are already familiar with helps you draw connections and solve the problem easily. We assimilate the strange or unfamiliar by comparing it consciously or unconsciously to what is familiar to us. Also, making the familiar strange makes us study things we are familiar with as strange things to know more about them and unlock some deep things about them. Setting out some time in the day to reflect or meditate on the object and concentrating on what you do not know about the object unlocks creative thinking.
4. Widen your Span of Relevance. Learn things from other fields that can be applied to solve problems in your field. Creative thinkers have knowledge in more than one field. When you are grappling with a problem remember to widen your span of relevance. Look at the technologies available in fields other than your own, possibly in those that may appear to others to be so far removed as to be irrelevant. They may give you a clue. Travelling also increases creative thinking as you get to see and learn things that can be applied to solve problems in your locality.
5. Practice Serendipity. Serendipity means finding valuable and agreeable ideas or things — or people — when you are not consciously seeking them. This helps the finder to be able to see the creative possibilities of his or her discovery. According to the author being over-organized and planning your life down to the last minute like a control freak, is harmful to creativity. For chaos often breeds ideas. Widening your span of relevance helps you to be more serendipitous.
6. Chance favors only the prepared Mind. Prepared mind in the sense that you purposely focus on seeking a solution to the problem at hand. You have become exceptionally sensitive to any occurrence that might be relevant to that search. You have the experience to recognize and interpret a clue when you see or hear one. Accidents don’t happen in problem-solving. You look out for them by being observant and open-minded.
7. Curiosity. The willingness to know and learn more. This trait is predominant in creative thinkers as they are always seeking knowledge from different sources. One way to develop your curiosity is to begin to ask more questions, both when you are talking with others and when you are talking to yourself.
8. Keep your eyes open to observe things well. Observation is a skill and it means seeing things for what they really are without being objective. About 70 percent of the information we use comes through our eyes. Therefore, we should develop our ability to see things and make detailed observations. For they are the materials for future creative thinking.
9. Listen for ideas. Listening is an important skill and it begins with a childlike curiosity and an open mind, backed up by sharp analytical skills and a sensitive judgment. The priority must always be to achieve a grasp of the nature and significance of what is being said to you. Ask questions to elicit the full meaning and then evaluate if you agree or disagree with the ideas.
10. Reading to generate ideas. Books are not meant only for reading. It is a way to engage your creative imaginations and abilities to imagine and apply the scenes and contexts discussed in the book. Reading prose and poetry increases creative and imaginative thinking. It is also great to choose some parts of the book that you accept and reflect on them to apply those contexts to your life. Reading enhances your creative power and you can get ideas, practices, and technologies from ancient old books that still connect to your present concerns and interests.
11. Keep a notebook. We’re humans and tend to forget things easily. Keeping a notebook where we record things makes what we have written remain forever. A practical step is to buy a notebook and pen, write down anything (ideas, quotes, scene) that occurs to you. One important benefit of writing them down is that you internalize those ideas. Writing them down gives you the avenue to reflect on the words and impress them deeply into your mind. Putting down your notes and ideas as they occur to you with dates and titles and letting your intuitive sense decide which ideas are worth taking note of are important principles that stimulate creative thinking.
12. Test Your Assumption. In testing your assumption, you are deliberately and temporarily making a supposition that something is true. This type of thinking should also be differentiated from unconscious assumptions and preconceptions. Preconceptions are the things you acknowledge before actual knowledge. Taking in different assumptions and preconceptions without checking their authenticity hinders the generation of creative ideas. Making an assumption is more like taking a tentative step. ‘Supposing we did it this way — how would it work?
13. Make better use of the depth mind. Depth Mind has the capability of analyzing, synthesizing, and valuing ideas brought to it by the conscious mind. Depth mind works in the unconscious state and brings us ideas in form of intuition or inklings.
14. Do not wait for inspiration. In creative work, it is unwise to wait for the right mood. Creative thinking, paradoxically, is for 99 hours out of every 100 not very creative. Do not wait for inspiration or you will wait forever.
15. Sharpen your analytical skills. The skill of analyzing involves taking a problem and breaking them into bits in order to detect and understand the underlying principles of the problem. Be willing to devote some time and effort to the problems that face you. See them not as problems but opportunities to practice your skills as a thinker. Also, think generally about the problem without focusing only on an aspect of the problem.
16. Suspend Judgement. Do not be quick to criticize your ideas. Apply the ideas first before subjecting them to any criticism. Even though constructive criticism is important for growth and improvement, it should not be when you are exploring and experimenting with new ideas. Stay away from critics who subject your ideas to premature criticism.
17. Learn to tolerate ambiguity. Ambiguity which means a state of being vague and unclear about something suggests that as creative thinkers, we should be willing to be unclear and persist on a problem till we solve them as secrets and ideas are not yielded easily. Creative thinking requires untiring patience.
18. Drift, wait, and obey. Knowing when to turn away from a problem and leave it for a while is an essential skill in the art of creative thinking. If a problem seems too tough leave it and think about it when doing something else. The unconscious mind indirectly brings up ideas to solve the problem. All creative thinking stems from seeing or making connections.
19. Sleep on the problem. Thinking about a problem before going to sleep helps the depth mind analyze, synthesize and help us solve the problem. It is also important to always keep a book to jot down the ideas as they occur to us. You could also dream of a solution as dreams are extraordinary creations of our imagination faculty in the inner brain. When you dream of a solution, jotting down fragments of the dream immediately as you recall them, and trying to make connections on how it could solve the problem improves the process of thinking. Also, Follow up with your ideas.
20. Working it out. Creativity and creative thinking are a bit different in the sense that creative thinking involves thinking up an idea while creativity means bringing the idea to life. Creative thinking cannot be divorced from the process of working it out. Know when to stop thinking and start working on the idea. Working it out is a way of continuing the process of creative thinking. This is why it is not necessary to have a fully formed picture or crystal clear idea of where you are going before you start work.
21. Think creatively about your life. Though creative thinking helps us generate ideas and solve problems, we should constantly seek to think and plan our lives creatively. Always see life as a beginning. To think creatively about your life begins with seeking to know yourself more and to build on your strength. Growth is constant and we should always seek to know more to be more creative.

I have always been curious about how people come up with great and innovative ideas and my major takeaway from this book is that everyone can actually generate creative ideas by following the practical steps mentioned in this great book. Taking each step and applying them to your life will help you build and increase your creative thinking and imaginations to come up with ideas and innovations that solve problems in society.

Feel free to add your own suggestions on how creative thinking can be improved and clap to help me know this summary was helpful. Thanks for reading.