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<p>Introduction: Choosing Creativity 1</p> <p><b>Step One ASK: How the Right Questions Lead to the Most Novel Answers 19</b></p> <p>Find the Question</p> <p>Search the Space</p> <p>Transform the Problem</p> <p><b>Step Two LEARN: How to Prepare Your Mind for Constant Creativity 49</b></p> <p>Practice Deliberately</p> <p>Master Your Domain</p> <p>Learn Forever</p> <p>Balance Specialty with Generality</p> <p><b>Step Three LOOK: How to Be Aware of the Answers All Around You 73</b></p> <p>Use Fresh Eyes</p> <p>Grab New Sights and Cool Sounds</p> <p>Render It Visible</p> <p><b>Step Four PLAY: How to Free Your Mind to Imagine Possible Worlds 101</b></p> <p>Visualize</p> <p>Relax</p> <p>Find the Right Box</p> <p>Be a Beginner</p> <p><b>Step Five THINK: How to Have Way More Ideas Than You’ll Ever Need 129</b></p> <p>Ideate</p> <p>Transform</p> <p>Schedule</p> <p><b>Step Six FUSE: How to Combine Ideas in Surprising New Ways 153</b></p> <p>Force-Fuse</p> <p>Make Analogies</p> <p>Do a People Mash-Up</p> <p><b>Step Seven CHOOSE: How to Pick the Best Ideas and Then Make Them Even Better 173</b></p> <p>Know What You’re Looking For</p> <p>Host an Idea Competition</p> <p>Look Past the Good</p> <p>Edit, Revise, Improve</p> <p><b>Step Eight MAKE: How Getting Your Ideas Out into the World Drives Creativity Forward 195</b></p> <p>Draw It</p> <p>See It</p> <p>Build It</p> <p>Make It Concrete</p> <p>Reflect on It</p> <p>Conclusion 215</p> <p>Appendix A: Outline of All of the Steps, Practices, and Techniques 229</p> <p>Appendix B: The Research Behind the Eight Steps 237</p> <p>References 243</p> <p>Acknowledgments 261</p> <p>About the Author 263</p> <p>Index 265</p>

<p><b>Keith Sawyer, PhD,</b> is associate professor of psychology, education, and business at Washington University in St. Louis. An accomplished jazz pianist and former video game designer for Atari, he has published widely on the topics of collaboration and creativity. His book <i>Group Genius</i> won awards from <i>Library Journal</i> and (800) CEO-READ and has been translated into many languages. He is the proud owner of a collection of vintage Grateful Dead bootleg tapes, his childhood piano teacher’s old (but working) accordion, and a 1982 BMW motorcycle (also working). To learn more, visit <b>keithsawyer.com</b>.</p> <p><i>The cover shows a surprising solution to a classic creativity challenge. See <b>page 123</b> to learn more.</i>

<p>Can you be more creative? Absolutely, and <i>Zig Zag</i> shows you how. Dr. Keith Sawyer, a psychologist, professor, jazz pianist, and former video game designer, is one of the world’s leading experts on creativity. To develop his accessible eight-step creativity program, Sawyer explored the lives of exceptional creators, tapped into the back stories of world-changing innovations, and analyzed laboratory experiments that delved deeply into the everyday creativity that all of us share. He discovered many surprising secrets of highly creative people—how they question assumptions when presented with new problems, how they get beyond creative blocks, and above all, how they negotiate the many twists and turns along the way. </p> <p><i>Zig Zag</i> draws on these secrets to provide an eight-step program that will help you achieve greater creativity—whether you’re looking for new ways to excel at your job, build a fulfilling career, develop a more deeply satisfying personal life, find fresh, clever, permanent solutions to nagging problems, make better decisions, bring about change in your community, and more. <p><i>Zig Zag</i> provides an unprecedented collection of more than one hundred practical, hands-on activities that will keep you moving down the creative path. These research-based techniques help you ask deeper questions, see the world in new ways, and develop novel ideas. <i>Zig Zag</i> is your guidebook to the surprising, unpredictable, and fascinating journey that leads to greater creativity.

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