A powerful way to unleash your natural creativity | Tim Harford

What can we learn from the world's most enduringly creative people? They "slow-motion multitask," actively juggling multiple projects and moving between topics as the mood strikes — without feeling hurried. Author Tim Harford shares how innovators like Einstein, Darwin, Twyla Tharp and Michael Crichton found their inspiration and productivity through cross-training their minds.

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30 Comments on A powerful way to unleash your natural creativity | Tim Harford

  1. Being creative and innovative is key in building your own brand. Let me know if you are keen to learn!?

  2. i can totally unleash my creativity in school oh wait i forgot i am restricted from even going to the toilet if i dont raise my hands

  3. So the point of the talk is to tell us that creative people are creative. Jumping around topics and inventing new stuff is the very definition of a creative person. None of the things described had anything to do with multitasking.

  4. I am having trouble discerning “slow motion multitasking” from chunking. If you aggregate tasks together and reduce the frequency at which you switch between topics/contexts you’re doing the latter. In his own example, if Einstein worked on theory A to a stopping point and then worked on Theory B until the same, and then revisited Theory A again, he isn’t slow motioning anything, he’s chunking. That run up is a chunk.

    • +Joshua Rust Be aware that you don’t get clean if you don’t focus on the water. The only thing you are allowed to think of in a shower is “shower, shower, shower”.

  5. Powerful concept! And I think I’m currently doing this, having multiple creative endeavours that keep me on the edge and dynamic!

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