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Category: Creative Thinking

How Creative Friction Can Help Your Team

Posted on May 8, 2018May 9, 2018 in Creative Thinkingby Scott Berkun

Creative abrasion is Jerry Hirshberg’s term for the kinds of friction that helps develop better ideas. Hirshberg, a former design…

The Three Gaps of Creativity: Effort, Skill and Quality

Posted on March 29, 2018May 1, 2025 in Creative Thinking, Dance of the Possibleby Scott Berkun

[This is an excerpt from the book The Dance of The Possible.] The great surprise for people with good…

The proof that we’re all creative: losing your keys

Posted on March 6, 2018March 6, 2018 in Creative Thinking, Culture, Dance of the Possibleby Scott Berkun

On Tuesdays I write about the top voted question on Ask Berkun (see the lovely archive). This week’s question is from Crysel…

Does “think outside the box” help? Popular creativity cliches explained

Posted on April 11, 2017January 15, 2020 in Creative Thinkingby Scott Berkun

While researching The Dance of the Possible: the mostly honest, completely irreverent, guide to creativity, I studied the history of…

What We Can Learn From The Eiffel Tower

Posted on March 31, 2017March 3, 2021 in architecture (real), Creative Thinking, Dance of the Possible, design, historyby Scott Berkun

We take great works for granted. We forget, but the fate of even our most famous ideas and creations…

How Ignorance Drives Creativity

Posted on February 21, 2017March 3, 2021 in Book reviews, Creative Thinking, Dance of the Possibleby Scott Berkun

[In the countdown to the release of The Dance of the Possible: the mostly honest completely irreverent guide to…

Inside the messy invention of the microwave oven

Posted on February 20, 2017February 20, 2017 in Creative Thinking, Dance of the Possible, history, Myths of Innovationby Scott Berkun

[In 23 days my latest book, The Dance of the Possible: the mostly honest completely irreverent guide to creativity,…

How the Post-it Note Was Invented

Posted on February 16, 2017February 25, 2017 in Creative Thinking, Dance of the Possible, historyby Scott Berkun

[In 27 days my latest book, The Dance of the Possible: the mostly honest completely irreverent guide to creativity,…

Why no one cared about the Wright brothers airplane

Posted on February 15, 2017December 18, 2019 in Creative Thinking, Dance of the Possible, historyby Scott Berkun

[In 28 days my latest book, The Dance of the Possible: the mostly honest completely irreverent guide to creativity,…

The Dance of the Possible

Posted on February 14, 2017November 30, 2020 in Creative Thinking, Dance of the Possibleby Scott Berkun

The Dance of the Possible is a short book that captures my best advice from years of work as a…

Hidden Insight and The Third Donkey

Posted on January 10, 2017January 12, 2017 in Creative Thinkingby Scott Berkun

There is a viral video making the rounds of several donkeys at an animal sanctuary trying to work their…

Creativity Is Not An Accident

Posted on January 5, 2016April 16, 2021 in Creative Thinkingby Scott Berkun

[This is an excerpt from The Dance of the Possible: the mostly honest completely irreverent guide to creativity] Many…

The Many Mothers of Invention

Posted on July 8, 2015January 21, 2021 in Creative Thinking, Culture, Innovation, Myths of Innovationby Scott Berkun

[This is an excerpt from chapter 3 of the bestseller, The Myths of Innovation] All the clichés about beginnings…

My Creative Burnout

Posted on April 14, 2015May 6, 2015 in Creative Thinking, personalby Scott Berkun

I’m ten days into the worst burnout of my life. I’ve discovered, in times like these, it’s a challenge…

How Do You Know When You’re Done?

Posted on March 3, 2015April 3, 2015 in art, Creative Thinkingby Scott Berkun

The more creative the project, the more subjective the answer is for when it’s finished. If the project was…

The Myth of Epiphany

Posted on January 13, 2015April 5, 2021 in Creative Thinking, Innovationby Scott Berkun

One of the most provocative chapters of The Myths of Innovation is The Myth of Epiphany. Do you love…

Why Small Ideas Can Matter More Than Big Ideas

Posted on January 8, 2015March 4, 2021 in Creative Thinking, Innovation, Philosophyby Scott Berkun

[Originally published at Harvard Business as Does Size Matter For Ideas?] Americans are preoccupied by the size of things: big…

Saving Your Creative Soul (video)

Posted on December 26, 2014January 25, 2016 in Creative Thinking, Philosophy, video of talkby Scott Berkun

We share a mass confusion about creativity – why are ideas are so fun in our minds but so…

Don’t Be Precious (with your ideas)

Posted on August 20, 2013February 16, 2021 in Creative Thinkingby Scott Berkun

[This a chapter from The Dance of The Possible: the mostly honest, completely irreverent, guide to creativity] Three magic…

Saving Your Creative Soul

Posted on May 15, 2013May 16, 2013 in Creative Thinkingby Scott Berkun

I spoke at TEDXDepaul last month, on the invitation of Daniel Gurevich. He gave me free reign to decide what…

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Scott Berkun is the author of nine popular books on creativity, design, leadership and public speaking. You can hire him to speak or follow him on LinkedIn and Facebook.

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Why Design Is Hard

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"Concise, breezy, yet filled with excellent strategies for succeeding when the world is tilted against you.” Michael McWatters, VP Product Design for Max/HBO

How Design Makes The World

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“Nobody’s better at explaining how the world really works than Scott Berkun.” – Jeffrey Zeldman, co-founder of A List Apart

The Dance of the Possible

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"You'll find a lot to steal from this short, inspiring guide to being creative. Made me want to get up and make stuff!" - Austin Kleon, author of How To Steal Like An Artist

The Ghost of My Father

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The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com & the Future of Work

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Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds

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Confessions of a Public Speaker

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The Myths of Innovation

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Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management

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About Scott

Scott Berkun is the author of eight popular books on creativity, leadership, philosophy and speaking (more about Scott's background).

You can hire him to speak, ask him a question or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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