This article was taken from the April 2013 issue
of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print
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We begin a project with lots of
energy and freshness, but as we progress we have to focus more on
details and execution, and tend to lose that early flow. The longer
we work on something, the fewer options we tend to consider and the
work gets stale. Robert Greene, author of Mastery (Profile
Books, £14.99), explains how the most
creative minds in history unchained their brains and thought big.
Alter your perspective
Look at the problem from a different angle. Poll people on how
they would approach the issue. If you tend to use the same ways of
working, mix things up. Instead of focusing on the data before you,
look at what is not there. Inventor Henry Ford wanted to speed up
manufacturing at his factory. He looked at his workers scrambling
from one car to the next -- then he saw it: the men should stand
still and the cars move down an assembly line.
Allow for serendipity
Read books or articles on subjects not immediately linked to the
project, but that interest you. Pay attention to small, random
events; they can spark a new, creative direction. In trying to fix
a problem with the telegraph ticker tape, Thomas Edison kept
hearing a whirring noise like human speech. He wanted to get rid of
it, but saw that it might be a way to capture human speech. He
built on this flaw in the telegraph to develop the phonograph.
Think both macro and micro
Steve Jobs envisaged a new direction for the smartphone, but
instead of thinking big and letting the engineers do the rest, he
obsessed over the tiny details of what would become the iPhone,
making sure the details reflected his larger vision. Keep your mind
flowing between these two poles: your big vision and the details
that bring it to life. Like an alternating current, creative ideas
are sparked by the constant interaction of these two ways of
Long before language, humans thought in images. When we return to
that way of thinking, we reach more primitive, unconscious layers
of the mind. Images, diagrams or models can open up all types of
novel, looser associations. Charles Darwin, for example, imagined
evolution as a tree of life, some species leading to new branches,
others going nowhere, all connected by a trunk and a root system.
This gave him a refreshing new perspective.
Learn to let go
After a lot of work on a project, we often feel frustrated and
blocked. Give up for a few days, or imagine giving it up
completely. As you let go, your mind loosens, yet it is still
mulling the problem and an answer will come when you're not
expecting it. For ten years, Albert Einstein pondered the relation
of time and space. He finally gave up. That same day, walking with
a friend, the solution (that time is relative) suddenly came to
him, as an image.