science

Imagine: How Creativity Works

Imagine: How Creativity Works is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Imagine: How Creativity Works rather than just read about it. In short: Imagine: How Creativity Works is the third non-fiction book by Jonah Lehrer, published in 2012. It explores brain science, and creativity and its social aspects.

Key takeaways

Imagine: How Creativity Works belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Imagine: How Creativity Works to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Imagine: How Creativity Works from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Imagine: How Creativity Works is the third non-fiction book by Jonah Lehrer, published in 2012. It explores brain science, and creativity and its social aspects. By July 2012, the book had been recalled by its publisher due to factual inaccuracies.

Fabrication of quotations In July 2012, Lehrer acknowledged that he fabricated some quotes attributed to Bob Dylan. Sale of the electronic book as well as physical shipment of the book has been halted. In an article on August 10, Steve Myers alleged that quotes from magician Teller, of the performance duo Penn and Teller, were fake, after a fan saw a discrepancy in previous quotes from Teller from an article in 2009 in Wired magazine, also by Lehrer. Teller confirmed that the quotes from the Wired article in 2009 were accurate, while the ones from Imagine: How Creativity Works were not.

See also How We Decide Proust Was a Neuroscientist

References

External links The New York Times review The Guardian review The New Republic review Roberts, Russ (June 11, 2012). "Jonah Lehrer on Creativity and Imagine". EconTalk. Library of Economics and Liberty.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Imagine: How Creativity Works

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Imagine: How Creativity Works claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Imagine: How Creativity Works before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Imagine: How Creativity Works ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Imagine: How Creativity Works

In research: Imagine: How Creativity Works appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Imagine: How Creativity Works in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Imagine: How Creativity Works is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2012 English-language non-fiction books, 2012 non-fiction books, American non-fiction books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Imagine: How Creativity Works outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Imagine: How Creativity Works in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Imagine: How Creativity Works means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Imagine: How Creativity Works out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Imagine: How Creativity Works in simple terms?

Imagine: How Creativity Works is the third non-fiction book by Jonah Lehrer, published in 2012. It explores brain science, and creativity and its social aspects.

Why does Imagine: How Creativity Works matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Imagine: How Creativity Works?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Imagine: How Creativity Works.