squishy

The author hedges most of his observations due to the anecdotal nature of his research, to the point he never actually commits to really knowing anything from his research. The words likely, probably, and possibly are too frequently used, such that I feel he has not earned the latitude he claims for himself when he states his opinions and worldviews as truisms.

This might have been fine had his work been graced by a sustained attempt to support his assertions with well developed arguments contrasted against alternative perspectives, but he did not offer these; he engages in intellectual shadow boxing, conflating marketability and craftsmanship with creativity. By tying creativity to domain; a child could never be "creative" by his definition as he can't master a craft or amass knowledge such that his efforts can be recognized as such. But this is not consistent with what most of us see, and mean when we use this word.

For me then, his definition and treatment of creativity and invention is stilted and tendentious, substituting one enigmatic definition of creativity for another. The anecdotal evidence presented was interesting, but the conclusions drawn from them did not illuminate the subject of creativity for me as I hoped it would.

22 people found this helpful

Not the “creativity” one might think

Flow is by far my favorite book ever, and as a person who makes my living doing creative work (design & art) I probably went into this with expectations that were too high. Having said that, it appears that Csikszentmihalyi considers Big C creativity to be mostly in the sciences (including social sciences). I don’t disagree with sciences being creative and I learned some new things about this side of creativity in this book, but for a book to be titled “Creativity” this book touches very little or never on what many people would consider the most obviously creative disciplines (music, visual art, dance, architecture, film, philosophy, etc) other than a chapter devoted to writing.

18 people found this helpful

Waste of time

If this book does anything, it doesn’t inspire people to be creative. It’s argument is based on the assumption that creativity is only for those who have been labeled “geniuses” by their peers. It further locks creativity in the ivory tower and safeguards it from anyone who doesn’t have a formal education. (I have graduate degrees and have seen this “elitism” throughout my time in universities. It is something we (general we) need to address as a society at large). Let’s make education and creativity for that matter more accessible to everyone! This book acts against that impulse.

Disappointed.

9 people found this helpful

Great Insights into Creativity and Creative People

What did you love best about Creativity?

This book from the psychologist who coined the term "flow" focuses on what differentiates extraordinarily creative people. In this book he does a wonderful job of discussing how a domain and the field devoted to that domain impact the creative people in that field. He also brings out lots of great insights from his studies of extraordinarily creative people and touches on what it takes to develop the meta-skill of being able to turn almost any activity into an occasion of flow.

It's great material for anyone who fosters creativity in others or for people looking to better understand and harness their own creativity.

7 people found this helpful

just don't - 2nd time I did and still regretting i

this is the 2nd book I bought from this author, the first one on flow. both topics are very interesting to me and the impact they have on modern Life and business.

both times the author killed it for me.
how do you take such an interesting topic and make it so boring? filled with details I couldn't care less about, your opinions, what the book is not, clarifying points and justifications take up to much space and time.

saying people are creative only if their peers agree with them is crazy. your examples of people being a knowledged 500 years after their death should prove that.

such a great topic and you liked it again for me. well done

6 people found this helpful

narrator is so boring I couldn't access the book

I wanted to listen, but I can't get past the reader. total snooze fest! Blah!

2 people found this helpful

Mission critical research

Humans being the creativity engines that they are, this research, and the author's lifetime of research is so important. Book is engaging too. Lots of great insight into interesting people's lives.

2 people found this helpful

Very interesting and useful

Lots of interesting facts and anecdotes. Took me a bit to get over that John Hodgman isn’t the narrator.

1 person found this helpful

Astounding! So relevant and detailed!

What made the experience of listening to Creativity the most enjoyable?

Everything
I have been waiting for a book like this from MC for a long time.
Brilliant and practical and quantitative.
I love Sean Pratt's narrations.I have over 40 books of his narration
You will love this new gift to the world!

1 person found this helpful

Loved

The author is smart. He has good ideas. The book is long and wonderful. I loved it all. Perhaps the beginning I liked the least, but overall I got a lot out of it. Evolution and humanism are mentioned a lot, and this might bother some. But I think there is a lot of good take-away, and the narrator does a fine job.

1 person found this helpful