Category: Creativity

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BR 136: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

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Comments: SO inspiring.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. The “resistance” is the most toxic force on the planet. It’s an internal force of nature that thwarts us every time we try to move from a lower to higher place – when we want to start a new venture, work on a piece of art, or embark on an education of any kind. We move forward when we learn how to fight our resistance.
2. Art is the most noble thing we can set out to do. An artist believes the best lies ahead and constantly works on imagining and creating this future and thus taking the human race forward. This is opposite to the fundamentalist who tries to destroy to take us back to the basics as it is his belief that the best existed in the past.
3. Being an artist is all about behaving like a pro. That involves showing up every day, working on your art relentlessly, listening to feedback, ignoring critics, not taking failure personally, and exhibiting humility and patience.
It’s very hard to just talk about 3 things that I learnt from this book. It is so inspirational.. and Steven Pressfield is such an accomplished writer that attempting to say it in anything but his own words doesn’t do it justice.

Book notes

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BR 102: A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink

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Comments: A compelling read. I am a fan of Dan Pink’s work and this one didn’t disappoint.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Dan Pink’s thesis is simple – we moved from the era of physical labor to the era of the left brain where logical abilities were paramout. Now, we’re moving to the era of the right brain where abilities like creativity will take centre stage.

2. Here’s a learning on the importance of the ability to tell stories from the book.

3. Creativity is like a muscle. The more we engage it, the more we will develop it.

A compelling book with a clear thesis. I’ve read it 6 years late. But still worth reading!

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BR 43: The Power of Creative Intelligence by Tony Buzan

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Comments: I enjoyed reading the book – short, easy to get through and high on impact. It convinced me that I was a creative genius and hidden (deep) inside was a great artist, musician, poet and the like. :-) Most importantly, inspired me to try a hand at poetry for a while and encouraged me to take a few ‘creative’ shots! In this book, Tony Buzan attempts (rather successfully in my view) to convince us that we are all brimming with creativity and ideas that only got stamped out of us because of some unfortunate incident as a child. The book tries to bring out that creativity and encourages us to practice it regularly.

It was a fun read.

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BR 8: A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

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Comments: Super entertaining, super informative and lots of fun to read. Classic Bill Bryson with a science focus.

What to expect: As the title goes, a ‘short history of nearly everything’. It is one of those books that makes learning fun and moves seamlessly (for the most part) from one topic to another. One big realization that hit me was how all things  in our universe are interconnected..

A note – While great for expanding perspective, I don’t remember a lot of specifics from the book but yet remember how it increased my curiosity about inventors, inventions and ideation in itself.