Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation by Elkhonon Goldberg

Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation Reviews

• 
  Katrina Sark

  4 – The Mermaid and the Lego Master
  
  p.43 – Solutions of novel problems and the creation of novel content do not occur in a vacuum. New knowledge is built upon the old knowledge, yet it is new.
  Even during the most conservative times in history, society changes, albeit often slowly. Scientific ideas evolve, and so do artistic forms. True, they are rooted in the past, but they are also novel.
  Virtually without exception, consequentially creative individuals had acquired the mastery of their respective fields as they had already existed, before they were able to advance them further. This is reflected in the “ten-year rule” – which is how long it take, on the average (but with plenty of exceptions), for a member of the creative profession or a scientist to practice one’s field before he or she is able to make a truly innovative, consequential contribution.
  
  p.44 – A cultural historian will point out El Greco’s and Goya’s influences on Picasso’s paintings. Likewise, a historian of science will tell you that that Darwin’s theory of natural selection was influenced by Malthus’ musings about population growth, and Einstein’s special relativity theory was influenced by Planck’s quantum mechanics. Revolutionary as the famous E = mc2 formula was, the concepts of mass and energy had existed before. And even the art of the flamboyant twentieth century iconoclast Salvador Dali strikes a distant resonance with the paintings of the fifteenth-century Hieronymus Bosch, whose whimsical, fantastic images prefigured surrealism. Any individual creative act can only be understood in the cultural context in which it occurs, a point so eloquently made by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his landmark book Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and invention.
  
  Contrary to popular lore, a creative process is not a solitary process, even when the creative individual is temperamentally a loner and subjectively feels that it is a solitary endeavor. It is embedded in, and propelled by, the cultural milieu in which it occurs. Yet such an endeavour is not a mere replica of the past. The greatness of Picasso, Darwin, and Einstein lies in their creative gift of innovation, not in the mere mastery of their respective fields as they existed before.
  
• 
  Hannah

  This book is interesting, thought-provoking and informative. Goldberg includes new scientific discoveries in brain research and his own experiences as a professional in the field (neuroscientist). He situates the discussion of each topic within history, culture, and evolution. Highly recommended and suitable to first year university students studying neuroscience, psychology, medicine or related fields.
  Thank you to NetGalley, Elkhonon Goldberg and Oxford University Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Lakmus

  This is leaning more towards academic than pop-science, despite author's personal anecdotes and musings. "Amusing academic" perhaps.
  
  This (probably) won't add much if you have read any general text on creativity research before + it recaps author's own theory, so it might be more useful to just read some key papers of his. The gist is that creativity is complex process, so we probably won't be able to boil it down to a single algorithm or brain area, but the general method is to generate novelty (mind wandering, right hemispere-ish, small world networks) and then test the generated possibilities more systematically (left hemisphere-ish, more regular interconnected networks), rinse and repeat. With caveats and such, but generally like that.
  
  The author is a neuroscientist/neuropsychologist, so he leans more heavily towards neuro evidence and tying things down to brain regions and networks, and is less enthused about psychology-flavoured creativity research (which is fair enough, tbh).
  
  Bragging about knowing various famous old scientists gets a little old and uncool. Did we really need to see the autograph of Vygotsky's wife that he got on a his copy of Vygotsky's work? Did we?
• 
  Tyler

  The amusing thing about this book was the author's admission that he originally wanted to call it "novelty" based on the theory he really wanted to present but was pressured to give it the more widely appealing title of "Creativity" by his publisher. It seemed as though Goldberg's main thrust for this book was to discuss his theory of why the right and left hemisphere's are divided as they are. According to Goldberg (and the many studies he cites), the left hemisphere is more concerned with "routinization" while the right hemisphere is dedicated to "novelty". He does a good job of backing up this theory with his deep knowledge of neurology and psychology and I believe this book is a meaningful contribution to the literature.
• 
  Sean Van Duser

  I very very much enjoyed reading this book. It took me a while, partially because the authors writing style always what’s a little bit different than what I unconsciously expected and partially because my life just got crazy while reading it but it is truly a fantastic book. I took a creativity class while reading it and the hard neuroscience in this book was so far beyond what the class or what a lot of creativity research talks about. If you’re interested in creativity at all from a scientific perspective you’ll love this book. If you enjoy neuroscience more generally you’ll still very much like this book as it overviews many different systems and how they work together. Can’t recommend enough.
• 
  Crisanne Genil

  Reading this was very necessary during this time of mylife. IT finally healed my inner child, making me realize creativity needs a lot of things in order to be materialized.
  I've always been told that I am really creative and I think I am, but that really put me a lot of pressure trying to figure out how i should've use all of that creativity. And the biggest mistake was believing I was born with it when in reality it comes from a perfect mix of hardwork, memory, right time&place and with being empathetic to the world sorrounding us.
  Then if I might add, creativity came easily for me before because I was happier, freeier, braver, fearless. Suddenly, when everyone started noticing it became stiff and fake.
• 
  Argyros Singh

  22 luglio: giornata mondiale del cervello.
  
  "La vita creativa del cervello" (Ponte alle Grazie, 2019), del ricercatore e divulgatore Elkhonon Goldberg, indaga le nuove tecnologie legate in particolare allo studio del cervello e alla creatività.
  Il testo esplora alcune risposte date dalle neuroscienze, ma le integra con studi di antropologia, storia e psichiatria. Ciò che l’Autore si domanda è quanto peso abbiano la fisiologia e l’anatomia nella generazione della creatività. In questa indagine, non mancano i casi di personaggi storici come Einstein e Lenin, per cercare di capire che cosa abbiano avuto di particolare da un punto di vista scientifico.
• 
  Debra Smouse

  When it comes to reading books about the ways in which we can enhance our life with creativity, I'm always thrilled when there's some scientific research behind it to adds to my fascination and enjoyment.
  
  Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation was a good solid read, especially the way I read it: a chapter a so a week, which allowed me to think about each piece of research. A solid read for writers, artists, coaches, and therapists on how creativity in many ways enhances our lives.
  
• 
  Gabriel Enriquez

  Excelente, muy actualizado e informado libro sobre el funcionamiento del cerebro. El análisis se orienta sobre todo hacia el tratamiento de la novedad. NO es ningún manual sobre como ser más creativo ni nada que se le parezca ya que lo que hace básicamente es explicar como nuestro cerebro se las ve con tareas rutinarias y más que nada, las novedosas... pero es como si dijera: lo que natura non da, Salamanca non presta.
  Por otro lado, si bien en algunos puntos está escrito de una manera muy didáctica e ilustrada, en otros pasajes se vuelve muy técnico.
• 
  Yanina Patricio

  Este libro lo escribió un neuropsicólogo y neurocientífico cognitivo, ya se imaginarán todos los términos médicos, neurobiológicos, químicos y psicológicos que usó para explicar cómo nace la creatividad en el cerebro. Pero valió la pena. ¡El lado derecho de tu cerebro no es el creativo! ¡Todo depende de tu pasado y cómo lo conectas con el futuro! Entre otras revelaciones más. En la parte final hace una interesantísima reflexión sobre el uso de la tecnología doméstica y la creatividad en el cerebro.
• 
  Salazar

  Elocuencia y dominio puro, Goldberg presenta aquí ideas y hechos empíricos magistrales, de una disciplina prematura, pero no menos, puntera dentro de las neurociencias cognitivas. Agradable experiencia. Me llamo la atención, al final, lo que se propone las neurociencias interculturales y la creatividad en torno a las inteligencias artificiales, lo cual, me impele a investigar más. Espero su siguiente libro.
• 
  Harsha

  A beautiful book that encapsulates the current state of scientific literature with regards to what we know and don't know about creativity, salience, etc.
• 
  Daniel Gamez Salcedo

  Interesante
• 
  Bernardita Veas

  Simplemente me encantó.
  Goldberg presenta en este libro gran parte de sus reflexiones en neurociencias de la Innovación y la creatividad, respaldadas en la evidencia científica. Asimismo, refuta con determinación aquellas teorías que se sumergen ciegamente en lo neurobiógico, prescindiendo del contexto en que nos movemos como seres sociales. El autor propende a la investigación transcultural, reformadora y cambiante, en un mundo globalizado que se acelera cada día y que muta hacia el multiverso.
• 
  Leann

  A creative book on creativity! I truly loved this book and look forward to rereading it for a deeper dive.
  
  I feel like I have read way too many books that have come out recently on creativity and they weren't all that creative: this is NOT that book! Goldberg is a neuropsychologist but writes with a very gentle and understandable voice. He reminds me of a mix of Irvin Yalom and Oliver Sacks: a blend of science and stories with wise insights so that even the everyday reader can understand.
  
  This is a book that needs to be kept close by for those days when you crave comfort and new ideas. This is a book that should be read with a notebook nearby: I had a hard time not stopping after every few pages to write down a new understanding or turn of phrase. I'm also going back to purchase all of Goldberg's previous work and I'm sorry I didn't catch them sooner!