As you know, I’ve become interested in the nature of creativity and inspiration, and have written about it here several times—just this week, in fact.* Shortly after I wrote that post, I read an article by author Walter Isaacson in the October 2014 Vanity Fair … about creativity and inspiration.
Isaacson calls this innovation (his new book, The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, had just released), but we’re talking about the same thing. Here are his “5 Easy Theses” about creativity:
1 Connect art and science.
2 Creativity comes from collaboration.
3 Collaboration works best in person.
4 Vision without execution is hallucination.
5 Man is a social animal.
I was particularly intrigued by number 3:
Among the myths of the Digital Age is that we would all be able to telecommute and collaborate electronically. Instead, the greatest innovations have come from people gathered in the flesh, on beanbag chairs rather than in chat rooms. Googleplex beats Google Hangouts.
An early example was Bell Labs in the 1930s and 40s. In its corridors and cafeterias, theorists mingled with hands-on engineers, experimenters, gnarly mechanics, and even some telephone-pole climbers with grease under their fingernails. Claude Shannon, the eccentric information theorist, would ride a unicycle in the long hallways while juggling balls and nodding at colleagues. It was a wacky metaphor for the ferment. …
… When Steve Jobs designed a new headquarters for Pixar, he obsessed over ways to structure the atrium, and even where to locate the bathrooms, so that serendipitous personal encounters would occur. One of Marissa Mayer’s first acts as C.E.O. of Yahoo was to discourage the practice of working from home. “People are more collaborative and innovative when they’re together,” she pointed out.
A lot of people were unhappy with Mayer when this announcement was made, but I worked in the corporate/creative environment for many years, and I get her thinking. And although most of my collaboration now happens through telecommunication—I can’t have you in the room when I’m writing/thinking (#sorrynotsorry) and I don’t want you to tell me anything about the manuscript until I’ve had a chance to react to it in my own way—I do fully grok the efficaciousness of of in-person collaboration. My account of brainstorming a new title for a client’s book is a classic example of this.
So read the article! I think you’ll enjoy it. I suspect I’ll be reading The Innovators soon too. 🙂
* Here are a few more in this line of thought:
On Inspiration • Free the Marbles • The Creative Spark • The Case for Procrastination • The Waiting is the Hardest Part • Just Open a Vein
Tweet: I am fascinated by the nature of creativity and how inspiration is sparked.
Tweet: “Serendipitous personal encounters” lead to creative innovation.
Tweet: Innovation (creativity) happens when people collaborate—in any field!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”