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Create or Die: Manifesto for Fearless Creators
Are you living a life you have consciously created? Or are you letting circumstances take charge of your life?
Whether you are in business, science, art, humanities, education, or in charge of a household, you are engaged in a Creative Endeavor. Either you take charge of creating your life, or you are letting life create you.
In Create or Die, Dr. Morgan Giddings shows you just why creativity is the backbone of happiness and success, regardless of your occupation. She discusses the many adversaries to creativity that we are surrounded by - from boring jobs to antiquated educational systems, skepticism, a consumer culture, and doomsday viewpoints - and shows how to overcome them to create a powerful life by your own design.
Whether you are in business, science, art, humanities, education, or in charge of a household, you are engaged in a Creative Endeavor. Either you take charge of creating your life, or you are letting life create you.
In Create or Die, Dr. Morgan Giddings shows you just why creativity is the backbone of happiness and success, regardless of your occupation. She discusses the many adversaries to creativity that we are surrounded by - from boring jobs to antiquated educational systems, skepticism, a consumer culture, and doomsday viewpoints - and shows how to overcome them to create a powerful life by your own design.
212 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2014
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 14, 2015
I like the title and the power of the message brought by author personal transformation. I like an inside at what is going on in Science as there where I involved and can resonate with the vision that science is a process of undrestanding not a "real truth". For me the connection of creativity and believes( Love the mint backon cake) and desires was a new things. Other consept were more familiar for me but I read a lot of this kind. Good reminder and supporter about creating fearlessly.
February 20, 2019
This is not the book I thought it was. I was seeking something to awaken and expand upon my baseline creativity. A way to view and approach problems differently. Instead, it’s important to recognise from the start that this is a manifesto for fearless creatives and as such, 95% of this book is Giddings explaining to us all of the reasons why ‘creativity’ is required for a better life and 5% suggestions on how to achieve that. I have placed creativity in quotes because Giddings seemingly mingles the concepts of original, innovative thought with the act of creation. Creating health is an act of creativity, a concept I’m not fully onboard with.
The first chapter of this book spoke to me. It struck a chord deep within me and made me want to read more. Doubts crept in reading the discussion on belief systems. Essentially belief systems should be useful and appropriate, not based on habit, superstition or upbringing; all good advice, but then Giddings turns vitriolic on a particular ‘belief system.’ Again, I use quotes because that belief system is atheism, but which Giddings confuses with nihilism. And this type of confused, fuzzy logic is rife throughout the book. In Chapter 7, there is a discussion on how bureaucracies destroy creativity highlighting NASA as a particular offender. The Space Race of the 1960s is deemed the epitome of engineering creativity because mankind dared to strive for the Moon. In contrast, today’s method of exploring the Solar System through robotic probes is said to be a stifled, safe and uncreative solution imposed by the NASA bureaucracy. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth! Simply because humans are not the explorers does not imply that there are no challenges to be resolved. In fact, engineers and scientists have used many innovative and creative approaches to continually push the bounds of what we know about our Solar System, resulting in the incredibly successful series of Martian rovers, the exploration of previously unvisited asteroids, comets and flybys of distant Pluto and the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule. Giddings associates these robotic solutions with the robotic education and behaviours that kill our creativity.
Giddings touches on many topics including education, economics, health but she does so in broad and sweeping terms that do not do justice to the complexity and depth of each. For example, health is covered in just a few pages (again, creating health) including a list of guidelines to follow, such as: drink plenty of water. These sections do not feel fully developed or explored and do not give a solid foundation to build a manifesto upon, so why include them? However, in the last chapter, Giddings stops talking about what is killing creativity and instead focuses on how to enhance it, namely through the fearless pursuit of ideas and not giving in to doubt. This is by far the most successful section of this book; I only wish it had been the main focus and not the conclusion.
The first chapter of this book spoke to me. It struck a chord deep within me and made me want to read more. Doubts crept in reading the discussion on belief systems. Essentially belief systems should be useful and appropriate, not based on habit, superstition or upbringing; all good advice, but then Giddings turns vitriolic on a particular ‘belief system.’ Again, I use quotes because that belief system is atheism, but which Giddings confuses with nihilism. And this type of confused, fuzzy logic is rife throughout the book. In Chapter 7, there is a discussion on how bureaucracies destroy creativity highlighting NASA as a particular offender. The Space Race of the 1960s is deemed the epitome of engineering creativity because mankind dared to strive for the Moon. In contrast, today’s method of exploring the Solar System through robotic probes is said to be a stifled, safe and uncreative solution imposed by the NASA bureaucracy. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth! Simply because humans are not the explorers does not imply that there are no challenges to be resolved. In fact, engineers and scientists have used many innovative and creative approaches to continually push the bounds of what we know about our Solar System, resulting in the incredibly successful series of Martian rovers, the exploration of previously unvisited asteroids, comets and flybys of distant Pluto and the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule. Giddings associates these robotic solutions with the robotic education and behaviours that kill our creativity.
Giddings touches on many topics including education, economics, health but she does so in broad and sweeping terms that do not do justice to the complexity and depth of each. For example, health is covered in just a few pages (again, creating health) including a list of guidelines to follow, such as: drink plenty of water. These sections do not feel fully developed or explored and do not give a solid foundation to build a manifesto upon, so why include them? However, in the last chapter, Giddings stops talking about what is killing creativity and instead focuses on how to enhance it, namely through the fearless pursuit of ideas and not giving in to doubt. This is by far the most successful section of this book; I only wish it had been the main focus and not the conclusion.
February 16, 2015
There is nothing new in this book ...
"We should create new beliefs and new habits".
"We should create new beliefs and new habits".
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews