Great Minds Don't Think Alike: discover the method and madness of 56 creative geniuses

by Emily Gosling

Uncover the method and madness behind the greatest minds in history.

Great Minds Don't Think Alike surveys some of the most brilliant minds of the past and present. Discover the methods and rituals they used to forge a constructive, creative pathway, from the downright peculiar to the reassuringly pedestrian.

Learn the importance of daily routines with Sylvia Plath, embrace randomness with David Bowie and transcend tradgedy with Frida Kahlo.

With 56 tried and tested creative techniques from inspired and inspiring, minds - among them, architects, musicians, playwrights, painters and philosophers. Enjoy an illustrated compendium of ingenius insights to kickstart your own creative process.

Genres: Nonfiction, Collections

128 pages, Hardcover

Published October 2, 2018

Reviews

[Thomas Edmund · Rating 5 out of 5]

The real strength of this book is in its premise. Basically an exploratory series into the creative processes of a variety of intellects, from Andy Warhol to Einstein its hard not to enjoy a daily dose of insight into these minds.

Deceptively simple, the analysis is brief but thorough and blends a non-judgmental approach with sagely thoughts. My only real problem is there isn't a blog somewhere I can follow to get a regular piece on various artists

[Greg Koontz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author did not write it to be comical, but I sure laughed my ass off, so I gave her an additional star. Each of these geniuses was given one page...........easy reading! She gave us the method and madness of 56 creative geniuses of which 20 (in my view) should not show up in the book. I had to looked up more than 25 on the internet to see who & what they had done. Before I go any further let's be clear that the "creative art world" is BS to me and we will jump in from there.
Let's begin with Wolfgang Tillmans who is currently alive and well as a celebrated artist & photographer - I did not know that! After reading his page, I came to this conclusion: 'Early on in his career in 1988 he was entrenched in the acid house and techno club culture....' Let's see this genius at 20 was probably doing drugs and trying to get laid. He did not have a wingman, so he got a "$15 flash" to meet people and got lucky by sending the pics to a magazine. He was famous at 20 years old for this and is now a genius and has had quite the career. Looking him up on the internet I see he has a lot of quotes, I guess because he is a certified genius.
I saw my dog taking a shit in the backyard one day, so I grabbed an old jock and a rose that I had given my wife (I'm a sensitive guy) and put them on either side of the shit. I took a picture and sent it to a guy named Jock Rose and told him that I had guessed his middle name - brilliant, creative - I'm a genius. Now if I took that dog shit, stripped naked, smeared it on myself and took a picture we have (another genius from the book) Ana Mendiera. If I stepped in the shit and walked across a canvass, we have Yoko Ono. If I sculpted it into multiple phallic symbols and placed them on an armchair, we have Yayoi Kusama and if I used the shit to paint a seashell, we get Georgia O'Keeffe. By using all these different mediums, we have David Hockney and we have Tracey Emin if it had my personal shit instead of the dog's.
We also have the famous fashion designer, Rei Kawakubo. I had to looked her up to see her shit and it was shit. Who would actually wear that shit!!
Anyway, I am done writing about this book because I don't give a shit.

[Oksana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book after visiting Van Gogh exhibition (Van Gogh is one of those 56 gear minds from the book). I like the idea of the book, and I agree 50% with the title.
Good to have a list of people one admires, I think everyone has some sort of such list. And it was interesting to read.
However I would say it’s rather easy read and nice book to have on a shelf.

[Josh Clement · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creative output definitely requires strong “noticing” skills. The unconscious does a huge amount of heavy lifting, and then it’s a question of how you can execute. Joseph Heller took a decade to write a book, Herzog writes a script in a “frenzy”. The saddest part are folks like Kafka who were clearly in hell but still managed to get it on paper.

[Sela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy interesante leer sobre los diferentes procesos de creatividad de estas personas.
Te dan ideas para aplicar y llevar acabo.
Desde dar paseos, leer hasta quedarte toda la noche despierto a base de café.

[christinemm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a process oriented artist and creator so I understand and applaud this book. I enjoy the process more than enjoying the end product. Often when reading about famous people, or when doing interviews, they leave out the exact type of information that is in this book: the process (the how).

There are three paragraphs dedicated to each person featured and this focuses on the creative process for some (the method) or what inspired them to invent a new and different process or end product (the madness in the subtitle - but inspiration may have been a more accurate term).

Some of what I have read in this book I already knew by watching a documentary or an interview but it may have been about one minute of content about the process within an hour long show. If you want to know about how artists or designers came up with their own unique ideas or how their process may be different this book gets right to that point.

Of course in three paragraphs per person you don’t learn much about them besides this, in fact I didn’t even know who some of these people were, but thanks to the Internet I went and researched more when I wanted to, such as to hear the unique music of Bjork and watch her music videos and read more about these people and view their art or creations. Learning is about research and this book inspired to me to go learn more by doing my own exploration.

Besides my personal enjoyment and education I have some ideas about hoe I can use this book in my high school art classroom.

[Apryl Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned several things through reading:
1. I want to learn more. One page to cover each of the 56 creatives isn't enough. Credit to Ms. Gosling, every one of them are brilliantly concise, and that must've required a fair bit of creative editorialising. It simply left me with a "but wait!" each time I turned a page. Not to mention (which I am right now), only 56 pages of text, with its partnering page of quirky graphic, as well as the brief introduction, have relegated this volume into the category of "loo library."
2. Each unique creative person finds his own unique method of creating. There is no one particular This Works, except simply: Get to work. Point well taken.
3. I recognise my own methods in many of these "successful" artists. What does "success" mean, and how do I get some of that?

[eriko · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a convenient book to learn more about geniuses (56 to be exact) in one setting, when it usually takes hours of research to learn that much. With each page, I could take a glimpse into the life of each genius and their minds. There were certain people whose status as a “genius” were questionable. An example would be Yoko Ono, her unique take on art “ I just let it happen” is definitely an insight into different ways the mind works to produce art but is that justifiable to include her with world renowned geniuses such as Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci. Instead it would be more pleasant to see more geniuses from the scientific field than 99% being from the artistic field. Overall, it was a interesting short read, where I discovered more people who contributed to the world we have today.

[Florin Dragusin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy to read and a great inspiration if you are looking for inspiration and where others were taking their creativity from. I like the variation of fields, and found new things, like Einstein liked to play music, and bought himself a violin to celebrate the proving of theory of relativity. Though I found one thing that didn't add up, Frida Kahlo having a motor accident , while listening about her life and reading some other books where she was referred were mentioning a bus accident. Is true that bus have a motor but this made me think a motorcycle rather than a bus ... and this small detail made me reconsider some of other facts presented in the book, beside that a good lecture, and a very good candidate for the 10 books challenge, is a 1 day book :).

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 3 stars is more my fault than the authors. I keep on buying these books but tend to find them repetitious : some really stand out though and the book also highlights 'artists' that I've never heard of previously.

[Lizbeth Román · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the book that I expected. The information given is too basic and light, while the book's promises might be too high.

Still, nice pieces of information about each Mastermind. It could be a nice place to start learning more about these great people.

[tisasday · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief collection with snippets of revelation about artists from a variety of era and disciplines. Would feel less disjointed as a collection if there was a bit more exposition on each of the artists.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know why, but it was just so boring.
I didn’t feel inspired by these creative geniuses unique ways of thinking. I felt dull and bored.
I couldn’t wait to get to the end just so I didn’t need to read another page.

[Alicia Schoemer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick, easy read. It was inspirational to read about the beautiful minds of writers, artists, and designers.

[Kathleen Nalley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting facts, trivia, about the author’s pick of creative genius’s - some I knew, others not. Very fast read.

[Pluviophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

You need to know the person before reading it.

[Mary Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast read, perfect for the the 4am insomnia hours lol 🥸 got inspired by this & made me want to learn more about certain creative geniuses :)

[Paul Edlund · Rating 1 out of 5]

The description read really well but the book was awful. I felt like I was reading Wiki entries on famous people. No insight, no analysis, just mildly interesting factoids about them.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

v based short read cool pictures

[Nguyen Harley Phuong · Rating 5 out of 5]

collection of stories about successful people and their journeys