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The Laws of Creativity: Unlock Your Originality and Awaken Your Creative Genius
In this book you will find a revealing and practical exploration of what it is, how it works, and how you can harness it in your everyday life.
"Drawing on decades of experience, Joey Cofone has distilled the elements of creativity into an excellent, easy-to-use guide. The Laws of Creativity provides a roadmap for unleashing the creative force inside you."
- JAMES CLEAR, author of the worldwide bestseller, Atomic Habits
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In The Laws of Creativity , award-winning creator, designer, and entrepreneur Joey Cofone demystifies the creative process by uncovering the thinking and science behind it, empowering the reader with practical, actionable steps toward creative excellence.
What to expect from reading The Laws of Creativity :
The 39 laws within contain illuminating concepts and powerful instruction. Each law is illustrated with inspiring, enlightening, and surprising stories of iconic creators across history-including Albert Einstein, Serena Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Houdini, Grace Hopper, Bruce Lee, and many more-and breaks down how they wielded creativity to reach incredible heights.
Creative thinking-humankind's unique ability to combine unrelated and abstract ideas-has been utilized in countless ways since the dawn of humanity. Every day, people in creative and non-creative fields take advantage of creative thinking to reach all kinds of goals, personally and professionally.
You can do it, too. Here's how.
"Drawing on decades of experience, Joey Cofone has distilled the elements of creativity into an excellent, easy-to-use guide. The Laws of Creativity provides a roadmap for unleashing the creative force inside you."
- JAMES CLEAR, author of the worldwide bestseller, Atomic Habits
---
In The Laws of Creativity , award-winning creator, designer, and entrepreneur Joey Cofone demystifies the creative process by uncovering the thinking and science behind it, empowering the reader with practical, actionable steps toward creative excellence.
What to expect from reading The Laws of Creativity :
The 39 laws within contain illuminating concepts and powerful instruction. Each law is illustrated with inspiring, enlightening, and surprising stories of iconic creators across history-including Albert Einstein, Serena Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Houdini, Grace Hopper, Bruce Lee, and many more-and breaks down how they wielded creativity to reach incredible heights.
Creative thinking-humankind's unique ability to combine unrelated and abstract ideas-has been utilized in countless ways since the dawn of humanity. Every day, people in creative and non-creative fields take advantage of creative thinking to reach all kinds of goals, personally and professionally.
You can do it, too. Here's how.
395 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 18, 2022
85 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 19, 2025
This is probably the best and most insightful book I have read in a while!
It is very information dense in a good way and it is written in a very interesting Story-driven style with practical excercises at the end of each chapter. Most importantly it does not regurgitate already known facts and tips on creativity but explains exactly why a certain law works and how to make use of it.
More people should read this book and not only creatives. Opportunity for creativity is to be found everywhere in our daily lives, one only has to spot and seize it. Creativity is a skill rather than chance, so if you want to practice it reliably then this book is for you.
It is very information dense in a good way and it is written in a very interesting Story-driven style with practical excercises at the end of each chapter. Most importantly it does not regurgitate already known facts and tips on creativity but explains exactly why a certain law works and how to make use of it.
More people should read this book and not only creatives. Opportunity for creativity is to be found everywhere in our daily lives, one only has to spot and seize it. Creativity is a skill rather than chance, so if you want to practice it reliably then this book is for you.
November 3, 2022
Best book I've read all year. I read 30+ books a year, and this one takes the cake. Hands down, Joey has shone a light on creativity in a way I've never seen before.
The Laws of Creativity 1) explains what creativity is and why it's important, and 2) takes incredibly abstract ideas and brings them down to earth—and give practical advice on how the reader can implement these ideas in their own life.
Whether you're a traditionally creative person or want more in your life, you can't go wrong here.
The Laws of Creativity 1) explains what creativity is and why it's important, and 2) takes incredibly abstract ideas and brings them down to earth—and give practical advice on how the reader can implement these ideas in their own life.
Whether you're a traditionally creative person or want more in your life, you can't go wrong here.
January 30, 2023
A must read for creatives. Just go ahead and get it!
February 11, 2023
Great book for any leader, any creator
I’m going to actually recommend going back to the Appendix and see what kinds of challenges you may be facing and then go right to those chapters. Highlighted the heck out of this and setting lots of reviews in Readwise. Clear, great stories, really well done. And I have several Confidant Baronfig notebooks as well!
I’m going to actually recommend going back to the Appendix and see what kinds of challenges you may be facing and then go right to those chapters. Highlighted the heck out of this and setting lots of reviews in Readwise. Clear, great stories, really well done. And I have several Confidant Baronfig notebooks as well!
November 28, 2022
I found this book a little uneven. When it is good, it’s really good. I found myself taking notes, thinking about was was written, and how it did or apply to my own creative self
At other times, to me the writing seemed like filler.
At other times, to me the writing seemed like filler.
January 14, 2025
"The Laws of Creativity" by Joey Cofone is the light I needed to fire my buttocks up and out of my this-is-impossible-but-really-I'm-just-afraid mode. There are so many key takeaways here but the one thing that this beautiful book gave me more than anything was the courage I needed to put myself out there. Before reading this I was stressed that I didn't have any clarity on my business ideas and now I'm writing this halfway through a website and fully written product plan. Other main takeaways:
1. Just do it. Just start. hashtag#creativity isn't a gift given to a select few. It's the select few that actual try to do it that learn how to be creativity.
2. Don't look at the end result and base your actions off of what you think you want. Because ultimately, your creative process is not linear. It will change. Stay in the present and focus on creating with what you have in front of you. The process will unfold naturally. We try so hard to control outcomes. Reality is we can't. Accept it.
For me, I used to envision what success looked like and think that was set in stone. That made me inflexible. Now, I embrace that as I try to build my passion projects. I thought my book had to be published with a publisher to look cool. Now I realise maybe self-publishing is the route. I thought I wanted to be the highest level executive ever at a company, now I think maybe I'm meant to be humbly teaching instead because that's what makes m happy. I used to think I hated yoga, now I am inspired by its creative expression and am on my way to being a certified yoga instructor. 10 years ago, I didn't think I'd be writing this.
Things change.
3. Quantity over quality comes first. Try as many attempts at a creation as you can because that's how you start learning how to make it better. For me, it's creating content and teaching. My first pieces of writing might suck and my first trainings will not flow the way I thought it should, but I now know that the more times I create, the more I'll reorient my content towards quality. Only after countless amounts of attempts will I master my craft. They say it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something. Don't stop at hour 1.
4. You are not alone. And Joey shows that through his own inspiring stories and those of some of the most famous creatives we know that started at ground zero.
5. Never. Ever. Give. Up.
This isn't meant to be easy. But it's possible for anyone.
Thank you Joey for your wisdom, your humor, and your authenticity. This book was mind-changing. I often had to put it down to absorb in awe how good it is to read. I really needed to read this, and am so grateful we connected at the time we did.
1. Just do it. Just start. hashtag#creativity isn't a gift given to a select few. It's the select few that actual try to do it that learn how to be creativity.
2. Don't look at the end result and base your actions off of what you think you want. Because ultimately, your creative process is not linear. It will change. Stay in the present and focus on creating with what you have in front of you. The process will unfold naturally. We try so hard to control outcomes. Reality is we can't. Accept it.
For me, I used to envision what success looked like and think that was set in stone. That made me inflexible. Now, I embrace that as I try to build my passion projects. I thought my book had to be published with a publisher to look cool. Now I realise maybe self-publishing is the route. I thought I wanted to be the highest level executive ever at a company, now I think maybe I'm meant to be humbly teaching instead because that's what makes m happy. I used to think I hated yoga, now I am inspired by its creative expression and am on my way to being a certified yoga instructor. 10 years ago, I didn't think I'd be writing this.
Things change.
3. Quantity over quality comes first. Try as many attempts at a creation as you can because that's how you start learning how to make it better. For me, it's creating content and teaching. My first pieces of writing might suck and my first trainings will not flow the way I thought it should, but I now know that the more times I create, the more I'll reorient my content towards quality. Only after countless amounts of attempts will I master my craft. They say it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something. Don't stop at hour 1.
4. You are not alone. And Joey shows that through his own inspiring stories and those of some of the most famous creatives we know that started at ground zero.
5. Never. Ever. Give. Up.
This isn't meant to be easy. But it's possible for anyone.
Thank you Joey for your wisdom, your humor, and your authenticity. This book was mind-changing. I often had to put it down to absorb in awe how good it is to read. I really needed to read this, and am so grateful we connected at the time we did.
March 10, 2023
I read the intro and about 10% into the book. Cofone's framing and methodology is very suspect: Cofone rarely cites his sources, gives some dubious support for the undervaluing of creativity, and thinks that he has actually found objective laws to creativity, the same as "objective" laws science (unthinkingly framing science as an objective discoverer of "objective" laws is also flawed, so there's a double mistake being made).
That said, the "laws" themselves are useful reminders or heuristics for thinking about creativity. The main problem is that almost all of them are understandable in a few sentences, so there's really no need for this book to be so long. Should just be a single article or a short series of articles.
That said, the "laws" themselves are useful reminders or heuristics for thinking about creativity. The main problem is that almost all of them are understandable in a few sentences, so there's really no need for this book to be so long. Should just be a single article or a short series of articles.
March 20, 2023
I freaking loved this book. I intentionally read this one incredibly slowly. I did not want to rush it and wanted to read a chapter or two at a time to really process it and try to absorb it. The subject of creativity is fantastical and magical to me. I loved studying Cofone's "Laws." This book is fully applicable to any creative endeavor. Some sections resonated with me more than others, but it is probably because they were more applicable to this exact moment in my design journey. I loved how the author broke his chapters apart at the end to reference specific creative challenges! I will continue to reference this book throughout my career. All I can say is I want to be Joey's friend haha...
November 15, 2025
A great read, that offers a way to understand and embrace capability of creative mind. With that in mind being creative is a gift and also something you can learn and nurture to greatness with everyday practise.
June 1, 2023
This is best read like a handbook...pick it up when you're feeling lost or in need of inspiration. It is full of several anecdotes and charts to help you persevere with your creative endeavors.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews