“Creators are joyful and positive. Creators look at “what is” and “what can be” instead of “what is not.” Instead of excluding possibilities, creators include all possibilities, both real and imagined. They choose to interpret their own world and do not rely upon the interpretations of others. And most importantly, creators are creative because they believe they are creative.”
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
“Instead of presenting a catalog of all known creative techniques and abandoning you to puzzle out which ones actually work, I started with the ideas (fish) and worked backwards to each creator (fisherman). Then I identified the technique that caught the idea.”
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
“The person who believes he is a subject is frank, open-minded, sincerely going ahead, facing the situation freely, and looking for ways to make things work and get things done. The person who believes she is an object is inhibited, pushed, driven, acting by command or intimidation, has a one-track mind, and is always looking for reasons things can’t be done or why things can’t work.”
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
“It doesn’t matter how many times you have failed in the past; what matters is the successful attempt, which should be remembered and reinforced.”
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
“A popular children’s puzzle shows six fishermen whose lines are tangled together to form a sort of maze. One of the lines has caught a fish; the problem is to find which fisherman it belongs to. You are supposed to do this by following each line through the maze, which may take up to six tries, depending on your luck. It is obviously easier to start at the other end and trace the line from the fish to the fisherman, as you have only one possible starting place, not six.”
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
― Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
Joseph’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Joseph’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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