The first problem in understanding our own minds is giving up many of the things we think we know. Dan Dennett is a philosopher of consciousness whose talk for TED, which uses visual illusions as illustrations, shows how consciousness is a kind of magic trick cooked up by our brains.
It's a very simple message, but a vital one in understanding the mind. What Dennett explains so neatly is that it's natural to think we're experts on consciousness - and psychology - by virtue of being conscious ourselves and having access to our own thought processes. But actually we're none of us quite as informed about ourselves as we'd like to think.
» For more on the psychological version of this point, read this series on how the inner workings of our minds are hidden from us.
How to Be Creative
If we can all be creative, why is it so hard to come up with truly original ideas?
It's because creativity is mysterious. Just ask any scientist, artist, writer or other highly creative person to explain how they come up with brilliant ideas and, if they're honest, they don't really know.
But over the decades psychologists have given ordinary participants countless tests, forms and tasks and conducted hundreds of hours of interviews. From these emerge the psychological conditions of creativity.
Not what you should do, but how you should be...
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