Malcolm Gladwell, best-selling author of The Tipping Point
Which means that shortly people will start asking if you've read it. So you need to read the following paragraph excerpted from the Observer interview:
"Gladwell's contention is not only that success is the result of a complicated mix of social advantages but also that the insistence that some individuals have extra-special gifts and talents, are geniuses in particular fields, or pull themselves up by their bootstraps, is incredibly destructive to society's idea of itself. 'No one,' he says, 'not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses - ever makes it alone.'"
Oh, and this one:
"To truly master any skill, he suggests, leaning on various pieces of research, requires about 10,000 concentrated hours. If you can get those hours in early, and be in a position to exploit them, then you are an outlier."
There is also an edited extract from the book here.
The science of creativity
As Pablo Picasso once pointed out, all children are creative; the challenge is to remain creative into adulthood.
Unfortunately public education systems around the world seem designed to crush creativity in favour of rote learning and test passing. As the years pass a fear of being wrong takes over from our natural creative tendencies.
Unlike mathematics, languages or the humanities, we are rarely taught about creativity, despite its importance to our lives. Yet the information is out there, waiting to be used.
If you would like to be more creative at work and at home—and that has to be most of us—the insights in this ebook will be useful.
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