According to psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman (Ungifted) and writer Carolyn Gregoire, "[Creativity] is both deliberate and uncontrollable, mindful and mindless, work and play. It is both the realm of a select group of geniuses through history, and the domain of every human being." Wired to Create combines Kaufman's psychological research and Gregoire's viral Huffington Post article about habits of highly creative people to explain how these paradoxes work in the messy minds of innovative people, as well as how readers can improve their own propensity for creativity.
Wired to Create is organized into 10 sections, each dissecting a behavior that artists of all types perform differently from the average person. There is no discussion of right brain/left brain dominance; instead, the authors examine things like play, daydreaming and sensitivity. This is not to say that the brain is disregarded. Kaufman and Gregoire explain how the brain functions in the presence of each habit and in turn what it means for creativity.
Illustrating their concepts using both scientific data and specific examples of individuals, the authors show how creativity can be found in both introverts and extroverts, why it is sometimes mistakenly connected to mental illness, and how each of the 10 behaviors support and enable each other.
At times the presentation of the scientific data may bog down, but the insights, examples and explanations are exhilarating and inspiring. Anyone wanting to understand or promote a fertile environment for living creatively will certainly find a wealth of riches in this book. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts