The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time - Hardcover

Gannett, Allen

 
9781524761714: The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1524761710 ISBN 13: 9781524761714
Verlag: Crown Currency, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

Big data entrepreneur Allen Gannett overturns the mythology around creative genius, and reveals the science and secrets behind achieving breakout commercial success in any field.
 
We have been spoon-fed the notion that creativity is the province of genius -- of those favored, brilliant few whose moments of insight arrive in unpredictable flashes of divine inspiration.  And if we are not a genius, we might as well pack it in and give up. Either we have that gift, or we don’t.  But Allen shows that simply isn’t true.  Recent research has shown that there is a predictable science behind achieving commercial success in any creative endeavor, from writing a popular novel to starting up a successful company to creating an effective marketing campaign. 
 
As the world’s most creative people have discovered, we are enticed by the novel and the familiar. By understanding the mechanics of what Gannett calls “the creative curve” – the point of optimal tension between the novel and the familiar – everyone can better engineer mainstream success. 
 
In a thoroughly entertaining book that describes the stories and insights of everyone from the Broadway team behind Dear Evan Hansen, to the founder of Reddit, from the Chief Content Officer of Netflix to Michelin star chefs, Gannett reveals the four laws of creative success and identifies the common patterns behind their achievement.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

ALLEN GANNETT is the founder and CEO of TrackMaven, a software analytics firm whose clients have included Microsoft, Marriott, Saks Fifth Avenue, Home Depot, Aetna, Honda, and GE.  He has been on the “30 Under 30” lists for both Inc. and Forbes.

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Chapter 1

The Making of a Dream

It was November 1963.

Paul McCartney woke up obsessed with a melody he had heard while dreaming. The twenty-one-year-old pop star stumbled over to the small piano nestled in his room on the top floor of 57 Wimpole Street in central London.

What was that melody?

He sat at the piano, trying to re-create the notes he had heard in his sleep.

It felt so familiar.

He finally put it together: G, F-sharp minor 7th, B, E minor, and E. He played it again and again. He loved the way it sounded but was certain the melody must come from some half-forgotten song he had heard before. Like many musicians, he fretted that he might be borrowing the melody of another song. Too familiar, he thought. Where have I heard this before?

The melody McCartney heard in his dream would ultimately become “Yesterday,” the most recorded song in music history with three thousand different versions. It has been played more than seven million times on American television and radio and is the fourth-highest-grossing song of all time.

McCartney himself once said of his famous song, “It is possibly the smash of this century.” Indeed, “Yesterday” may well have been one of the twentieth century’s biggest hits, and, apparently, it was the result of a dream. He told an interviewer for The Beatles Anthology that the experience had a profound impact on how he viewed creativity: “It’s amazing that it just came to me in a dream. That’s why I don’t profess to know anything; I think music is all very mystical.”

For creativity researchers, Paul McCartney’s sudden melodic epiphany is a classic example of creativity coming to an artist unplanned, in a flash of genius: a “moment of inspiration,” in which an idea suddenly rises to one’s conscious awareness. It is the unexpected nature of these bursts of inspiration, with no apparent origin, that gives them a supernatural quality. Anyone who has had a great idea in the shower or on a run or walk has experienced some version of these moments.

Whether it is J. K. Rowling being struck with the idea for Harry Potter on a train to London, or Mozart being able to compose songs without effort, these accounts have become modern-day staples of what I call the inspiration theory of creativity: the idea that creative success results from a mysterious internal process punctuated by unpredictable flashes of genius. And our culture has embraced the idea that a self-reliant person, born with the right innate talents, can produce hits out of sheer inspiration.

What’s more, this view is not confined to the traditional arts, like music and literature. Steve Jobs, the prototypical genius of the digital age, explained, in an often-repeated quote, that creativity is an organic process: “When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.”

The inspiration theory of creativity dominates how most people think about creative greatness today. But why do these sudden moments of inspiration occur? Is sheer IQ genius the only explanation? If we studied the settings of these creative moments, would they verify or disprove the inspiration theory?

Name That Tune

The morning the melody for “Yesterday” came to McCartney was a typical lazy day. As was his routine, he awoke around noon. He and his girlfriend Jane would often stay out late at London’s restaurants and clubs.

McCartney worried about why the melody he woke up with was so clear, so concise. It seemed too finished, too complete. He assumed he had accidently plagiarized it. Was it from one of the classics he had heard his father play so often? “Stairway to Paradise”? “Chicago”? “Lullaby of the Leaves”?

The Beatles were thoughtful about creating their hits. Lennon once described to an interviewer how intentional the band had been when writing their first number-one single, “Please Please Me”: “We tried to make it as simple as possible . . . ​we aimed this one straight at the hit parade. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song.”

For McCartney, “Yesterday” was an explicit exception to his typical methodical songwriting process. The tune of “Yesterday” was like “a jazz melody,” McCartney later said. “My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes. I thought maybe I’d just remembered it from the past.”

He went to his friends and asked if they recognized the song.

First, he asked his songwriting partner, John Lennon. Lennon told him he had never heard it before. Still skeptical, McCartney tried his friend Lionel Bart, who had composed numerous hit songs. When McCartney hummed the melody, Bart drew a blank. It seemed as if the song might be original.

Still not convinced, McCartney pressed on. He tried to think of someone older and more experienced, someone who might be able to clear his conscience.

A few days later, McCartney visited Alma Cogan, a British singer known for the song “Dreamboat” and sixteen other hits. If anyone could recognize the song, she could.

He sat down at the piano and played the melody for Cogan and her sister. “It’s lovely,” Cogan said when he was done.

Had she heard it before? McCartney asked. Was it someone else’s song?

Cogan said, “No. It’s original. Nice song.”

Finally, McCartney was persuaded. He had seemingly dreamed a masterful melody, following the mystical nature of the inspiration theory of creativity.

We can interpret the inspiration theory in one of two ways.

The positive view is that a flash of genius can strike anyone. “Yesterday” came to McCartney in a dream, outside of his control. It’s possible that all of us can dream a chart-topping melody.

On the other hand, most of us believe that if we lack the raw talent or innate genius, these moments will never strike. The inspiration theory of creativity is only relevant for those born with so-called genius.

As a result, many of us are tempted to put aside any ambition to become the next great musician, novelist, or entrepreneur, settling instead to be a consumer or patron of the arts. Meanwhile, the optimistic ones are just waiting, hoping for a sudden flash of inspiration to visit them.

The inspiration theory is supported by countless anecdotes from the creative artists of our time. Authors talk of waiting for creative inspiration. Entrepreneurs talk of waiting for a great idea to strike. Musicians talk of falling into a creative groove.

There are countless books and blog posts on creativity, offering suggestions on how we can push through writer’s block or discover our “flow.” Biopics of great artists amplify the inevitability of their creativity, as well as suggesting it is the domain of mad geniuses.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are left on the sidelines.

But what if this entire theory is wrong? What if you don’t have to wait for lightning to strike?

The Road to “Yesterday”

While the sudden creation story of “Yesterday” is relatively well known, what is less known is how McCartney went from the original melody to crafting the full song.

The notion that this song came to McCartney in an instant is wrong.

All that had come to him in the dream was a simple chord progression. When McCartney awoke with a melody in his head, it was a long way from a completed song. For one thing, the tune had no words. He knew he needed to come up with placeholder lyrics while he continued...

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Verlag
Crown Currency
Erscheinungsdatum
2018
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1524761710
ISBN 13 
9781524761714
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
288
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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