📚 Book Review: Originals by Adam Grant

Creative geniuses aren’t necessarily better in their fields than their peers. “They simple produced a greater volume of work, which gave them more variation and a higher chance of originality.”

Started this book over the summer and recently finished it. Great content, don’t really care for his writing style (doesn’t get to the point fast enough for me, but several other friends like it). Several interesting things about the creative process, including:

• It is a myth that originality requires extreme risk taking. This parallels a myth about successful founders and business owners — they are actually great at minimizing risk.
• Creative geniuses aren’t necessarily better in their fields than their peers. “They simple produced a greater volume of work, which gave them more variation and a higher chance of originality.” In other words, the more work you get out the door, the higher likelihood that you’ll produce something great.
• There is value in procrastination, especially when you are synthesizing new ideas in a creative way.
• Probably the biggest take away for me: “Conceptual innovators formulate a big idea and set out to execute it. Experimental innovators solve problems through trial and error, learning and evolving as they go along….conceptual innovators are sprinters, and experimental innovators are marathoners…while experimental innovation can require years or decades to accumulate the requisite knowledge and skill, it becomes a more sustainable source or originality.” Hoping I am an experimental innovator and not just slow 😉

FYI: Grant gave a good Ted Talk a couple of years ago that you should check out.

Amazon Link