Adam Grant Quotes

When trying to innovate, most people stop after 10-15 possibilities, failing to recognize that their first ideas are usually the most obvious ones.

I apply the term 'creativity' broadly... it's problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that's where creativity comes in.

When you have a creative mind it doesn't stop going.

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. It is a process; it's not random.

I never sit down and write. I just sorta let things form in my brain.

I'm always looking for the creative spark. Always.

To generate creative ideas, it's important to start from an unusual place. But to explain those ideas, they have to be connected to something familiar.

Creativity requires novelty. Imagination is all about counterfactuals and untested possibilities that don't yet exist.

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

Creativity is just connecting things. 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. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things.

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

Sometimes I think that creativity is a matter of seeing, or stumbling over, unobvious similarities between things - like composing a fresh metaphor, but on a more complex scale.

I tend to wake up in the middle of the night with ideas crying to be documented.

Usually my ideas are small.

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.

I really believe that a writer is someone who has trained their mind to misbehave.

The profession of being a creative thinker is not so obvious.

If we have a great idea, we'll go, 'Oh, this could be a cool movie.' Or really for us, it's more like, 'Oh, this is a really bad idea. Let's do this. This seems really stupid.'

An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them.

Creativity requires input, and that's what research is. You're gathering material with which to build.

It's always good to take an orthogonal view of something. It develops ideas.

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.

It's not enough to tell people to be creative; they need to know how, and what to create.

Usually, the best ideas come from having to fix a really hard problem.

When you have one idea per year, it's already a miracle!