Introduction
Creativity is often seen as a mysterious force, something that strikes like lightning or emerges fully-formed from the minds of geniuses. But in "The Runaway Species," Anthony Brandt argues that human creativity follows predictable patterns and principles that we can understand and cultivate. By examining breakthroughs in technology, art, science, and other fields, Brandt reveals the underlying mechanics of how humans innovate and reimagine the world around them.
This book takes readers on a journey through the creative process, exploring how even the most revolutionary ideas build on what came before. It breaks down creativity into core cognitive strategies that allow us to bend, break, and blend existing concepts into new forms. Along the way, we'll encounter spider-goats, concrete pianos, artificial hearts, and other fascinating examples of human ingenuity at work.
"The Runaway Species" offers valuable insights for anyone looking to understand and enhance their own creative potential or foster innovation in organizations. It shows that creativity is not a rare gift, but a fundamental human capacity that can be developed and channeled. By grasping the principles behind how we generate novel ideas, we can all learn to think more imaginatively and contribute to reshaping our world.
The Building Blocks of Creativity
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
One of the key insights of "The Runaway Species" is that even the most groundbreaking innovations are built on a foundation of existing ideas and technologies. We often think of creative breakthroughs as coming out of nowhere, but in reality, they are the product of recombining and reimagining what already exists.
Brandt illustrates this principle with the example of the iPhone. When it was unveiled in 2007, the iPhone seemed revolutionary - a sleek device that combined a phone, music player, and computer in your pocket. But while it was certainly innovative, the iPhone wasn't created in a vacuum. It built upon and refined concepts from earlier devices like IBM's Simon smartphone from 1994. The Simon had a touchscreen, apps, and other features that foreshadowed the modern smartphone. But it was held back by short battery life, high call costs, and limited software. Apple took these core ideas and dramatically improved upon them to create a product that resonated with consumers.
This pattern of innovation building on past ideas appears across all creative fields. Even revered artistic geniuses drew heavily on their influences and predecessors. For instance, a study of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's personal library revealed that many of his most striking poetic images and phrases were inspired by or adapted from books he had read. Like Apple refining smartphone concepts, Coleridge took existing literary raw materials and reshaped them into something new and powerful.
Understanding that creativity involves remixing and improving upon existing ideas is liberating. It means we don't have to generate completely original concepts from scratch. Instead, we can look to the world around us for inspiration and raw materials to recombine in novel ways.
Bending: Reshaping Existing Templates
One of the core creative strategies Brandt identifies is "bending" - taking an existing model or concept and reshaping it in a new direction. This often involves upgrading or improving upon a template to solve problems or unlock new possibilities.
A powerful example of bending in action comes from the field of artificial hearts. For decades, engineers tried to replicate the pumping action of a biological heart. But in 2004, doctors Billy Cohn and Bud Frazier took a different approach. Instead of mimicking nature's design, they bent the concept by creating a continuous flow artificial heart. This solved many of the mechanical issues that plagued pulsing artificial hearts and proved to be a major breakthrough.
Bending also appears frequently in the arts. Playwright Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" tells the story of an affair, but bends the typical linear narrative by moving backwards in time. Starting at the end of the relationship and working back to its beginning creates a unique perspective on the characters and events.
By identifying opportunities to reshape existing models, we can often find creative solutions or new artistic expressions. Bending allows us to build on proven concepts while taking them in unexpected directions.
Breaking: Fracturing Ideas into Components
Another key creative strategy is "breaking" - taking objects, concepts, or systems and fracturing them into smaller components that can be rearranged. This process of decomposition and recombination is a powerful way to generate novel ideas and approaches.
We can see breaking at work in the evolution of cinema. Early films played out in real-time with minimal editing. But innovative filmmakers began to break this rigid formula, using cuts to compress time and show only the most relevant moments. This culminated in techniques like the famous breakfast montage in Citizen Kane, which uses a series of quick scenes to show the deterioration of a marriage over many years.
Breaking appears in language as well, as we fracture words into shorter forms like turning "gymnasium" into "gym" or create acronyms like "TV" and "FYI". These linguistic breaks allow us to communicate more efficiently.
The strategy of breaking reminds us that complex ideas and systems can often be deconstructed into basic building blocks. By breaking things down and reassembling the pieces in new ways, we open up a world of creative possibilities.
Blending: Combining Diverse Elements
The third core creative strategy Brandt explores is "blending" - combining diverse and often seemingly incompatible elements to create something new. This cognitive tendency to mix different concepts shows up across human cultures, from ancient myths about hybrid creatures to modern superhero stories.
But blending isn't limited to fiction - it's also a powerful tool for real-world innovation. Geneticist Randy Lewis provides a striking example with his creation of "spider-goats". Lewis wanted to produce spider silk (which has incredible strength and elasticity) on a commercial scale. But farming spiders proved impractical. His solution was to splice the silk-producing genes from spiders into goats, creating animals that could produce spider silk proteins in their milk. This unlikely combination of goat and spider opened up new possibilities for materials science.
Blending allows us to transcend the limitations of individual concepts or technologies by merging their strengths. It challenges us to look for unexpected connections and combinations that might yield breakthrough ideas.
Fostering Creativity
Embracing Imperfection and Iteration
A key insight from "The Runaway Species" is that creativity flourishes when we're willing to generate many imperfect ideas rather than seeking one perfect solution. Brandt argues that we should emulate nature's approach to innovation - creating endless variations and letting the environment determine what succeeds.
This principle is illustrated by the story of George Washington Carver's advocacy for peanut farming. When testifying before Congress in 1921, Carver didn't focus on one ideal use for peanuts. Instead, he rattled off over 100 potential peanut products, from ice cream to ink. Not all of these ideas were practical, but by generating a flood of options, Carver was able to capture imaginations and make a compelling case for peanut cultivation.
Even renowned inventors like Thomas Edison embraced this approach of rapid ideation and experimentation. Edison's concrete piano may have been a flop, but he understood that generating unsuccessful ideas was an inevitable part of the creative process. By being willing to fail and move on quickly, Edison was able to eventually hit upon world-changing innovations.
This mindset of embracing imperfection and iteration is crucial for unlocking creativity. Rather than getting stuck trying to perfect a single idea, we should aim to generate many options and refine the most promising ones through experimentation.
Creating Environments that Nurture Creativity
Brandt explores how organizations and educational institutions can foster creativity by creating environments that encourage experimentation and forward-thinking. Creative organizations tend to focus not just on solving today's problems, but on anticipating and preparing for future challenges - even if those challenges never materialize.
Microsoft exemplifies this approach with its experimental underwater data centers. Recognizing that cooling is a major challenge for traditional data centers, Microsoft is testing the viability of submerging servers in the ocean to naturally regulate temperature. This kind of bold experimentation, aimed at solving future problems, is a hallmark of innovative organizations.
In education, fostering creativity often means teaching students to see the world as malleable and open to reinvention. Art teacher Lindsay Esola demonstrates this by having students draw apples at the beginning and end of a semester. Initially, most students simply copy her drawing. But after exploring various artistic styles, the students produce wildly varied and creative apple drawings, having internalized the idea that even simple objects can be reimagined.
By creating spaces that value experimentation, tolerate failure, and encourage looking beyond immediate concerns, we can cultivate environments where creativity thrives.
The Neuroscience of Creativity
While "The Runaway Species" focuses primarily on the cognitive strategies and principles of creativity, it also touches on the neuroscience underlying our creative capacities. Understanding how our brains generate and process novel ideas can provide valuable insights into nurturing creativity.
The Creative Brain
Research has shown that creativity isn't localized to a single "creative center" in the brain. Instead, it involves complex interactions between various brain regions. When we engage in creative thinking, we see increased activity and connectivity in areas associated with:
- Memory retrieval: Accessing stored information and experiences
- Attention control: Focusing on relevant information and filtering out distractions
- Cognitive flexibility: Shifting between different modes of thinking
- Imagination: Visualizing and manipulating mental imagery
- Executive function: Planning, decision-making, and self-control
This distributed nature of creative cognition aligns with Brandt's view of creativity as a process of recombining and reimagining existing elements. Our brains are constantly making new connections between disparate pieces of information, which can lead to novel insights and ideas.
The Default Mode Network
One intriguing area of creativity research focuses on the default mode network (DMN) - a set of interconnected brain regions that become active when we're not focused on the external world. The DMN is associated with daydreaming, self-reflection, and mind-wandering.
Studies have found that people with more robust connections in their DMN tend to score higher on measures of creativity. This suggests that allowing our minds to wander and make free associations may be crucial for creative thinking. It's often during these unfocused moments that we have unexpected insights or come up with novel solutions to problems.
This research supports the value of taking breaks, engaging in meditation, or simply allowing time for unstructured thought as part of the creative process. By giving our brains space to make spontaneous connections, we may be able to enhance our creative output.
Neuroplasticity and Creative Growth
Another important concept in understanding the neuroscience of creativity is neuroplasticity - the brain's ability to form new neural connections and reorganize itself throughout life. This means that our creative capacities aren't fixed; we can actively strengthen the neural networks involved in creative thinking through practice and exposure to new experiences.
Engaging in creative activities, learning new skills, and exposing ourselves to diverse ideas all help to build new neural pathways and enhance our creative potential. This aligns with Brandt's emphasis on the importance of drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources and continuously experimenting with new ideas.
Applications of Creative Thinking
Innovation in Business
The principles of creativity outlined in "The Runaway Species" have significant implications for innovation in the business world. Companies that want to stay competitive need to cultivate environments that encourage bending, breaking, and blending of ideas.
Some strategies for fostering business innovation based on these principles include:
Cross-pollination: Encourage collaboration between different departments or even with outside industries to blend diverse perspectives and expertise.
Rapid prototyping: Embrace quick iterations and imperfect prototypes to test and refine ideas rapidly.
Future-focused thinking: Allocate resources to exploring potential future challenges and opportunities, even if they may never materialize.
Incentivize creativity: Reward employees for contributing innovative ideas, not just for executing existing plans.
Create space for unstructured thinking: Allow time for brainstorming, daydreaming, and exploring tangential ideas that might lead to unexpected breakthroughs.
By applying these creativity-enhancing approaches, businesses can become more adaptable, innovative, and better positioned to solve complex problems.
Creativity in Education
Brandt's insights also have profound implications for how we approach education. To prepare students for a rapidly changing world, schools need to move beyond rote memorization and standardized testing to cultivate creative thinking skills.
Some potential applications in education include:
Project-based learning: Engage students in complex, open-ended projects that require creative problem-solving and integration of knowledge from multiple disciplines.
Emphasize process over product: Teach students to value the creative process, including generating multiple ideas and learning from failures, rather than focusing solely on final outcomes.
Encourage questioning and reimagining: Create assignments that ask students to bend, break, or blend existing ideas in novel ways.
Integrate arts education: Recognize the value of artistic expression in developing creative thinking skills that transfer to other domains.
Teach creative cognitive strategies: Explicitly instruct students in techniques for generating and developing creative ideas.
By fostering creativity alongside traditional academic skills, education systems can better prepare students to innovate and adapt in their future careers and lives.
Personal Creative Development
On an individual level, understanding the principles of creativity can help us enhance our own creative capacities. Some strategies for personal creative development inspired by "The Runaway Species" include:
Cultivate diverse interests: Expose yourself to a wide range of ideas, cultures, and disciplines to provide raw material for creative blending.
Practice idea generation: Regularly engage in exercises to generate multiple ideas without judgment, embracing quantity over quality initially.
Seek out new experiences: Challenge yourself to try new activities and visit new places to create novel neural connections.
Keep an idea journal: Record observations, questions, and half-formed ideas that might spark future creative insights.
Embrace constraints: Use limitations as a creative stimulus, forcing yourself to bend and break existing ideas to work within boundaries.
Collaborate with others: Engage in creative exchanges with people from different backgrounds to blend diverse perspectives.
Make time for reflection: Allow for periods of unstructured thinking to let your default mode network make unexpected connections.
By consciously applying these strategies, we can strengthen our creative muscles and become more adept at generating innovative ideas in all areas of life.
Ethical Considerations in Creativity
While "The Runaway Species" primarily focuses on the cognitive processes and benefits of creativity, it's important to also consider the ethical implications of unfettered innovation. As we bend, break, and blend ideas to create new technologies and reshape our world, we must also grapple with the potential consequences of our creations.
Responsible Innovation
The power of human creativity to transform the world brings with it a responsibility to consider the broader impacts of our innovations. As we develop new technologies or ideas, we should ask questions like:
- What are the potential unintended consequences of this innovation?
- Who might be negatively affected by this change?
- Are we creating or exacerbating inequalities?
- What are the long-term environmental impacts?
By integrating ethical considerations into the creative process, we can strive for innovations that not only push boundaries but also contribute positively to society and the planet.
Creativity and AI
As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, questions arise about the relationship between human and machine creativity. While AI can generate novel combinations and solutions, it currently lacks the contextual understanding and emotional intelligence that often drive human creative breakthroughs.
However, AI tools can augment human creativity by rapidly generating and testing ideas or identifying patterns that humans might miss. The challenge moving forward will be to find ways to collaborate with AI that enhance rather than replace human creative capacities.
Balancing Tradition and Innovation
While creativity often involves breaking from tradition, it's important to recognize the value of cultural heritage and established knowledge. Innovation should not come at the cost of erasing history or dismissing accumulated wisdom.
The most powerful creativity often comes from deeply understanding existing systems and traditions, then thoughtfully bending or blending them to create something new. This balanced approach allows us to build on the best of what came before while still pushing boundaries and exploring new possibilities.
Conclusion: Unleashing Our Creative Potential
"The Runaway Species" presents a compelling vision of human creativity as a fundamental force shaping our world. By understanding the cognitive strategies of bending, breaking, and blending, we gain insight into how innovation happens and how we can cultivate it in ourselves and our institutions.
The book's key takeaways include:
- Creativity builds on existing ideas, recombining and reimagining them in novel ways.
- Generating many imperfect ideas is often more productive than seeking one perfect solution.
- Environments that encourage experimentation and forward-thinking foster creativity.
- Our brains are wired for creativity, but we can strengthen these capacities through practice and exposure to diverse experiences.
- Applying creative thinking strategies can drive innovation in business, education, and personal development.
Brandt's work challenges us to see the world not as fixed, but as raw material waiting to be reshaped. By embracing our innate creative capacities and consciously applying strategies to enhance them, we can all contribute to the ongoing process of remaking our world.
As we face complex global challenges and rapid technological change, cultivating creativity becomes more crucial than ever. "The Runaway Species" offers a roadmap for unlocking our creative potential and harnessing it to build a better future. By understanding and nurturing our "runaway" creative instincts, we can continue to push the boundaries of what's possible and shape the world in positive ways.