Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385414625 ISBN 13: 9780385414623

Publisher: Main Street Books, 1995

Following the extraordinary international success of Tom Wujec's first book, Pumping Ions, Five Star Mind teaches you to unlock and expand the creative potential you already possess -- although you might not know it -- and develop it to give you confidence and skills that will enhance your work and your life.

Using puzzles, tips, thought association, relaxation techniques, games of "What If," and constant questioning, Tom Wujec cajoles you into realizing your inherent power for creative thought and expression. In addition to helping you discover your innate abilities, Wujec shows you innumerable ways to apply your new ideas and creativity to work, to everyday life, or to just having fun. With Five Star Mind, you participate in the creative process, develop your inventiveness and imagination, and enhance skills that will have you cooking up five-star ideas of your own!

About the Author:

Tom Wujec is creative dirtector of Digital Media Services at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.  He lectures internationally on the subjects of multimedia interface design, computer animation, and developing content for CD-ROM titles and electronic information networks.  Tom has studied psychology and astrophysics at the University of Toronto.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Everyday Creativity

Many people don't see themselves as creative because  they don't have a huge audience.  They think that creative activities have to be the big "C" creative acts associated with writing a novel or composing a symphony.  They tend to overlook the many ways in which they display flair and imagination in their own lives.  Maintaining such a narrow view of creativity leads them to conclude that creativity is a rare trait belonging to poets and artists and geniuses.  But the chef is creative when she makes a variation on a souffl* recipe.  A bricklayer is creative when he produces a different pattern.  A guard is creative when he does the rounds in less time.  Often, the only difference between the big "C" and the little "c" creative acts is the size of the audience.

Creative Cerebral Cuisine

Anyone who has dabbled in creative activities -- writing poems, composing jingles or even managing a project -- knows that things don't always work the first time around.  Getting an idea right is a process that can take some time -- sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

At the beginning of the process, you have an idea of your idea, a partly formed notion of what you want to have happen.  You're not entirely sure what you're going to come up with.  (If you did, you wouldn't actually be creating something new.)  To develop that idea, you think in different ways, sometimes mentally walking around concepts, other times focusing on single approaches.

No single description or approach accurately describes what we do when we create.  Throughout this book, we'll be using a variety of metaphors and analogies to explore the many facets of creative thought.  One metaphor is particularly powerful and expressive:

Developing an idea is like cooking a meal.

The "preparing a meal for the mind" metaphor highlights several types of thinking which contribute to creative ideas.  As a mental chef, you plan a menu, visit the idea market and gather a variety of fresh ingredients -- data and information.  You clean and sort the ideas, separating the relevant from the irrelevant, then mix, blend and toss thoughts together, joining facts with hunches, speculations with observation.  You cook, simmer and stew ideas, allowing juices and spices to mingle.  In the end, if all goes well, you produce a well-cooked meal, ideas to nourish and satisfy.