January 7, 2011 49 Comments

11 Free Resources About Creativity

Want some ideas about creativity? I found some files and ebooks that might be of value to you. Note: these are all PDF files.

How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. (updated because the old article crashed.)

Creativity – Its Place in Education.

EyeWire Creativity Cards.

The Nature of Creativity.

From Creative Economy to Creative Society.

The Impact of Culture on Creativity.

Harnessing Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace.

Creativity and Personality.

Creativity Management – the New Challenge for BPM.

Creativity and Innovation in Europe.

Having Fun at Work.

The other creative thing, I should mention, is that this took me about 20 minutes of searching and then proofing the articles to ensure that they’re what I was searching for, and compiling them into a useful list for people interested in learning more about creativity. The tools we have at our disposal today allow us to curate useful information for our communities, which saves time, and adds another potential layer of value.

What’s your take? What values are you adding to your community by helping them curate and find the good stuff? How are you helping your community grow with this information?

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http://www.bloommedia.co.uk Claire Hunter-Smith

Thank you for sharing these Chris- some really inspiring viewpoints and useful tips! :) I’m off to be creative now, hope you have a great weekend.
http://www.clearmindedcreative.com Milo

Look forward to devouring these Chris. I’m planning on doing a similar post for my blog with a bunch of free ebooks I’ve read and enjoyed. I wouldn’t recommend anything I hadn’t actually got something out of myself.
http://ernestoalegre.com/ ernesto alegre

Thank you very much for this resources, Chris.
Just FYI, the first link to the pdf file was removed, it doesn’t works.
Thanks again!
http://www.tee-dp.com/ teedp

Hi Chrsi
http://twitter.com/MaxineMcClellan Maxine T. McClellan

Chris – the giving never stops… we should all strive to be so generous. Thanks for these postings. They are very timely for me. Maxine
http://twitter.com/MaxineMcClellan Maxine T. McClellan

Chris – the giving never stops… we should all strive to be so generous. Thanks for these postings. They are very timely for me. Maxine
Jim Kelley

Chris…great “stuff”…great reading for the weekend…(note the Pixar link does not appear to be working)

Cheers!

http://abhinavsahai.com Abhinav Sahai

+1 for Pixar Link
http://abhinavsahai.com Abhinav Sahai

+1 for Pixar Link
http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

I found another copy. Sorry about that.

http://www.girlpluscamera.com/ Elizabeth Williams

I still can’t see the Pixar piece. :(

http://www.loususi.com loususi

one way i add value to my community … i just retweeted this blogPost ;]

really nice collection of links about creativity, a topic that is at the forefront of my mind … just a little thing i’ve been doing as a web design + user experience designer + educator as of late, i bring a giant drawing pad to just about every meeting i set up or attend where the potential for collaboration might come up … something big enough for me + others to co-draw on + ‘visually think’ about what we’re trying to do … sort of like live, interdisciplinary, collaborative mindmapping to mine for the ideas that are at times buried in the subconscious … i’m an avid notetaker to begin with, an unconventional nerd at the core, almost like a life nerd ( meaning that my notes are more about reflecting my experience on a broader sense + scale, and then i focus them per project or collaboration ) … anyhow, bringing the sketchbook provides this amazing prop for this visual + conversational exchange … its our paper sandbox + immediate playground for capturing the concepts + ideas that spout forth naturally over the course of any given conversation … i bring the sketchpad, pencils + pens — and then sometimes colored pencils + markers, just in case we can find certain amazing connections between the various parts of the visual conversation

in a way, its a more productive way of breaking the ice … i used to bring my acoustic guitar out to WebEx when i worked in Burlington … its amazing how many people i met just by propping my guitar at the opening of my cube … some would overstay their welcome, but most were too cool for school + should’ve been opening for the DMB

piece out ;] … good weekends everyone! enjoy

http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

Awesome, Lou. Thanks for sharing that. : )

http://www.communityirl.com/ brandonchesnutt

Great timing. I just watched the new documentary on Industrial Light & Magic this past weekend. It really fueled my creative engine.
http://thoughtwrestling.com/blog Mark Dykeman

Thank you, Chris – this is the kind of stuff we like to talk about at Thoughtwrestling ;)

In all seriousness, I haven’t seen many of these before (shame on me) so I’ll definitely want to check them out.
http://thoughtwrestling.com/blog Mark Dykeman

Actually, I’m getting a 404 error on the Pixar link (the very first one)… it’s not behind a paywall, is it?

http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

Fixed it. I think we crashed their server. : (

Kradr2

Simple, in every given moment, the most creative even happens right in front of you. It is the present. Often realized in a joke or key observation . With a well timed spontaneous, improvised joke, it is like the slitting of an atom. In place of a giant flash, a smile and happy face. The sound waves are often furious. In place of mass destruction, mass connections. And the light, the light of insight and inspiration…. These bombs often land in passing, at the water cooler, in the check out line. Random, mercurial, the joker loves it that way.
http://eggsactamundo.wordpress.com Kate

Do you know the movie, “Why Man Creates?” Brilliant film from the 70s.
http://info-architecure.blogspot.com driessen

Nice post, Chris!
http://www.theunblogger.com Marnie

Thanks for the list, Chris. It looks great!
http://joshmuirhead.ca Josh Muirhead

Excellent post this morning Mr. Brogan (it was that good)

However, I think the most important point from the whole post was how you concluded. Personally, I strive to have one link within every post that will help people. It might be a better way to use a tool, a new form of thinking, or just something cool that will hopefully inspire them.

This is an often forgotten point with many new bloggers (and older bloggers as well), as they get so caught up in “publishing” they forget that this is all for someone else.

Stay Connected,

Josh
http://www.danieldecker.net Daniel Decker

Great resources. Love the curate idea. Makes me think of you magazine post for some reason. Magazines curate… don’t they?

The top two posts on my blog for organic search traffic are curated posts. 1) 25 Free eBooks on Marketing, Productivity, Business and Leadership 2) Top Books Every Young Leaders / Influencer Should Read.

Yeah, people could have found them on their own but make it easy for them helps me be a resource. I like that and apparently they do too. :)
http://www.tonyjalicea.com Tony Alicea

I literally just asked someone this morning if they had any resources for creativity. Did you hear me or something?
http://www.yourunderconstruction.com Michael Gusky

Thanks Chris. Very timely in two ways. I was both looking for ways to improve my creativity while also struggling with whether or not just providing links to other material was actually adding value. I really like the concept of curating useful content adding value. I know I find it useful and hopefully so will my community…..when I get one. :)
http://www.workingnaked.com Lisa Kanarek

As more of a left-brain thinker, I’m always looking for ways to be more creative. This list is a great resource. I especially like the connection a few of the resources make between being creative and actually having fun. Coming up with good ideas isn’t as easy as it looks!
http://raulcolon.net Raul Colon

Thanks for always thinking of us! These articles are great!
http://thewisdomguy.com/ Hank Wasiak

Thanks Chris. Great resources and as always you “share the wealth”. Have a great 2011

H
http://www.ricardobueno.com Ricardo Bueno

…speaking of which, I need to finish building my “Resources” page on my blog. Pretty sure I’m over-thinking it at this point.

Hope you’re having a blast at #CES!
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http://twitter.com/peterdurand peterdurand

Great articles. BTW, the guy in the photo is Lloyd Dangle who is using “graphic recording”…. one of the best tools for creativity out there!
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http://www.dtx.in/ DTX Studios

Great post. Thanks for the share.
http://www.verzdesign.com Web Design Singapore

Thank you so much for this post. I found it really useful. I love the look of your blog btw!
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http://jim.shamlin.com Jim Shamlin

I’m not sure it’s a good thing that it took only twenty minutes to compile a list of eleven articles – what it means is that you spent less than two minutes on each one – which in turn means you gave each item only a cursory glance before deciding it was worthwhile for other people to invest (significantly more of) their own time in reading them.

It’s not my intention to criticize or express ingratitude for the effort – twenty minutes of your life was spent doing something for the benefit of others, which should be appreciated for what it’s worth – but in response to your question of whether casually gathering lists of resources is creating value for a community, I’m not so sure. On one hand, its a necessary first step in a research process – but on the other hand, I think it may waste more time than it saves – more people will spend more time reading content of less relevance.

My sense is that, in order for a list of references to be useful, it requires a bit more effort. Either one person can spend a bit more time on the task, reading the articles and putting more effort into deciding into whether they are useful, or you can count on a more social approach (a la del.icio.us) in which the judgment of a larger audience, some of whom have presumably read what they are recommending to others, is considered.

In that way, curation is important and valuable to a community of interest – but its value is directly related to the amount of effort put into the act of curation, or more aptly, the amount of time it saves the community in need of relevant information.
http://www.sandyslipper.com Fabian

Thank you for the resources Chris, in an age and time when we have so many distractions fighting for our free time. I appreciate you taking the time out, to send out some tidbits of information that could possibly have a monumental impact.Keep it up!
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http://lateralaction.com Mark McGuinness

Great selection, thanks! This is going out to my list and some of the links will be added to my Pathfinder course.
http://nitgreen.com/ Just Green

Resourceful list,

Nicely put together thanks for sharing.
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Anonymous

Really great ideas about creativity.. Informative article.. Thanks for sharing this..
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11 Free Resources About Creativity

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