4 Ways to Hack Your Inner Creativity

(Note: As with this newsletter, the Pinkcasts will be freeIf you haven't guessed - I love Daniel Pink and what he has to say!  Here's his latest: Welcome to the latest edition of our irregular and irreverent newsletter. Thanks for being one of more than 100,000 people around the world who subscribe. Let’s get started.   4 WAYS TO HACK YOUR INNER CREATIVITY What do Thomas Edison, Frida Kahlo, and Michael Jackson have in common? No, they haven’t all recently launched a podcast. Instead, they grace the pages of a terrific new book that tries to reverse-engineer that elusive quality/trait/skill known as “creativity.” In Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (Buy it atAmazon, BN.com, or IndieBound), University of Pennsylvania psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman and writer Carolyn Gregoire enlist psychology and neuroscience to examine some of history’s finest “messy minds.” The result is a fascinating look at the often contradictory habits and practices of the most creative people. I asked Kaufman to share some advice with newsletter readers. Here are his 4 tips: 1. Make time for solitude. For all the hoopla over collaboration, open offices, and constant connection, we can easily forget the value of solitude. The benefits of solitude are many, including the opportunity to find flow, daydream constructively, and think about the meaning of your life. For optimal creativity, set aside time for solitude -- from taking a walk in nature to carving out moments when you’re fully removed from social distractions. 2. Think differently – intentionally.  Creative people are nonconformists. The most original contributions in any field don’t result from efforts to please the crowd. Research by Emory neuroscientist Gregory Berns suggests that iconoclasts “bombard the brain with new experiences,” which scrambles existing categories and forges new connections. So take a different route to work. Spend time abroad. Listen to a new genre of music. And the more intentional we are, the better. One study of more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and business executives found that innovators spend 50 percent more time trying to think differently -- and these intentional efforts sparked new ideas and associations. 3. Try open-monitoring meditation. We’ve all heard the benefits of meditation. But research by Italian cognitive scientist Lorenza Colzato and her colleagues shows one type of meditation is particularly effective for creative thinking. It’s called “open-monitoring” meditation – in which you are receptive to your thoughts and emotions without focusing intensely on, say, your breath or a mantra. By contrast, the more traditional focused-attention meditation was better for “convergent thinking” (coming up with a single best solution to a problem). So depending on where you are in the creative process, try to make time for at least a 15-minute meditation. 4. Embrace adversity. History’s creative geniuses weren’t tortured souls. But they were adept at finding meaning and guidance from their setbacks. Some of the greatest creators had a seeming disadvantage -- a disability, mental illness, or loss of a parent -- which they channeled into their art, writing, or entrepreneurship. To help with your own creative growth, view every setback as an opportunity to reflect: What can I learn from this and how can I put this into my work? More info: Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind |  NY Times review of the book    HELP WANTED: BETA TESTERS FOR A NEW PROJECT What comes after the podcast? I’ve got a guess, but I need your help. I’m playing around with an idea that I call “Pinkcasts” — informal, 60-second weekly videos designed for people to watch on their smartphones. The topics for each Pinkcast would vary — from productivity and travel tips to reading recommendations to behind-the-scenes glimpses of cool events to whatever whacked-out idea I happen to have on my mind. But before I go crazy and commit my limited time (and even more limited brainpower) to something like this, I want to test the concept. So I need a few beta-testers. The only requirements are the willingness to receive 4 weekly 60-second video missives and to offer some very brief feedback.  of charge and free of advertising. And I won’t sell, trade, or share your email address in any way at any time.) If you’re interested in helping me test this idea by watching and reacting to 4 Pinkcasts, please sign up here: http://www.danpink.com/pinkcast/ More info: Pinkcast beta test   10 ARTICLES WORTH READING From my Instapaper account to your inbox, here are 10 articles that made me think or laugh (and sometimes both): One-Sentence Financial Rules — 61 nuggets of incisive advice from Motley Fool’s Morgan Housel. Tech Companies Need English Majors Just As Much As They Need Engineers — Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson channels A Whole New Mind. We Like Leaders Who Underrate Themselves — Harvard Business Review supplies empirical evidence for why humble bosses are more effective. How to Manage Your Time: 5 Secrets Backed by Research — Some great advice (as usual) from Eric Barker. 20 cognitive biases that screw up your decisions — Business Insider scores with this excellent list and nifty graphic. The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy — "'Take my wife … please' is the Platonic ideal of a joke," says this epic, video-packed piece from Vulture. What the rest of the world wonders about America, according to Google — Search engine data reveals those outside the US want to know why Americans love guns, hate Canadians, and have such white teeth. 40 Inspiring Workplaces of the Insanely Creative — I prefer de Kooning’s space - but in a pinch, I’ll take E.B. White’s. 10 books every new manager should read — I’m a tad biased, but I do like this list. Phil Jackson, Pat Summit, Mary Karr, and a special triangular connection — From the Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins, a spectacular piece about basketball, poetry, Alzheimers, and life.  ONE LAST FREEBIE Over at danpink.com, we’ve got a new free resource. It’s a 20-page PDF called “20 Books That Have Mattered To Me” — and it describes, well, you’ve probably figured it out. You can get it here. That’s it for this edition. Thanks for reading our humble newsletter. Cheers, Daniel Pink

I LOVE DANIEL PINK!

Welcome to the latest edition of our irregular and irreverent newsletter. Thanks for being one of more than 100,000 people around the world who subscribe. 

In this issue, you’ll find a list of my 10 favorite books of the year — along with advice on how not to get conned.

Let’s get started.

MY 10 FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Okay, every other “media outlet” is assembling its end-of-year best books list. Why not the Pink newsletter?  Herewith, in alphabetical order by author, the 10 most compelling books I read this year.  

The Light of the World: A Memoir
by Elizabeth Alexander
In 1996, Alexander, a well-known poet, met Ficre Ghebreyesus, a chef originally from Eritrea. Within a few weeks, they decided to get married. Within three years, they had two sons. Then in 2012, Ficre dropped dead of a heart attack. Alexander’s account of her grief is riveting. I read nearly the entire book in one sitting. 

Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Justice
by Adam Benforado
Law professor Benforado argues that our legal system is built on assumptions about human behavior that just aren’t true.  Some examples: Eyewitness testimony is utterly unreliable, yet we use it to convict people. Human beings stink at detecting lies, yet jurors think they’re great at it. And, amazingly, false confessions are quite easy to produce. This book deserved way more attention than it received. 

Friend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both
by Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer
You might remember this one from the 4Q4 this duo did for this newsletter. This is a smart, practical book that lives up to its promise to help you become “a better friend and more formidable foe."

Fates and Furies 
by Lauren Groff
Whenever a book gets as much acclaim as this one — glowing reviews, a National Book Award nomination, even a Presidential endorsement — I become a bit skeptical. But this fast-paced literary novel, which tells the story of a marriage from two contrasting perspectives, deserves every plaudit. It’s gobsmackingly good. 

How to Raise An Adult 
by Julie Lythcott-Haims
Another 4Q4 book. Former Stanford Dean of Freshmen Lythcott-Haims aims her howitzer at helicopter parents — and teaches us how to trust our kids. 

The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong
by David Orr
You wouldn’t think an book-length dissection of Robert Frost’s “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” poem would be a great read. But Orr’s book is a gem — wise, funny, and insightful.

Are You Fully Charged?: The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life
by Tom Rath
This slim book packs a massive punch. Rath, who has a string of culture-shifting bestsellers, harvests a trove of science to explain the importance of pursuing meaning, improving your interactions, and taking common-sense steps to boost your energy. 

Infamy: The Shocking Story of Japanese American Internment in World War II 
by Richard Reeves
Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor 50 years ago, the U.S. government rounded up more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans and incarcerated them at "relocation centers.” This remains one of the most disgraceful episodes in American history. I read this back in April, but Reeves’s elegantly told tale has new relevance today as some of the very same xenophobia and racism rear their heads again. 

The Arab of the Future: 1978 to 1984
by Riad Sattouf
Young Riad has a French mother, a Syrian father, and a head of shockingly blond hair. In this graphic novel he tells the story of his early childhood. Fans ofPersepolis will love this one.  

The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics
by Barton Swaim
A regular guy leaves academia to become a speechwriter for the Governor of South Carolina. Complications ensue. This chronicle — at once hilarious and sad — is the best book on politics I’ve read in years.

HOW TO OUTSMART TRICKSTERS, FRAUDS, AND CON ARTISTS 
4 QUESTIONS FOR MARIA KONNIKOVA

Have you ever been conned? Chances are, you said no. And chances are, you’re wrong. Human beings — including smarty-pants humans like you and me — turn out to be incredibly susceptible to trickery, deceit, and flim-flammery. That’s one message of The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It Every Time (Buy it:Amazon | BN.Com | IndieBound), a great new book coming out in a few weeks from New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova.  In this elegantly written and deeply researched work, Maria uses confidence games as a window to understanding human behavior and cognition — especially our hard-wired desire to believe and our tendency to confirm our existing beliefs and to discard contrary evidence. 

I asked Maria to give us a preview by being our latest participant in 4Q4, a regular feature where I ask authors four questions about their book — the same four questions every time. 

1. Maria, what’s the big idea?
At its core, The Confidence Game is about the nature of belief: why we believe the things we do, how our beliefs are formed, and why they are so persistent. Human nature craves meaning—and good con artists are only too happy to provide that meaning for us. They are experts at reading our deepest desires and at crafting a version of reality that makes those desires seem possible, even likely. Every single one of us is a potential victim, because every single one of us carries a deep-rooted need to believe in a better, or at the least, most logical, version of the world. And the more immune and urbane we think we are, the more likely we are to fall for the grifter’s wiles. 

2. How do you know?
Over three years, I interviewed dozens of conmen and their victims, learning their stories and discerning patterns in their experiences, comparing them to grifters of yore to see whether the essence of the confidence man remains the same in the twenty-first century as it was hundreds of years ago. I supplemented those interviews with hundreds of psychological studies, ranging from work on psychopathy and narcissism to research into our self-serving biases to experiments on how beliefs are formed and how we perceive and interpret reality. 

3. Why should I care?
All of us come face to face with potential cons on a daily basis: that weight-loss product that will let you lose the last few pounds with little effort, that multi-hundred dollar face cream that will make you look ten years younger, the street hustler who has lost his wallet, the brilliant investor who will make you rich, the love of your life waiting just on the other side of OkCupid. This book will teach you how to spot them—and how to know yourself well enough to recognize when you just might be falling for wishful thinking.

4. What should I do?
There are a number of steps you can take to both recognize a con in progress and improve your ability to avoid getting conned. Some examples:

—  Learn how some of the most common persuasion tactics work, such as the foot-in-the-door (someone will ask you for something small, and then work up to a much bigger request) or the door-in-the-face (someone will ask you for something big, you will of course say no, but then you’ll feel guilty—and be much more likely to say yes next time around, which is what the con artist was counting on all along).

—  Learn to recognize the things that can be easily manipulated to make you like and trust someone, like familiarity (you’ve seen them around before, or they seem to know someone you know…think of all the Facebook friend requests from friends-of-friends who seem trustworthy by virtue of that connection) and the chameleon effect (they seem like you, in beliefs, background, and actions).

— Set limits and learn to exit any situation with grace. Many of us fall for cons because we don’t know how to say no without losing face once we’re hooked part-way. Pre-commit yourself to certain limits, and have a goal-oriented action plan for possible interactions (If I am asked to do this, then I will respond by politely saying that I can’t, for this reason…).

More: The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It Every Time

That’s all for this edition and for 2015. As always, thanks for reading our humble newsletter. Have a healthy, happy, and hopeful New Year.

Cheers,
Daniel Pink

Guest Blog: On personality, emotional labor, and surviving the holidays

I ran across this blog post this week and thought it would be very appropriate to share.

On personality, emotional labor, and surviving the holidays. By Anne on Nov 23, 2015 08:11 am I just finished listening to an old podcast where Dan Pink interviews Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. I’ve read (and loved) Quiet before, but here on the cusp of the holiday season—for my own survival’s sake—I’m making myself revisit a concept I learned of from Cain: emotional labor. In the podcast, Cain explains that introverts can be extremely, genuinely social—even for long periods of time—and enjoy being so. But for true introverts, putting on this extroverted front over a period of days or weeks isexhausting. This phenomenon has a name: it’s called “emotional labor,” and it’s what you experience any time you project (or, to put it not-so-nicely, fake) an emotion or attitude that doesn’t come easily. In Quiet, Cain describes emotional labor as “the effort we make to control and change our own emotions,” and says it’s “associated with stress, burnout, and even physical symptoms like an increase in cardiovascular disease.” That doesn’t sound good, but it nevertheless rings true: I’m no stranger to the peculiar introvert exhaustion she describes. And while I hate the idea that I work to project emotions I don’t really feel, I have to admit I do this all the time—especially as an introvert. There are many, many times every day when I make myself get interested in my kid’s art project instead of heading out for a walk by myself, or tell my kids they can dance to the Laurie Berkner Christmas album for the third time in a row when I would prefer the quiet. These issues are top of mind right now because the holidays are especially taxing for introverts. It’s taken meyears to realize that as much as I enjoy the holiday festivities, they’re incredibly draining. Seeing old friends, visiting family, packing and traveling, and the kids’ contagious excitement are all good things, but they take their toll. I still need need to remind myself to plan accordingly: to take that walk by myself, go to bed early, or curl up for an hour with a movie or a good book. Do you relate to this experience of emotional labor? How do you manage it during the holidays?

Daniel Pink's Thinking

I really love Daniel Pink’s thinking and this is timely!

Welcome to the latest edition of our irregular and irreverent newsletter. In this issue, you’ll find: another installment of our new interview feature, “Four Questions For” and 5 books, docs, and podcasts I’ve recently discovered. Let’s get started. WHEN TO COMPETE AND WHEN TO COOPERATE:  4 QUESTIONS FOR ADAM GALINSKY & MAURICE SCHWEITZER One of the questions we face — in business, school, or  just about any human system — is this: Should we cooperate? Or should we compete?  Now two eminent social scientists, Adam Galinsky andMaurice Schweitzer  have mined the research and discovered the answer: Well, you should kinda, sorta do both. Actually, the answer is far more sophisticated and fascinating than that. And they reveal it one of my favorite books of 2015, Friend & Foe. (Buy it at Amazon,B&N, or IndieBound.)  The book is rich with research, crisply written, and packed with shrewd advice. I asked Galinsky and Schweitzer to be our latest participants in 4Q4, a new feature where I ask authors four questions about their book — the same four questions every time.  Gentlemen, what’s the big idea? We are hardwired – in the very architecture of the human brain – to both cooperate and compete. We do both all the time, in every relationship, often unconsciously. That means that all of our relationships are characterized by the tension between being a friend and being a foe. At work, we collaborate with our colleagues to complete projects, but we compete for raises and promotions. As new parents, we cooperate to raise our infants, but compete for sleep. As siblings, we experience both “brotherly love” and “sibling rivalry.” Simply recognizing that this tension exists in every relationship can help us find the right balance between these forces and  achieve better outcomes at work and at home.   How do you know? Our book draws on hundreds of studies from the social sciences, animal studies, and neuroscience. Beyond the scientific evidence, we supplement our findings with real-world stories from a wide variety of areas. So you’ll read about how both airline pilots and Capuchin monkeys react furiously to unfairness, how cuckoo birds and Bernie Madoff engaged in deception, and how hierarchy helps bees, basketball teams, and Wall Street researchers succeed.   Why should I care? By understanding the tension between cooperation and competition, you will become a better friend and a more formidable foe.   What should I do? Because every relationship faces the competing forces of cooperation and competition, we need to find the right balance between being a friend and a foe. Here are some practical pieces of advice from three of the chapters.   How to nail a job interview: Balance confidence and deference. For confidence, just before the interview use our validated method: think of a time you had power. To be properly deferential, be sure to ask knowledgeable questions about the interviewer’s experience. How to apologize: Be fast, candid, focus on the victim, offer penance and articulate a commitment to change. How to negotiate:  If you have full information and know the other side deeply values what it seeks from you, make the first offer. When you make the first offer, present a choice among multiple offers. This allows you both to anchor the negotiation to your advantage and to signal cooperation. More: Friend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both   5 MORE THINGS YOU MIGHT LIKE Here’s some other stuff I’ve enjoyed recently: BOOK: Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking.  The work of renown social psychologist Richard Nisbett, this somewhat loosely organized book is a smart primer on how to avoid thinking mistakes and reason more rigorously. NEWSLETTER: Next Draft. I’ve recommended this before, but it bears repeating: This free daily newsletter offers the finest (and most eclectic) collection of stories you’ll find anywhere. VIDEO: Being 12: The Year That Changes Everything. What’s it like to be 12 years old? This 7-minute video, from WNYC, captures the essence. DOCUMENTARY: The Battered Bastards of Baseball. A Netflix documentary about a remarkable independent minor league baseball team in the 1970s. You might think it’s about sports. But it’s really about the importance of taking risks, defying convention, and serving others. STORE: CW Pencil Enterprise. Folks, you should know this about me: I write with a pencil (and not the mechanical ones, which are Satan’s favorite tools). I use the old-fashioned wood kind. And I now buy them from this one-woman store, a veritable Valhalla for pencil nerds. That’s all for this edition.  As always, thanks for reading our humble newsletter. Cheers, Daniel Pink

Why You Should Stop Pursuing Happiness, Start Working in Bursts, and Worry Less About Exercise

I found this article by Daniel Pink and thought I would share. I hope you enjoy. :)

Welcome to the latest edition of our irregular and irreverent newsletter. In this issue, we’ve got an interview with mega-popular author Tom Rath, a list of 3 daily newsletters I can’t live without, and our usual collection of intriguing articles.  Let’s get started . . .  THE 3 SURPRISING KEYS TO WELL-BEING: AN INTERVIEW WITH TOM RATH Tom Rath is a writer who changes lives. His books – which have sold more than 6 million copies and spent more than 300(!) weeks on Wall Street Journal bestseller lists — have had a massive influence on both individuals and organizations (If you haven’t read StrengthsFinder 2.0 and taken the StrengthsFinder assessment, you owe it to yourself to do it now). This week, Tom is out with a new book, published through the innovative Silicon Guild. It’s called Are You Fully Charged? The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life and it looks at the science of daily experience – the day-to-day steps we can take to lead happier, healthier, and more meaningful lives. Like his previous books, this one comes packed with the latest behavioral and medical research along with an array of practical tips to put those findings into action. I asked Tom to answer a few questions about the book exclusively for newsletter readers. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation. Pink:  What are the three keys you’ve identified – and why do they matter? Rath: This new book focuses almost exclusively on daily well-being --  things people can do today and tomorrow -- versus the typical focus on all the things that are important over decades or a lifetime. What’s remarkable about this new research on daily well-being is that it tells a very different story (compared to decades of research on long term life evaluation) and is infinitely more practical. Pink: As you analyze daily well-being, you emphasize that pursuing happiness and pursuing meaningfulness are two distinct notions. What’s the difference? Rath: I’m increasingly convinced that the “pursuit of happiness” is not only misguided, but potentially damaging. Most people should stop chasing their own happiness today and do something that improves the life of another human being instead. This is simply a much faster path to well-being for yourself and others. That is my basic distinction: improving the life of another person is inherent in meaning, but not happiness. This is why every hour invested in meaningful work has a greater return. Pink: You write “[I]n most cases, what you will be most proud of a decade from now will not be anything that was the result of you simply responding.” Yet most of us spend our days in response mode – replying to emails, answering phone calls, going to meetings. What are some suggestions for eluding that trap? Rath: I would start by asking, “What truly needs to interrupt me if I am in the midst of something important?” There is really no reason that every text message, phone call, email, Facebook notification, tweet, and breaking news alert deserves your attention the minute it arrives. Start by turning almost all notifications “off” by default. Then ask which ones truly deserve to break into the flow of an important conversation with a loved one or disrupt meaningful work. Pink: The research you look at in Are You Fully Charged? also reveals the right balance between focusing intensely and taking a break. What does that balance look like? Rath: Top performers work in bursts. This applies to athletes, teachers, and those of us who spend our days in front of a computer screen. As a general guideline, taking a 10-minute break every hour is a good idea for your productivity and creativity. But if you spend your day sitting in a chair, it may be a better idea to take very brief breaks every 20 minutes. Essentially, the more you move the better you think. Pink: I was surprised by the evidence showing how dramatically interactions with others affect our well-being and our performance. Any advice on improving our daily interactions?   Rath: One of the most valuable things you can do is to ask someone a question and genuinely listen to their response. Close your mouth, keep your devices stowed away, and give that person your undivided attention. Also, simply being aware of whether an interaction carries a positive or negative charge can help.  At least 80% of your daily interactions need to produce a positive charge. Basically, each negative interaction requires a huge offset just to get your day back to neutral. Pink: In the final section of the book, you write, “Sitting may be the most underrated health threat of this generation.” Yet I’d bet that most people reading this right now are on their butts. What can we do to sit less and move more? Rath: Stop worrying about exercise. Sitting less and taking a few more steps each day is a better place to start. It can be as simple as pacing around whenever you are on the phone, finding ways to work on a laptop while you stand occasionally, or settling for a parking spot that adds a few extra steps instead of circling the lot to minimize activity. Once you have added enough activity to hit 10,000 steps a day, then worry about the (more intimidating) thought of daily cardiovascular exercise. It’s a very compelling book, folks. You can find more information here: Are You Fully Charged? The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life