Smash Notes
The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant
How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals -- including embracing failure. "The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who…
People
Notes
-
Originals are nonconformists, people who not only have new ideas, but champion to do them. They’re people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. Ultimately, they are the people you want to bet on.
-
Precrastinators who rush in and do everything early are rated as less creative than people who procrastinate moderately. Grant’s experiment showed that procrastinators are 16% more creative.
-
On TED Talks Daily, Adam Grant says procrastinating is a vice when the goal is productivity, and it can be a virtue when the goal is creativity. He points to Martin Luther King Jr. on the night before the March on Washington, still rewriting past 3 a.m., then scribbling and crossing out lines while he waited to speak. Eleven minutes into the speech, King left the script for the words "I have a dream," which were not in the text. Waiting so long to freeze the draft left more ideas available. Grant says original thinkers are quick to start and slow to finish. That is what he missed when the Warby Parker founders spent six months before moving.
-
Self-doubt and idea doubt. Self-doubt is paralyzing and leaves you to freeze. Idea doubt is energizing and it motivates you to test, experiment, and refine.
-
You don’t have to be first, you just have to be different and better. It is okay to be slow to start but quick to finish because that can boost your activity. You can motivate yourself by doubting your ideas, and embracing the fear of failing to try. You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get good ones.
Related episodes
- Adam Grant #4 (on the secrets of strong connections)
- How to Give without Getting Taken Advantage of with Adam Grant
- 3 ways to build a happy marriage and avoid divorce | George Blair-West
- Sleep is your superpower by Matt Walker
- A juror's reflections on the death penalty | Lindy Lou Isonhood
- The lies our culture tells us about what matters -- and a better way to live | David Brooks