Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People

Robert Scott Root-Bernstein, Michèle Root-Bernstein

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001 - Education - 401 pages

Creativity isn't born, it's cultivated—this innovative guide distills the work of extraordinary artists and thinkers to show you how.

All the imagination needs to be fruitful is exercise. Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein identify the thinking tools employed by history's greatest creative minds—from Albert Einstein and Jane Goodall to Amadeus Mozart and Virginia Woolf—so that anyone with the right mix of inspiration and drive can set their own genius in motion. With engaging narratives and ample illustrations, Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein investigate cognitive tools as diverse as observing, imaging, recognizing patterns, modeling, playing, and more to provide "a clever, detailed and demanding fitness program for the creative mind" (Kirkus Reviews).

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - CTLLibrary - LibraryThing

We find that people who are outstanding in their fields tend to exude several similar characteristics. They fully understand the conceptual foundation of thier discipline, they are not bound by ...

Sparks of genius: the thirteen thinking tools of the world's most creative people

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

Are there special thinking strategies that characterize genius? How did the Einsteins, Freuds, Picassos, Galileos, and Mozarts come up with their ideas? The Root-Bernsteins, Robert (physiology ...

Contents

• I: 1
• II: 14
• III: 30
• IV: 50
• V: 70
• VI: 92
• VII: 115
• VIII: 136
• IX: 160
• X: 202
• XI: 226
• XII: 246
• XIII: 269
• XIV: 316
• XV: 331
• XVI: 344
• XVII: 365
• XVIII: 374
• XIX: 378

About the author

ROBERT and MICHELE ROOT-BERNSTEIN have been studying and consulting on creativity for more than a decade. Robert, a professor of physiology at Michigan State University and the winner of a MacArthur Fellowship, has also written Discovering: Inventing and Solving Problems at the Frontiers of Scientific Knowledge. Michele, an award-winning historian, has written about and taught history and creative writing. Together the Root-Bernsteins are the authors of Honey, Mud, Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People; Mariner Books
• Authors: Robert Scott Root-Bernstein, Michèle Root-Bernstein
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001
• ISBN: 0618127453, 9780618127450
• Length: 401 pages
• Subjects: Education / Educational Psychology