Idea 59: The four main stages of creativity

The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why.

Albert Einstein

  • Preparation – the hard work. You have to collect and sort the relevant information, analyze the problem as thoroughly as you can, and explore possible solutions.
  • Incubation – the depth mind phase. Mental work – analyzing, synthesizing and valuing – continues on the problem in your subconscious mind. The parts of the problem separate and new combinations occur. These may involve other ingredients stored away in your memory.
  • Insight – the ‘Eureka’ moment. A new idea emerges into your conscious mind, ...

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