Annie Murphy Paul on Exploring Creativity

Annie Murphy Paul is an acclaimed science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Scientific Americans, Slate, Time Magazine, and The Best American Science Writing, among many other publications. She’s the author of three books, including Origins, which was reviewed on the cover of The New York Times Book Review and selected by The New York Times as a notable book. She’s also the author of The Cult of Personality, which was hailed by Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker as a fascinating new book. Her latest book is The Extended Mind, which we get into quite a bit in today’s conversation. Annie has spoken to audiences all over the world about learning and cognition. Her TED Talk has been viewed by about three million people. Today we do a deep dive certainly into all of Annie’s work up until now, but we really do a deep dive into the science of creativity, which is what Annie is most curious about at the time of this recording. We get into a variety of topics in today’s conversation. Annie is someone who deeply cares about research and science, and she is an amazing writer. Annie had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “You always want to move on to the exciting next thing” (5:40). “Learning and creativity are related” (5:50). “We’re all creators” (6:15). “Creativity, for kids and for adults, is how we learn. We’re experimenting, we’re trying out new things and seeing what happens” (6:30). “Creativity is an expression of aliveness” (6:45). “Researchers are repeatedly demonstrating that creativity is a skill that can be taught” (9:20). “Creativity and curiosity are messy” (12:10). “There’s an organic order in the material I’ve collected. I just need to find it” (17:00). “We’re exploiting ourselves to death” (20:20). “I just want to feel. I want to have new experiences. I want to put myself in new situations where I can see myself in a new light” (21:40). “Happiness comes and goes, it’s not under our control. But seeking out new experiences that make us feel alive, that feels so important to me following this enforced confinement put upon us by the pandemic” (19:55). “The mind is almost like what the brain is able to do with itself. The extended mind is saying there’s a lot more we can do with our brain than just cogitate inside our skulls. We can actually, with our minds, reach outside the brain” (29:00). “’How should we live?’ is the most interesting question these days” (30:55). “Creativity is one of the highest expressions of being human” (31:30). “So often, what we assume and what we expect and what we think we know is wrong” (32:20). “The way we interpret or understand reality is often mistaken. We need science to show us that” (32:35). “We humans have elaborated on those basic instincts we share with animals” (35:00). “The movement of our hands is thinking. It’s part of the thinking process” (37:05). “Tuning into the body can be a primary source of information without tuning into words alone” (42:40). “I came to understand the extended mind as a way we transcend the limits of our biological brain” (44:45). “Bringing the world into your thinking is such an essential aspect of creativity” (46:00). “The world is affecting us even before we’ve been born” (48:35). “Once you’re a parent, you see the world in a different way” (51:40). “The point of writing a book is to stimulate change” (59:15). “We think in terms of metaphors” (1:00:25). Additionally, you can purchase any of Annie’s books anywhere books are sold. You can also find her TED Talk here, her website here, and follow her on Twitter here. Thank you so much to Annie for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.