If you're trying to be more creative, one of the most important things you can do is increase the volume and diversity of the information to which you are exposed.

The vocational approach at NOCCA (New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts) helps build grit in students. It teaches them how to be single-minded in pursuit of a goal, to sacrifice for the sake of a passion. The teachers demand hard work from their kids because they know, from personal experience, that creative success requires nothing less.

The best way to solve a problem? Try explaining it to somebody outside your field.

By the age of 3, children from wealthier households hear, on average, about 500,000 encouragements and 80,000 discouragements. The ratio is reversed in households on welfare.

It's a hard thing to describe. It's just this sense that you got something to say.

And so we keep on thinking, because the next thought might be the answer.

In fact, the only way to remain creative over time--to not be undone by our expertise--is to experiment with ignorance, to stare at things we don't fully understand.