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Powers of two finding the essence of innovation in creative pairs

"Recently writers like Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, and Clay Shirky have sought to explain creativity as the work of lucky, hardworking people or the result of certain qualities of a particular environment or group of people. Joshua Wolf Shenk shows how such notions, as appealing as they a...

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Main Author: Shenk, Joshua Wolf.
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: Boston : Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.
Subjects:
Creative ability.
Creative thinking.
Couples.
Artistic collaboration.
Teams in the workplace.
Summary: "Recently writers like Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, and Clay Shirky have sought to explain creativity as the work of lucky, hardworking people or the result of certain qualities of a particular environment or group of people. Joshua Wolf Shenk shows how such notions, as appealing as they are, miss the essence of creativity, which is generated by people working in pairs. From John Lennon and Paul McCartney to Pierre and Marie Curie to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Shenk portrays many of history's most iconic creative duos, drawing on new scientific research and building an argument that will reshape our view of the individual, relationships, and society itself. Along the way, he reveals how pairs begin to talk, think, and even look like each other; how the most successful ones thrive on conflict; why they break up; and more. He also marshals new research that suggests how deeply the notion of pairing influences our psyches: even when we're alone, we're collaborating with the voice inside our head. At once intuitive and deeply surprising, Powers of Two is mind-blowing"--Provided by publisher.
Physical Description: xxv, 339 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-324) and index.
ISBN: 9780544031593 (cloth)
0544031598 (cloth)
9780544334465 (trade paper)
0544334469 (trade paper)
9780544264090 (trade paper (international edition))
0544264096 (trade paper (international edition))
Author Notes: Joshua Wolf Shenk is an essayist and independent scholar whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and in the national bestseller Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression. He has written for The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, New Republic, the Economist, U.S. News and World Report, and other publications. His book, Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness, has won awards from the Abraham Lincoln Institute, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the National Mental Health Association.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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