Each participant was at least 60 years old coming to so coming to the end of their distinguished career. The men and women he interviewed are from all types of different professions, from sculptors and businessmen to scientists and social reformers. With the help of a team of graduate research assistants, Csikszentmihalyi conducted extensive interviews with a wide range of creative people. Both of these forms of creativity are important, but the type of creativity that this book is primarily concerned with is the type that pushes a person to advance a domain, whether it be science or the arts, and has a lasting impact on the culture.The Leonardos, Edisons, Picassos, or Einsteins of any given field. Perhaps we build a custom headboard for our bedroom or think of a faster way to do the dishes. Many are personally creative in our everyday lives. To study creativity, Csikszentmihalyi starts by defining what ‘creativity’ is: to be sure, many people are brilliant and interesting, but leave no lasting impact on their culture or society. A daunting and ambiguous task, to be sure. This time, his focus is on creativity: what it is, how it works, and what we can do to live a more satisfying and creative life. Like his previous book Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi attempts here to get at what it means to spend your life in a meaningful way. It means developing schedules to protect your time and avoid distraction, arranging your surroundings to heighten concentration, cutting out meaningless chores that soak up psychic energy, and devoting the energy thus saved to what you really care about.” “The only way to stay creative is to oppose the wear and tear of existence with techniques that organize time, space, and activity to your advantage.

Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi