Creative Superpowers: Equip Yourself for the Age of Creativity

Continuing on his theme of Hacker, Maker, Teacher, Thief, Daniele Fiandaca has yet again brought together some of the sharpest minds in the creative industries to explore the topic of creation. And - boy! - do they do it in style here.The book kicks off with the brilliant Laura Jordan Bambach introducing a section on Making. In this section, the authors discuss how making is an unpredictable journey, how we think with our hands, how making helps us unlearn the limiting stuff and the importance of embracing accidents.The next section looks at Hacking and is introduced by Daniele himself. Rather than limiting hacking to an act, he defines it as an attitude and a continual process. And as something that can be as much about people as it is about technology. The contributors to this section go on to cover culture hacking, brain hacking and economy hacking. There are lots of lessons in here that can make a big difference businesses, if they only let them.Next up we look at Teaching. The super-smart Scott Morrison kicks this section off by talking about the importance of the growth mindset and upskilling. The section continues with chapters that talk about learning by doing, learning from strangers on the street and learning from the youngest people in the business. This is all stuff that I’m very passionate about.The final section of the book is introduced by the legendary Mark Earls. It looks at the positive side of Thievery and how copying can be a great path to fresh ideas. The chapters go on to talk about the importance of copying in architecture, collecting inspiration and the power of abstraction.This book is a really inspiring exploration of creativity. It challenges a lot of the classic assumptions and misunderstandings that surround the topic. And the varying perspectives of the authors help to give a broader exploration of the subject matter.You may be able to gather from this, that I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in creativity.And, like the book recommends, I may just steal some of its thinking for my own use.

You can easily get lost in the list of creative inspiration books out there, and I have many great ones - Hey whipple squeeze this, Dave Trott's collection, Patrick Collister's - How to use innovation, A technique for producing ideas, Damn good advice, Cultural strategy, etc. This one easily pokes it's head well above the surface to bail you out of those creative sos moments when you really need it. It take a deep dive into some weird and wonderful areas, narrated by some super interesting creatives - OKGO chapter comes to mind. To be honest I haven't read the book, cover to cover. The bits I'm fascinated by are the are hack exercises. I work in a high pressure creative dept, developing ideas fast. So I use the exercises and techniques to keep the ideas fresh and fill the creative toolbox full so I can shake things up when I need to.

As a recruitment business owner I was intrigued by this book but unsure that it would help me and my industry. How wrong could I be? The book has lots of useful insights and stories that sparked many other ideas which I have already started to implement. The Maker chapter was particularly useful and made me realise there is always room for creative thinking, even in an sector as established as recruitment. A must read for anyone who wants to keep pace in an ever changing business world.

Few know how to tackle the creative challenges that face us when trying to make an impact in the digital age. This collection of essays from an impressive bunch of incredibly varied creative experts provides perspectives that broaden the mind way beyond the borders of traditional thinking. Highly recommended.

I have a healthy disregard for business books but this one caught my eye and I found myself thoroughly enjoying it. Through a lively anecdotal style I picked up lots of tips about unleashing my creative potential. Recommended.