Already I am 50 pages into it and I'm discovering some awesome things. One thing I found astonishing is that the most creative individuals had certain personality traits that I did not expect. A study discussed in this book looked at 3 different populations of architects. One of which were nominated by other professionals as being the most creative, those who had worked under creative architects, and a group chosen at random. They had these individuals take creativity tests and personality tests. The first group, the one's nominated by professionals, scored the highest in creativity, followed by the one's who worked under creative architects, and then the random sample. What I found the most surprising involved personality dimensions of "strong, willful, self-confident, controlling, and self-centered" were associated with the highly creative group. I consider myself creative but do not relate to these traits. The second group recieved intermediate scores but their personality traits were less dominant, highly prone to emotional conflict, a conflicting desire to control as well as be controlled, and exhibited the highest levels of anxiety. I tend to relate to this group. I didn't realize how much self-confidence and self-centeredness would be related to creativity. But really, I guess going against the mainstream would require a great deal of confidence. To go with such divergent thoughts confidently would probably require a certain amount self-centeredness. I'm already fascinated with this book and I'm only 1 chapter in.
