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Robert J. Sternberg and Todd I. Lubart. Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity. New York: Free Press, 1995, 326 pages, $23.00.
Reviewed by Richard Blackburn, Associate Professor, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
Creatively reviewing a book on creativity is not an easy task. Traditional reviews talk about the good, the interesting, and the not-so-good. To do justice to this book, however, requires that I "buy low and sell high," adopting the investment metaphor that underlies the discussion of creativity presented by Sternberg and Lubart.
Those who "buy low and sell high" are individuals willing to choose unconventional approaches to problems or opportunities. They buy low, "investing" in creative endeavors that most shun. Having done so, these individuals must also determine how best to sell their new solutions or ideas to others-to sell high. In the market, knowing when to buy low and/or sell high is more art than science. Creative investors are those who take these actions in a timely and consistent fashion.
According to the authors, to consistently and successfully "buy low and sell high" one must possess or avail oneself of threshold levels of six characteristics that contribute to creativity: (a) intelligence, (b) knowledge, (c) thinking style, (d) personality traits, (e) motivation, and (f) supportive environmental context. But this review already sounds too much like a traditional review. . . so beggin' the pardon of W Clement Stone, H.W Longfellow, Dr. Suess, assorted Sesame Street characters, and other "meter maids" who might well revoke my poetic license herewith:
Ode to Defying the Crowd
'Twas late in September amid pressures anew I put fingers to keyboard to write a review. Sternberg and Lubart's Defying the Crowd explores creativity in ways I am proud to say match my own view of thingswe all have potential to reach the brass rings of something new that is useful and never been done and the factors that get this creative race won.
They aimed their work at multiple groupsexperts, teachers, managerial troops. Not to mention lay-persons seeking support that creation is not the privileged resort of the gifted, like Edison, DaVinci and Bach, but also the five-year old kid down the block.
The authors develop a new metaphor from...