Matthew Guan

Professor Rueda

Humanities 1

22 July 2021

Chapter 2/Chapter 3 Reading Notes Creative Confidence

Chapter 2

Key Points:

● Case study: facing one’s fear with guided mastery

○ Albert Bandura’s experiment with boa constrictor

○ Takeaway: to help ease one’s fears, do so in incremental steps

○ Overcoming fear helps with self-efficacy, motivates people and convinces them

they can take on more challenges

● Failure is inevitable and necessary

○ Find weaknesses in innovation earlier. Reminds me of the saying “Fail early, fail

fast, fail forward”

○ People should learn to embrace failure (example with failure resume)

○ Creative confidence = overcoming the fear of failing

○ Need to use mistakes/challenges as a way of learning- analyze what went wrong,

own up to your mistakes

● Urgent optimism

○ Believing that victory in the future is possible, if one tries hard to overcome an

obstacle

○ Motivate people by convincing them of the likely possibility of success

○ Judgment by others (as in the clay horse, this causes one to develop a creativity

scar and discourages one from expressing creativity)

○ Causes one to label him/herself as “non creative” - profound damaging effects on

one’s mind

○ Our education system is harming the desire/motivation to learn by discouraging

mistakes

Questions/Reflection for Chapter 2: The idea of owning up to one’s failures made a lot of

sense to me, as this is essential for one to develop a growth mindset and learn from mistakes. The

quote mentioned towards the end of the chapter (“Do the thing you fear…”) is a bit questionable

to me. Having a fear is part of human nature, and many of the fears stem from past traumatic

experiences. For example, if one were to be bitten by a snake, then fearing snakes wouldn’t seem

irrational. I’d say that while guided mastery helps in overcoming fears, it probably may not be

sufficient to erase traumatic memories that may have led to one developing a particular phobia.

5 ideas to discuss in class

- Guided mastery helps one overcome a fear: Under what conditions might this technique

not be as effective? Why?

- Failure is a key ingredient to being creative: how can society better encourage people to

make mistakes?

- Other people’s words can have a lasting impact on one’s Creative Confidence: what are

some other reasons people don’t think they are creative (besides the clay horse example)?
 - Insecurity/self-esteem issues hinder creative efforts: how does this apply to the “creativity

crisis” in our schools? Could a culture of insecurity/comparison be to blame for the lack

of creativity among children?

- Growth Mindset is important: are schools properly encouraging growth mindset in

students? If not, how can schools/teachers better promote having a “can do” attitude?

Chapter 3

Key Points:

● Case study: Cheaper version of incubator for mothers in remote areas

○ Could save babies’ lives if born too early

○ Human-centered innovation at play

● Creative spark

○ Intellectual curiosity, desire to come up with new ideas/solutions

○ Put ideas into action

○ How do people get new ideas?

○ Exposure to new experiences, w/o expecting an inspiration to magically appear

○ Ask questions (deeper ones such as “why?”)

● One must consciously “choose” to be creative

○ Take on challenges and go beyond one’s comfort zone

○ One does not need to be the originator - adding to others’ work is fine

● Think like a traveler

○ Key takeaway: don’t assume you know everything about the environment you’re

in - look at the situation with “fresh eyes” and a “beginner’s mindset”

○ Expose yourself to new sources of info, and a wide variety

● Relax

○ Ideas tend to flow more freely and come faster when you’re not intensely focused

on a task

○ Daydreaming should not be discouraged, for this reason

● Observe

○ Example with ice cream scoops, observe how everyday people use a particular

item with your own eyes

○ Sometimes, asking questions isn’t enough (as people may not tell you everything)

○ Challenge preconceived ideas and don’t assume what you think is true is

necessarily true

● Get in touch with other people

○ Creativity rarely acts alone

○ Build off ideas of other people and get inspiration

● Creative serendipity

○ You can’t predict when the creative spark will come

○ Getting creative spark requires preparation beforehand

○ Experiment often, prepare to seize the moment when the spark comes

Questions/Reflection for Chapter Three: I find Kelley’s point about building a creative

network very valuable advice. As I wrote in my creativity journal about what it takes for me to

be creative, I find having other people to collaborate with necessary for me. When you make a
mistake or even “fail” in your quest to discover your creative confidence, getting the support of

others is very beneficial and helps you persevere through this difficult journey. It also made a lot

of sense to me how inspiration doesn’t come by accident; one needs to have prepared for that

“creative spark” ahead of time.

I find Kelley’s idea regarding daydreaming slightly questionable. While daydreaming is

beneficial in encouraging relaxed attention, I find it distracting, as daydreaming makes it hard for

me to focus on the task at hand. In my experience, being focused helps me listen for words that

other people say that may trigger a creative spark in my mind. One of the downsides of

daydreaming is that it leaves me rather distracted and may potentially make me miss out on an

opportunity for creativity. Maybe one needs to know exactly how to daydream to get the benefits

out of it?

5 ideas to discuss in class:

- Importance of challenging preconceived notions about a group of people or some

environment- why could this be difficult for people?

- Relaxed attention - does this work for everyone?

- The fact that you can’t manufacture creativity- you can’t predict when it comes. Do you

agree with this? Why or why not?

- Asking thoughtful “why” questions - how to judge if people are telling the truth or what

they really believe? Why might people be tempted to not expose their true

intentions/thoughts regarding an issue?

- Importance of framing the question correctly - how can one rephrase a question to

broaden the audience that is impacted?