The practical reference shows how creative people think based on research and analysis of hundreds of history's greatest thinkers from Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Martha Graham to Pablo Picasso. It explores different creative-thinking approaches and how these worked for the people studied as well as practical ways to apply the ideas.
This quote sums up the evolutionary advantage to our species need for creativity.
"We need to vary our ideas in order to succeed. In nature a gene pool that is totally lacking in variations would be unable to adapt to changing circumstances. In time, the genetically encoded wisdom would convert to foolishness, with consequences that would be fatal to the species' survival. A compariable process operates within us as individuals. We all have a rich repertoire of ideas and concepts based on past experiences that enable us to survive and prosper. But without any provision for variation of ideas, our visual ideas become stagnate and lose their advantages and in the end, we're defeated in our competition with out rivals." (page 4)