Allen Gannett - The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time

The Internet leveled the playing field for content creators, the creatively inclined, and just about anyone interested in sharing their thoughts with others. The Creative Curve provides a learned perspective on how the structural barriers that prevent people from connecting with one another, and ultimately understanding one another, have shifted, while showing how everyone has the ability to create their own creative masterpiece.

Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Initialized Capital and Reddit

The perfect book for any marketer who feels that they want to be more creative but doesnt know how. Gannett makes clear that creating hit products and campaigns is not something mystical, but rather a critical skill to learn and arm yourself with.

Meagen Eisenberg, CMO of MongoDB

If you want to understand creativity, and cultivate and maximize your own, The Creative Curve is the book you need.

Richard Florida, author ofThe Rise of the Creative Class

The Creative Curve is a must-read for digital marketers. Our job is to tell amazing stories that resonate with our audience. Gannett makes it clear that honing this skill not only is possible but has a well-traveled road map.

Beverly Jackson, vice president of social strategy for MGM Resorts International

In The Creative Curve, Allen Gannett demystifies creativity and gives readers the tools to launch more creative lives. Through a powerful combination of research, stories, and surprising insights, this delightful read makes creativity accessible for the self-identified non-creatives and empowers the creatives to maximize their potential.

Sanyin Siang, CEO coach and executive director of Duke Universitys Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics

The Apollo lunar program is arguably humankinds single most creative endeavor. Apollo was a personal and professional passion of mine, and I can say with certainty that it came from hard work. Now, fifty years later, Allen Gannett shows you a remarkable system to harness that same creative power for your idea or company, and he does so in an engaging, fast-paced way. What are you waiting for? With Allen as your guide, its time for your moon shot!

David Meerman Scott, bestselling author of ten books, includingMarketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program, soon to be a major film

Drawing on interviews with highly successful entrepreneurs, Gannett shows that the generation of creative ideas is not the result of a stroke of geniusany more than are the winning performances of Olympic athletes. Both are the culmination of years of preparation and practice. His book uncovers effective practice methods such as intensive self-study and experimentation, the search for feedback from masters and peers, and the gradual refinement of product ideas.

K. Anders Ericsson, Conradi Eminent Scholar and professor of psychology, Florida State University; coauthor ofPeak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

The Creative Curve is a must-read for anyone in the business of innovation. And Allen Gannett is one of the smartest entrepreneurs and writers of his generation. His writing is fresh, compelling, and delightfully fun to get through. Youll find yourself wishing for even more.

Shane Snow, author ofDream TeamsandSmartcuts

Can we learn to be creative? The Creative Curve demonstrates, persuasively, that yes, you can. Gannett interviewed living idols and leading researchers. From this, he paints a picture of creativity not as some mystical event but as a practical skill rooted in neuroscience. Ultimately, he delivers on the covers promise, demystifying how to develop the right idea, at the right time. An essential read.

Emma Carrasco, CMO of the National Geographic Society

Weve all been told a lie about the nature of creativity.

For as long as anyone can remember, our culture has perpetuated the myth that creative success is the result of a sudden light-bulb moment. That writing bestselling novels, creating revered paintings, or developing viral mobile apps has a mystical quality, unconnected to rational thought or logic, that is reserved for geniuses rather than for the rest of us mere mortals.

In fact, for centuries now we have been persuaded of this by wise men and critics who excitedly recount stories of creative genius that emphasize the individual, the subconscious, and the seemingly divine machinations behind creative achievement.

My goal in writing The Creative Curve is to reveal the truth about creative success: that there is in fact a science behind what becomes a hit and that todays neuroscience gives us an unprecedented ability to decode and engineer the necessary moments of inspiration to create popular work that your audience cant get enough of.

I have always been addicted to patterns. As a kid, this took the form of spending countless hours playing computer games, watching and waiting to see how the AI worked so I could destroy my virtual opponent and save the kingdom (or planet, or countryI think you get the idea). As a teenager, this turned into a short-lived (and fairly successful) obsession with getting cast on game shows.

Today, this lifelong geekery has found two homes.

By day, I run a company that works with large brands to help them uncover the meaningthat is to say, the patternswithin their marketing data. We help Fortune 500s and high-growth start-ups understand the marketing channels, messages, and tactics that will work the best in the future, based on the data from their past.

By night, Ive done everything possible to answer the question of whether there is a pattern to creative success. Ive spent the last two years interviewing some of the worlds most successful creators. From culinary titans to bestselling novelists and even top YouTube Creators, I sat down, ate, chatted, and Skyped with some of the leading so-called creative geniuses of our time. In addition, I spoke to the most distinguished academics in the studies of creativity, genius, and neuroscience.