{"id":24002,"date":"2012-04-03T20:37:58","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T20:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/austinkleon-jonah-lehrer-imagine-how\/"},"modified":"2018-12-05T22:07:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T05:07:40","slug":"austinkleon-jonah-lehrer-imagine-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/austinkleon-jonah-lehrer-imagine-how\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-24002 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/austinkleon-jonah-lehrer-imagine-how\/attachment\/24003\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_m1x55vKm501qz6f4bo1_1280-100x100.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_m1x55vKm501qz6f4bo1_1280-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_m1x55vKm501qz6f4bo1_1280-500x500.png 500w, https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_m1x55vKm501qz6f4bo1_1280-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_m1x55vKm501qz6f4bo1_1280-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_m1x55vKm501qz6f4bo1_1280.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/tumblr.austinkleon.com\/post\/20422616982\" class=\"tumblr_blog\">austinkleon<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0547386079\/wwwaustinkleo-20\/ref=nosim\/\">Jonah Lehrer, <em>Imagine: How Creativity Works<\/em><br \/>\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First off, <a href=\"http:\/\/tumblr.austinkleon.com\/tagged\/jonah+lehrer\">I like a lot of Jonah Lehrer\u2019s writing<\/a> \u2014 I quoted him in <a href=\"http:\/\/steallikeanartist.com\"><em>Steal<\/em><\/a>, after all \u2014 but if you\u2019ve been <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/austinkleon\">following me on Twitter<\/a>, you probably know <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/austinkleon\/status\/184622227633872897\">how I\u2019m feeling<\/a> these days about neuroscience\/art writing:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>BREAKING NEWS: after stuffing 100 college students into an MRI machine, neuroscience has proven yet another piece of ancient folk wisdom!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/austinkleon\/status\/181449658328039427\">Or<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Need credibility? Put some neuroscience on it!&#x2122;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The assumption of this book is that neuroscience is shedding new light on how we\u2019re creative:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>For the first time we can see the source of imagination\u2026For the first time in human history it\u2019s possible to learn how the imagination really works. Instead of relying on myth and superstition, we can think about dopamine and dissent, the right hemisphere and<br \/>\n  social networks\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I don\u2019t disagree with Lehrer\u2019s prescriptions (take a walk, drink a beer instead of a coffee, etc.), but really, is thinking about dopamine and the right hemisphere going to make me more creative? Is any of this neuroscience telling us anything new, or is it just supporting the stories of the creators featured in the book? This isn\u2019t to say neuroscience isn\u2019t valuable (I particularly like the way <a href=\"http:\/\/tumblr.austinkleon.com\/tagged\/lynda+barry\">Lynda Barry<\/a> uses her science reading as a way to reflect on her art) but it\u2019s a very young field, whereas creativity is an ancient endeavor, with a wealth of thinkers and material to draw from. It\u2019s like saying, \u201cYou know all that wisdom artists and thinkers have been dishing out for thousands of years? TURNS OUT science says it\u2019s true! It\u2019s in your brain, man!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m pretty sure that Bob Dylan, Milton Glaser, Shakespeare, and most of the other creators in this book didn\u2019t need a neuroscience book in order to be creative. I\u2019d love to cut all the science from this book and just let Lehrer tell the stories of these folks and how they made their work, because those stories are the parts of this book I really loved, the parts I really learned from, and the parts I\u2019d recommend reading.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/deathtogutenberg\/5511791815\/\" title=\"Today's #chalkmug (neuroscience) by Austin Kleon, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5174\/5511791815_4c52eb504d.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" alt=\"Today's #chalkmug (neuroscience)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>austinkleon: Jonah Lehrer, Imagine: How Creativity Works First off, I like a lot of Jonah Lehrer\u2019s writing \u2014 I quoted him in Steal, after all \u2014 but if you\u2019ve been following me on Twitter, you probably know how I\u2019m feeling these days about neuroscience\/art writing: BREAKING NEWS: after stuffing 100 college students into an MRI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[750,752,751,749],"class_list":["post-24002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-words","tag-ancient-wisdom","tag-art-science","tag-creative-expression","tag-ditto","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-6f8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24004,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24002\/revisions\/24004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}