Powers of two : finding the essence of innovation in creative pairs Cover Image

Powers of two : finding the essence of innovation in creative pairs / Joshua Wolf Shenk.

Summary:

"Recently writers like Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, and Clay Shirky have sought to explain creativity as the work of lucky, hardworking people or the result of certain qualities of a particular environment or group of people. Joshua Wolf Shenk shows how such notions, as appealing as they are, miss the essence of creativity, which is generated by people working in pairs. From John Lennon and Paul McCartney to Pierre and Marie Curie to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Shenk portrays many of history's most iconic creative duos, drawing on new scientific research and building an argument that will reshape our view of the individual, relationships, and society itself. Along the way, he reveals how pairs begin to talk, think, and even look like each other; how the most successful ones thrive on conflict; why they break up; and more. He also marshals new research that suggests how deeply the notion of pairing influences our psyches: even when we're alone, we're collaborating with the voice inside our head. At once intuitive and deeply surprising, Powers of Two is mind-blowing"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9780544031593
ISBN: 0544031598
Physical Description: xxv, 339 pages ; 24 cm
Publisher: Boston : Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-324) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Part I Meeting -- 1 "You Remind Me of Charlie Munger": Matchups and Magnet Places 3 -- 2 Identical Twins from the Ends of the Earth: The Convergence of Homophily and Heterophily 11 -- 3 "Like Two Young Bear Cubs": The Varieties of Electric Experience 19 -- Part II Confluence -- 4 Presence → Confidence → Trust: The Stages of Confluence 29 -- 5 Turn of Faith: The Final Stage 35 -- 6 "Everybody Just Get the Fuck Out": The Psychology of "We" 40 -- 7 "No Power in Heaven, Hell or Earth": Creative Marriage 52 -- Part III Dialectics -- 8 In the Spotlight (in the Shadows): The Star and the Director 65 -- 9 Jokestein and Structureberg: The Liquid and the Container 76 -- 10 Inspiration and Perspiration: The Dreamer and the Doer 85 -- 11 Turn-Taking: Generators and Resonators 90 -- 12 "Everything's the Opposite": The Psychology of Dialectics 94 -- 13 "Other" of the Psyche: The Dialogue of Creative Thinking 106 -- Part IV Distance -- 14 Creative Monks and Siamese Twins: The Extremes of Distance 121 -- 15 "Somehow We Also Kept Surprising Each Other": The Varieties of Distance 128 -- 16 "Desire for That Which Is Missing": The Erotics of Distance 136 -- Part V Infinite Game -- 17 My Most Intimate Enemy: Creative Foils 151 -- 18 Luke Sky walker and Han Solo: Creative Pairs and Coopetition 161 -- 19 "We All Want the Hand": Power Clarity and Power Fluidity 171 -- 20 "I Love to Scrap with Orv": Conflict 179 -- 21 Varieties of Alphas and Betas: The Hitchcock Paradox 186 -- 22 "What About McCartney-Lennon?": The Dance of Power 192 -- Part VI Interruption -- 23 "Listen, This Is Too Crazy...": Stumbles 209 -- 24 Paradox of Success: Wedges 214 -- 25 Failure to Repair: Why Did Lennon-McCartney Split? 218 -- 26 Never Endings: Did Lennon-McCartney Ever Split? 225.