Photo by Tim Mossholder

You need some creative thinking ideas. But you’re not sure where to look. Here’s what you need! Every proven, creative thinking technique (like those we find in books, in courses, on YouTube, etc.,) is based on one or more of the eleven techniques below.

The reason people expect more, proven creative thinking techniques is simple. It’s business! These core techniques have been rebranded, renamed, remixed and combined. Then, they’re sold as something new. They sell millions of books, speaking engagements and courses.

But at their core, they’re all based on one, or a fusion of several, in this list.

Here they are. In no particular order.

First Principles Thinking

Most assumptions about how something works, or has to be done, are inherited. They’re assumed rather than examined. This technique strips everything back to what is provably true. It then rebuilds from there. Using this creative thinking process, you often discover the accepted way of doing something has no logical foundation.

It just persisted because nobody questioned it. As you’ll see in the next well-established creative thinking technique, almost all so-called creative thinking trainers/coaches commit this error. 

The 6 Thinking Hats 

We tend to think about a problem from our own perspective. This creative thinking technique opens up new perspectives. How? By deliberately shifting our perspective, we get to think about the problem through a different lens. Traditionally, this technique has been limited to 6 lenses (or hats); data, emotion, optimism, caution, creativity, and process. You can, of course add as many lenses as you need. Including the lens of how a person in history, or Sherlock Holmes, might have looked at the problem.

Side note: the limited 6 Thinking Hats technique only exists, because it’s used by uncreative ‘creative thinking experts’, who assume there’s only 6 hats. Why? Because ‘that’s how it’s always been done’. If you see anyone suggesting this, it’s a red flag. Avoid them!

By looking through these additional perspectives, you shift your thinking. With each lens revealing things the others missed.

Analogical Thinking

A persistent problem in one area, frequently has an effective answer in completely different field. This technique involves intentionally looking at how something works in nature, sport or industry for example, and applying it to your problem. 

The distance between the two domains is often what makes the insight powerful.

Constrained Creative Thinking 

Out of the box thinking is not an effective way to boost your creativity. It does the opposite, causing creative block. Conversely, constraints force the brain to work harder and find pathways it would never have considered outside that box.

Consider a poet working in a strict form, a designer given half the usual project time, or a musician allowed only three chords. These limitations tend to result in more inventive, creative work than their unconstrained counterparts. 

Combining

Almost nothing new is created from scratch. Most innovation comes from putting two or more things together and pondering what happens if they become one. 

The belief that for something to be new, it has to be wholly original, is bogus. The smartphone combined a phone, a camera, a map, a music player and a computer. And todays tablet devices were preceded thousands of years ago, by clay tablets.

Problem Reframing

Most people work very hard on the wrong problem, because they accept the original definition of it without questioning. This technique asks, what if the problem isn’t what we think it is? Reframing the question frequently makes previously invisible solutions obvious.

For example, businesses waste thousands or millions of dollars every year on lead generation (advertising, campaigns, social media, etc. What they need isn’t more leads. They need more customers or clients. When you look at it this way, you’re free to use massively better techniques, most of which cost little or nothing. For example, a joint venture with a suitable partner can generate a year’s worth of revenue in a matter of only weeks. And it costs little or no money. 

Incubation

The conscious mind is sequential and logical, which makes it bad at the kind of associative leaping that produces genuine insight. Stepping away, by going for a walk, listening to some music or doing doing something unrelated, can be a catalyst for creative thinking. Most people have experienced this as the answer arriving in the shower. It isn’t accidental.

People like me who are often referred to as creatively gifted, are neurodivergent. Here’s how my brain is rewired. However, by switching your inputs with techniques like Incubation, anyone can make their thinking more creative. And the more you practice and find what works best for you, the more creative you’ll become.

Bisociation 

This describes the moment when two entirely separate ways of seeing the world suddenly illuminate each other. Not just merging, but creating something that couldn’t exist in either framework alone. This is what we see in jokes, scientific breakthroughs and in metaphors. In essence, two incompatible things collide, and the collision itself is the insight.

It comes from The Act of Creation: a 1964 book by Arthur Koestler. (And it’s well worth a read).

Beginner’s Mind

Expertise is enormously useful, but it also creates blind spots. For example, the more you know about something, the harder it can be to see it freshly. The brain considers it as something understood.

The beginner’s mind technique involves deliberately unknowing what you know: approaching the familiar as if you have no prior relationship with it. It’s not easy. And it takes a lot of practice. But those who persist often find it to be extremely effective.

Brainstorming

The fear of judgement can kill an idea almost instantly. The judgment process and the generating process work against each other, when run simultaneously. This technique separates them. You generate without filtering first. Then evaluate afterwards. 

The idea that eventually works is frequently not the one you’d have chosen early in the process. It’s the one that only appeared because you kept going past the obvious answers.

Provocation

Logic filters out ideas that lack immediate coherence. The challenge is that genuinely good ideas often lack immediate coherence. So, they appear invalid, until their implications are understood. The provocation technique works by introducing a premise that is deliberately false or impossible, then reasoning forward from it. 

The false premise creates distance from established thinking. And it’s in that distance, where viable new ideas are frequently found.

That’s pretty-much it

In short: every creative thinking; author, YouTuber, podcaster, trainer/coach, public speaker or social platform influencer, is simply offering you a rebranded version of one (or more) of the above.

The post Every Proven, Creative Thinking Technique appeared first on Creative Thinking Hub.

Photo by Matthew Payne

Your art has value. And your creativity deserves to be rewarded. To help you get the balance right, I’ve put some ideas together on how to become both creatively free and financially secure.

As creatives, we think a lot about how to sustain what we love doing. How to monetise our art. And how to build a framework that lets us keep making it.

Most of us don’t dream of building financial empires. We dream of the freedom to work exclusively on projects that excite us and inspire us to do our best work. And to be financially secure enough to reject anything that compromises our vision.

In my experience, that’s what freedom looks like for many, probably most creatives.

Money matters, but avoid the money trap

As demand for our work increases, so do our commitments. There’s increasing pressure to produce and to deliver. Many successful creatives I know, found themselves less free when they were financially strong, than when they started out.

This happened to me.

I was working as a self-employed creative consultant in London. My work was in demand and earning me a fortune. Until I realised one day that I wasn’t developing as a creative professional. Instead, I was becoming a stressed, wealthy businessman. That’s not who I set out to be. So, I started again. This time, creative freedom was baked into my work. That was 30-years ago. I’ve been living and working a creative life ever since.

Before you develop a monetization model, make sure it’s one that provides you with freedom to create.

• One that gives you the security to say no to the wrong type of clients and the wrong type of briefs or projects.
• One that lets you pause, pivot or pursue something unexpected without panic.
• One that creates the physical and mental space you need, for experimentation, rest and the kind of thinking where your best ideas are formed.

Because a creative, financially secure life, lived on your own terms, is what you deserve.

The post Protect your creative freedom appeared first on Creative Thinking Hub.

Photo by @felirbe

I have some unusual advice for you, regarding creative burnout.

Dealing with burnout is something I get asked about at least once a week. However, I was sparked to share my only piece of burnout advice with you, after a video I saw on the subject from an artist/YouTuber. 

The video offered X number of ways to overcome creative burnout. It was generic advice. No sources were given. There was no mention that if we feel burnt out, we should speak with our doctor. No mention that it could be a sign that we have a thyroid problem, a vitamin deficiency or even that it could mean we’re suffering from depression.

My only piece of creative burnout advice

Burnout is an occupational phenomenon, often known as work-related stress. It’s not a creative-specific thing. Creative thinking experts may have experienced it. But so have bus drivers, attorneys, clowns, chefs and those in every other occupation. Don’t ask any of us for this type of advice. We’re as unqualified as everyone else, when it comes to diagnosing or treating burnout.

Photo: Tima Miroshnichenko

Instead, follow a safe, treatment pathway

• Speak with your doctor. They can provide you with the appropriate tests and if necessary, medication. 
• Depending on the results after your consultation with the doctor, you may then be advised to meet with a psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist. 

The immediacy of answers from YouTube, free of charge, makes YouTube (or high-ranking websites) an attractive option for us when we want advice. 

But we need to remember that regardless of how many likes, subscribers or views someone has, unless they’re qualified, experienced, medical professionals, we should never take medical advice from them. 

The post Overcome creative burnout: Here’s the only advice you need appeared first on Creative Thinking Hub.

Photo: Matthieu Comoy 

There’s a creative thinking industry out there, dedicated to selling you junk you absolutely do not need. Yes, anyone can learn to think more creatively. But there are only eleven, core techniques that are proven to work.

Each of these techniques can be explained… in minutes.

I list and explain all eleven, proven, creative thinking techniques here.

Every so-called creative thinking expert out there is selling you a version of one or more of what’s on the above list..

Why then, is there a billion dollar creative thinking industry, when there are so few effective, creative thinking techniques?

Simple.

The creative industry’s business model works,
because their products fail.

Here’s what happens.

• Someone publishes a book, develops a training program or whatever, about one or more of the above techniques.
• They make it feel like their own work or insights, by rebranding the insights and giving book or program an eye-catching name.
• The author simply repackages one or more proven techniques, so it sounds different. As the techniques can be explained in minutes, they pad their product out with interesting anecdotes. These entertaining stories are often 90% or more of the content!
• Their product is then marketed as the answer you’re looking for. They know you’re looking, because everything else promising you a great creativity breakthrough failed.
• Naturally, their product also fails you.
• Their failure makes you feel like you’re missing something.
• So… you buy the next product.
• Start again from the top.

If you want something interesting to entertain you and provide some new buzzwords, you’ll almost certainly find it. Just be aware that unless you don’t already know the BASICS of creative thinking, you’re paying for entertainment.

The solution starts here.

Study the masters, instead!

If you want to increase and improve the quality and volume of your creative output, study the masters, not the methods.

For example, study Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, written after days and days of speaking directly to Jobs and Jobs’ family and close friends. Not a video or article from a content provider with ‘The secrets of Steve Jobs’ success’.

Study Andy Warhol’s body of work and read his well-documented approach to creating, not some podcaster’s take on how to create like Warhol.

Study the masters. Learn the dozen or so basics of creative thinking. Then allow your wonderous mind to percolate on it, combined with your very own lived experience.

That’s creative thinking gold dust, right there.

The post Stop buying crap: You’re already creative appeared first on Creative Thinking Hub.

Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking a lot about misfits. I think of misfits as people who do things their own way. People who stand out from the crowd. People who tread their own path through life.

It started with some research I was doing. I was looking at common factors behind the people who achieve great success in their chosen field.

And in 100% of the cases I studied, they were misfits. From Shakespeare, Dieter Rams and Steve Jobs, to Grandmaster Flash, Richard Feynman, Picasso and Robin Williams.

This is true, regardless of whether the person is a musician, politician, activist, industrialist, designer, writer, actor, or whatever.

The only exception I could find were sports stars, where genetics played a huge part. But even then, the very top achievers in sport are often misfits; people who demonstrated a rare level of commitment, focus, grit and determination.

The creative adult

There’s a wonderful old saying that goes like this: The creative adult, is the child who survived.

I love the idea of the child who survived. The kid who grew-up, whilst still hanging onto their child-like imagination and curiosity. Schools tend to try and make kids conform to a measurable norm. Teachers and fellow students make life tough for kids who are different. So, kids soon learn to fit in. This robs many children of their chance to be their unique-self… the misfit they were born to be.

Just as the creative adult, is the child who survived, I think the same is true of misfit adults.

Embrace your inner misfit

You were born unique. Plus, your life experience was, and remains, unique. That uniqueness is still within you. Yes, it may take time, but you can reconnect with it.

How?

A great place to start is to observe the freedom with which your kids, siblings or grand-kids behave. Look at how they create. Observe how curious they are and how much fun they have. There’s so much we can learn from them.

In the age of AI, those of us who choose the less-travelled path of originality, have a fantastic opportunity. It’s an opportunity to stand out and make a difference, simply by being ourselves. By being the unique misfit we truly are.

Increasing numbers of people are choosing to hand over as much of their work and their thinking as possible, to AI. And AI is becoming increasingly capable of doing more for them.

In every area of creativity, there has never been a better time to be a misfit. It’s increasingly rare. And increasingly valuable.

PS: Here are 15 ways creative misfits stand out.

Photo by Bob Jenkin 

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Creative inspiration comes from many sources. Including our phones and tablets.

However, our phones are getting a lot of bad publicity at the moment. This seemed to have reached it’s peak in late 2025. By then, social media and YouTube was flooded with influencers, making almost identical points. We need to limit our screen time to 10-15-minutes a day, etc. We also need to remove social media from our devices, as it wastes our time and makes us doom scroll.

Interestingly, they’re pumping their message out on the time-wasting, productivity-destroying, doom-filled platforms they’re telling us to delete or largely ignore.

I know. The irony.

Here’s the thing: As creatives, we rely on consumption for our production. We need creative inputs, to inspire creative outputs. It’s what people do every time we read a book (a consumption device) and find something helpful in it that we can use.

The key here, as with everything, is balance. We all know people who seem to spend too much time looking at a screen. And there certainly is a lot to be gained if those who over do it, reduce their screen time significantly. Especially children below a certain age, and anyone who consume material that makes them feel anxious or lowers their self-esteem.

But for those of us who want to enhance our creativity, our phones are extremely useful. For example, this article is being written on my phone. At least half the articles on this site were either written, researched, or both written an researched on a phone. I also use my phone to capture ideas using its voice recorder, camera and notes app. I use social media to share useful information, and to identify common challenges, which I may be able to write a useful article about.

General advice is exactly that. General.

If your experience and productivity from your phone usage is positive and it’s not causing you to be anxious or feel bad about yourself, you’ve probably got the balance right… for you.

Photo: Tony Schnagl from Pexels:

The post Consumption devices are production devices appeared first on Creative Thinking Hub.

There are a number of steps to becoming commercially successful artist. Today, I’m focusing on just one of them. It’s all about you: the story behind you the artist. And all it takes is a little creative thinking.

Let’s go!

There is something most popular artists have in common. No, it’s not that they’re outstandingly gifted. Many, like Banksy, are more copyists than artists.

The common link is the story the artist has crafted about themselves. It’s a story that art buyers find compelling, connect with and buy.

The thoughts and feelings associated with the artist, shape the art buyers perception of the art. It provides the lens, through which they see and value the art.

These stories are crafted from a kludge of things. Such as the way the artist looks, their fashion choices, their outrageous stunts, their polarising views on almost anything, their anti/pro (whatever) stances, their love of animals, their outspokenness, their edgy personality, etc.

Anything that makes them seem like a more interesting, unusual person, makes their art more compelling to a subset of art buyers attracted to the story.

Take Banksy

The artwork below isn’t from Banksy also known as Robin Gunningham. No. It’s from the French artist, Blek le Rat: real name Xavier Prou. Unlike Banksy, Blek le Rat didn’t craft a compelling story. He just put his work out there as people passing by watched him. Around 15 years later, Banksy copied the style, added a compelling story and took it to the bank (pardon the pun).

There are countless other examples, where the artist’s story was 80 or 90 percent responsible for the artist’s fame and fortune. We see this widespread today, with so-called artist influencers. They will do or say almost anything, to build their story, grab attention and grow huge followings. And sell a ton of art along the way!

Enough about other artists.

Let’s focus on you.

The story of you… the artist!

If you want to sell more of your work, to people who will become collectors of your art, give them a story about you.

Not a story about you. You’re doing that already, whether intentionally or not.

I’m referring to a story about you the artist.

Get creative. Craft elements of your life/work into your very own, uniquely you, story. Use your creativity to show the world the artist behind your work. It will change how they feel about you, and your work. And feelings motivate people to buy, far more than logic. This is especially the case, when it comes to art.

The post Use creative thinking to sell more art appeared first on Creative Thinking Hub.

Friends. Here’s how to avoid being yet another victim of toxic branding advice.

If you’re following advice that’s from a video with hundreds of thousands of views, or following the advice from a book that’s read by hundreds of thousands of people, you’ll simply be copying the same branding strategy as millions of others.

Think about it.

• When you feed your mind with identical advice to the masses, you’ll fade into an ocean of beige.
• You’ll have an instantly forgettable brand.
• And you’ll have just turned your art, your work/products and your business into a commodity. Ouch!

The reason there’s an entire branding industry, is because this type of mass-market crap doesn’t work. People watch the video, read the book, attend/buy the course… only because the last one failed. The next one will fail, too. And the next. Repeat.

The branding industry works for so-called branding experts, because their advice doesn’t work. If it worked, everyone who followed the advice from all those best-seller books, or watched those videos, would have a kick-ass brand. They wouldn’t need more branding books, videos or courses.

Successful branding isn’t a DIY project

To craft your unique brand, get advice that’s specific to you, your art, your work/products, your goals and your personality.

Anything less is not just ineffective, it’s toxic.

P.S. You’ll find this really useful. Stop buying crap: You’re already creative.

The post Uncreative branding: How to avoid it! appeared first on Creative Thinking Hub.

I recently watched some YouTube tech reviews. I was in the market for a new, high-end tablet device and wanted to make an informed choice. As someone with a keen interest in tech, I knew exactly what to expect from tech reviews by YouTube content creators.

I knew that most reviewers would evaluate tablet devices as if their viewers requirements were just like YouTube content creators. That’s to say, people deeply interested in video shooting, editing and conversion, who love lots of benchmarks, and speed-test data for video production apps. (Plus a little on gaming and Netflix performance).

Of course, most of their viewers don’t make YouTube videos every day. So, how did this happen?

Here’s my theory!

An early, viral YouTube review included lots of benchmarks, showing how the device handled the creator’s workflow, which was mostly video production. Other creators copied the format. Today, that’s the standard template.

Why are they using templates? They’re under extreme pressure. They’re getting new devices to review all the time, which they need to spend hours learning about. Then they have a limited amount of time for the development work and production of the video. The sooner they publish their review, the less competition they will be up against.

Extreme pressure?

Oh yes!

As I have said before, YouTubers who work without a production team, work both long hours and extremely hard. They’re feeding Google’s YouTube algorithm, which is relentless if you want to get the subscribers and views you need, in order to make a significant income.

I know a few YouTubers, including one with almost half a million subscribers. Today, she makes a very good living and has a team working with her. Yet she’s still working hard to build her subscriber-base and feed the insatiable algorithm.

However, there’s no need for tech YouTubers to produce such similarly formatted videos. They could build their own template. A template that’s more aligned with what a typical viewer is looking for, before they make a purchasing decision.

Surely, there is an opportunity out there, right now, for a creative thinking, tech savvy YouTuber to own a massive slice of the market?

Could it be you?

After all, in the age of anti creativity we need more, unique material out there to combat the AI slop problem.

Photo by ilgmyzin 

The post Uncreatives: Tech YouTube creators appeared first on Creative Thinking Hub.

The anti creative problem, and subsequent decline in creativity, is being made worse because of AI slop. Here’s a quick look at what you need to know.

What is AI slop?

AI companies scrape (copy) massive amounts of web content to train their models. The problem is, that content increasingly includes AI-generated text, rather than human material. In short, AI is now copying itself! This creates a feedback loop where AI trains on AI output. Over time AI models are losing the diversity and authenticity of the human creativity, which their models desperately need. The quality of AI output is currently degrading into what we now call AI slop, instead of improving as it had done previously.

How the anti creative problem is worsened by slop

Let’s quickly recall what the anti creative problem is: The homogenization of original thought, caused by the pervasive distribution of prescriptive and iterative ‘creativity advice’, resulting in a decrease of novel output.

Today, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of videos, social media posts, newsletters, articles and blog posts will be built using AI slop. A hefty subset of AI slop is aimed at artists and the those in the creative industries. What’s feeding the anti creative problem is that some of this incorrect, misleading content is convincing. Especially for those just discovering how to improve their creative thinking skills.

And worryingly, other slop content is on popular sites and endorsed at the highest level.

Yesterday, a reader sent me an article, which was around 80% written by AI… on a website that’s publicly endorsed by a Google Vice President!

Somebody simply gave that content a very light copyedit, unaware their AI content was slop! So, they’ve tried to humanize slop. It reads like crap, yet was published! This is happening more and more, as the quality of AI content (and answers) is getting progressively worse, not better. But many people will end up taking its bad advice, which they assumed they could trust, as it’s from a powerfully endorsed website.

It doesn’t stop there, with that one AI article. That article spreads in different ways, on different formats and get’s seen by a very wide audience.

Popular sites like that are targets for creative thinking content creators. They turn those posts into different forms of content. Videos, social media posts, YouTube shorts, Instagram/Facebook reels, TikToks, etc., which are then seen by more people. This further increases the pervasive distribution of prescriptive and iterative ‘creativity advice’, which I mentioned at the start.

How to avoid anti creative content & slop

I’ve already created 4, common sense, highly-effective ways you can successfully protect yourself from anti creative content. I’ve also found 2 articles that give helpful insights into the AI slop problem, which you may find useful. This is from Science.org: Resisting AI slop. And this one is from The Conversation: What is AI slop?

I hope you find this useful.

Photo by julien Tromeur 

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