Hilde Østby

Creativity : Why Daydreaming Will Save the World

Kreativiteten. Hjernevitenskapen bak ideene og hvorfor dagdrømmerne skal redde verden

What is creativity, really? What drives creativity, and how can we all learn how to be more creative?
The Key to Creativity is a book that combines brand new brain research on creativity, the cultural history of creativity and an analysis on society, as well as the experience of a number of creative people. It is a narrative exploration of creativity, as well as a criticism of society. It is a counterpart to a society that wants to measure everything, where everyone feels the pressure to perform and become a celebrity.

With this book the author tries to make messing about, boredom and trying and failure the new gold standard: Because when AI and the climate crisis arrives, we will have to be very creative! And creativity lives in a very strange place, what the researchers call DMN, also known as daydreaming.
Through the six chapters the author explores where ideas come from and how they feel, what a good idea really is and if you can die from them? For one chapter she battles her inner critic through meditation, impro theatre, electricity through the brain as well as very tight deadlines as she tries to find out what it takes to finish a creative project through talking to some of the very best and most creative people.

There are more than enough books that would like to give you the instructions on how to be creative. This is not that type of book.

Østby nøkkelen til kreativiteten 9788202635510
Østby, hilde photo anna julia granberg
Photo: Anna Julia Granberg

Hilde Østby (b. 1975) is a historian of ideas, author, journalist and former publishing editor. She made her debut as an author in 2013 with the critically acclaimed novel Encyclopedia of Longing. After that she went on to write the international non-fiction bestseller Adventures in Memory (2016) with her sister Ylva Østby.