"The way memories are associated makes it possible to connect your ideas later. In fact, recent evidence shows that semantic memory structure—how we relate language-based concepts—is one of the biggest predictors of creativity."

"Creativity is the ability to produce an artifact or an idea that is both novel and useful given a particular social context (some definitions also include valuable as a necessary requirement)."

"In creativity research, it can mean that an idea has sprung from a connection that has never been made or is new to an individual but may be otherwise widely known."

"Researchers generally believe that creativity is a two-part process. The first is to generate candidate ideas and make novel connections between them, and the second is to narrow down to the most useful one."

"As a memory moves from short-term to long-term storage, what’s represented in that memory is associated with existing memories (aka “schemas”), and your overall understanding of the world shifts slightly."

"understanding how our brains give rise to the creative  experience helps us understand the process more deeply and fills in a critical component that is thus far missing—attention."

"When Delilah is coming up with all of these different uses (i.e., divergent thinking), a network of brain regions called the ""default network"" is activated. In brain imaging studies, this network shows the highest activation during spontaneous, self-generated thought—including mind wandering, which is specifically not related to a task."

"Governing this process is a ""control network"" that allows us to think flexibly, inhibit outside distractions, and pull from our memory."

"Switching between the default and control networks is thought to be governed by a ""salience network,"" which helps us to engage each one effectively. Higher creative thinking scores are correlated with greater coupling between these networks."

"“Constraints breed creativity.”"

"Memories are the materials needed for creative thinking. Consuming other people's ideas in conversation by reading or listening to them (like you're doing now!) stimulates creativity and deepens existing associations."

"To widen our divergent thinking funnel, we could try and seek out new ideas that are maximally different from our own, but this typically won’t work. It’s actually better to make incremental steps outside your own filter bubble because new information must overlap somewhat with what you already know to be effectively associated and assimilated."

"Taking notes, making highlights, and revisiting that material when it’s related to what you’re currently thinking about is a good way to maintain and strengthen connections."

"These connections can happen spontaneously, often during a period of mind wandering, when our attention is less focused, or during an engaging conversation, when we’re focused but someone else’s ideas are helping spark our own that we can share."

"the best state for doing creative thought work depends on the type of work, your attentional state, your mood, and how engaged you can be. In terms of your mood, it’s helpful to be in a positive affective mental state—e.g., happy and not anxious."

"Counterintuitively, the more we try and force ourselves to focus, the narrower our thinking may become. Mind wandering is what allows us to explore, retrieve, and experiment with connecting our memories in different ways."

"Even with the best tools available to turn our creative ideas into something more tangible, though, we still need to provide the initial seed of an idea and be able to judge whether we’re heading in the right direction."

"Researchers generally believe that creativity is a two-part process."

"The first is to generate candidate ideas and make novel connections between them, and the second is to narrow down to the most useful one."

"As our minds begin this dance between divergent and convergent thinking, we first need to have learned some information about how the world works and have some ideas to pull from."

"We can call our pile of ideas and experience knowledge."

"This makes memory a critical component of creativity. Memory is a complicated topic, but at a high level, as information related to language—or semantic information—and information related to your senses—or perceptual information—comes into our minds, it is encoded in episodes, or periods of time."

"If information is related to what you already know, attaching it to an existing part of your schema helps you understand that information more quickly because you’ve already seen something like it before."

"In fact, recent evidence shows that semantic memory structure—how we relate language-based concepts—is one of the biggest predictors of creativity."

"When Delilah is coming up with all of these different uses (i.e., divergent thinking), a network of brain regions called the ""default network"" is activated."

"Switching between the default and control networks is thought to be governed by a ""salience network,"" which helps us to engage each one effectively."

"Higher creative thinking scores are correlated with greater coupling between these networks."

"Build a good “memory bank” full of materials for creation"

"To widen our divergent thinking funnel, we could try and seek out new ideas that are maximally different from our own, but this typically won’t work."

"Another good way to interact with your materials is to use them actively."

"Counterintuitively, the more we try and force ourselves to focus, the narrower our thinking may become."

"Far from being too unfocused, with modern technology, we’ve fallen prey to an attention economy that keeps us hyper-focused and often stuck in the memory collection part of the creative thinking process—forgoing the necessary mind wandering."

"It’s a delicate balance between staying focused on your creative thought work by letting your control network do its job and not missing out on a potentially useful novel conversation happening behind you in the coffee shop."