Preface
Introduction
STORIES:
Discoveries about Creativity
Laws Of Planetary Motion
Electricity From Clouds
Band-Aid
Pneumatic Tyres
Gummed Paper
The Trap Of Paradigm
Invention Of Sewing Machine
Just-In-Time System
Transmission of Nerve Impulses
Printing Press
Dangers Of Locomotives
Flashlight
Lawn Mower
Phonograph
Rubber Heels
The Periodic Table
Discovery Of Electromagnetic Fields
The Tao Of Physics
Congenital Impact of Rubella
Typewriter
The Theory Of Evolution
The Benzene Ring
The Wreck Of Titanic
Wagner's Rheingold
Underwater Construction
Search For The "Hidden Likeness"
Fermi & Nuclear Fission
Cash Register
Discovery Of Current Electricity
Cure Of Diabetes
Boolean Algebra
Principle Of Photosynthesis
Ball Point Pen
The X-Ray
The Fuschian Functions
Safety Glass
The Creative Triggers
Why Aeroplanes Cannot Fly
The "Brownies" Of Stevenson
The Blunder That Founded 3M
Invention Of AC Motor
Discovery Of Teflon
Toynbee's The Study Of History
Inventors' Blindness
The Excitement Of Creativity
Electric Fan
How Typhus Gets Transmitted
Proof Of The Big Bang
Mathematical Theory Of Chance
Coleridge's Kubla Khan
Vulcanisation Process
Structure Of The Crystals
The Compulsion To Create
3M's Post-It Note Pads
Ice Cream Cones
The Structural Theory Of Atom
IBM And Computers
Helicopter
How Experts Resist Ideas
Creative Reveries Of Enid Blyton
Predictions In Gulliver's Travels
Float Glass Technology
Principle Of Immunisation
Journey Into Unknown
The Genius Of Karl Fredrich Gauss
Jean Coceteau's The Knights Of The Round Table
Neon Light
Transistor Radios
Precocious Minds?
The Masterpiece Of Sir Walter Scott
The "Fraud" That Changed The World
The "99% Perspiration"
Xeroxing
The Poem Of Stephen Spender
The Anatomy Of Inspiration
Travellers' Cheques
Edison's Fraud
Awe, Wonder And Alienation
The Logic Of Irrational
Epilogue: Themes & Patterns
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The "99% Perspiration"
Creative people are a tenacious lot. While the 'Eureka' experience plays an important role in their creations, the elaboration of the insight often requires painstaking and patient efforts over an extended period of time. Some example:
- Kepler's effort to derive the three laws of planetary motion took more than six years and over nine thousand pages of calculation.
- Edison is supposed to have conducted 50,000 experiments to develop the electric battery.
- It took almost seven years for Thomas Grey to write his poem The Elegy Written in the Church Courtyard.
- It took Michael Faraday 15,000 experiments to conclude electricity and magnetism are conveyed by means of invisible lines of forces arrayed in space, i.e., by field.
- JRR Tolkein took thirteen years to write his masterpiece Lord of the Rings between 1936 and 1949.
Of course, not all the time they have to slog for years to arrive at a perfect outcome. Many also compress these efforts in an unbelievably short time, working at a breakneck speed which often defies human dimensions. Some more examples:
Rider Haggard finished his masterpiece She in just over six weeks.
When Robert Louise Stevenson was writing The Treasure Island, he finished the first sixteen chapters at a rate of one chapter a day. After giving himself a break for a few days, he again resumed at the same pace to complete the novel.
Musician Rossini completed his masterpiece II Barbiere di Siviglia in a matter of just thirteen days. This compositions, which consisted of 600 pages of scores, would have taken same time for even a skilled copyist to copy.
Mozart composed the last three of his greatest symphonies, K.543, K.550, and K.551, in a period of just six weeks during the summer of 1788.
While Einstein had toyed with the ideas which formed the basis of his Theory of Relativity for seven years, it took him just five weeks to put them down on paper.
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