Chance and I were talking about potential business ventures one day at his funky house in Sebastopol. When Chance mentioned idea for a book on learning, I was so excited that I had to take it one step further. Rather than a book of boring text for hundreds of pages, I suggested a book that used graphics and layout to help people learn. Chance agreed enthusiastically and we began.

Typically, Chance did the writing while I did the editing. I learned an amazing amount of information by using one of my favorite intelligences - creativity. I learned by re-writing, (essentially recreating), all the information in a way that I thought made more sense to me!

Are You Creative?

Creativity is the rarest and most difficult to measure of all the intelligences. We all have significant amounts of creativity floating around in our heads. If you have fluffy bunches of the stuff, you might find yourself:
• Lost in a book.
• Daydreaming.
• Easily influenced by movies.
• Doodling while you talk on the phone.
• Making pictures on your math notes.
• Making up really good excuses.
• Thinking of things as you fall asleep.
• Frequently coming up with new ideas, jokes & puns.
If you do any of these (or any one of a thousand other things that don't seem to make much sense) than you have the special gift of creativity!

The Necessary Basics

The three types of creative intelligence (CI) are:

• The “Extrapolative” CI uses techniques like brainstorming, exploration and mind-mapping to create new ideas by building on existing ones. Increasing your level of stimulation/information also enhances this CI.
• The “Interpolative” CI uses techniques of relaxation, meditation, journal writing, random drawing and collage-type art projects to find linkages between things that you already know. You can bring out this CI with quiet and peace.
• “Conversion” is the form of CI that uses metaphor, poetry, comedy and acting to change the relationship between things. Poetry, for example, can make a small choice between roads into the journey of a lifetime.

Team-Learn

Any time you get a group of people together, you have the opportunity to see the spark of creativity flying between individuals. For good sparks, try playing “Information Tag.”
In this game, one person tosses out a fact from your studies and the next person must come up with a fact that is linked to the first fact. Use dates, quotes, customer data, chemical bonds or whatever might be linked. Depending on your situation, you might make rules governing what kind of links can and can't be used. Map the results on a BIG sheet of paper; you’ll be amazed at the results!

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