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    Powers of Two: How Relationships Drive Creativity
    Powers of Two: How Relationships Drive Creativity
    Powers of Two: How Relationships Drive Creativity
    Audiobook11 hours

    Powers of Two: How Relationships Drive Creativity

    Written by Joshua Wolf Shenk

    Narrated by Andrew Garman

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A revelatory synthesis of cultural history and social psychology that shows how one-to-one collaboration drives creative success Weaving the lives of scores of creative duos-from John Lennon and Paul McCartney to Marie and Pierre Curie to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak-Joshua Wolf Shenk identifies the core qualities of that dizzying experience we call "chemistry." Revealing the six essential stages through which creative intimacy unfolds, Shenk draws on new scientific research and builds an argument for the social foundations of creativity-and the pair as its primary embodiment. Along the way, he reveals how pairs begin to talk, think, and even look like each other; how the most successful ones thrive on conflict; and why some pairs flame out while others endure. When it comes to shaping the culture, Shenk argues, two is the magic number, not just because of the dyads behind everything from South Park to the American Civil Rights movement to Starry Night, but because of the nature of creative thinking. Even when we're alone, we are in a sense "collaborating" with a voice inside our head. At once intuitive and surprising, Powers of Two will change the way we think about innovation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateAug 5, 2014
    ISBN9781490638959
    Author

    Joshua Wolf Shenk

    JOSHUA WOLF SHENK is a curator, essayist, and the author of Lincoln's Melancholy, a New York Times Notable Book. A contributor to The Atlantic, Harper's, The New Yorker, and other publications, he directs the Arts in Mind series on creativity and serves on the general council of The Moth. He lives in Los Angeles.

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    • 3/5
      Shenk tries to strike a middle path between the myth of the lone genius and the creative person embedded in context, though he says he believes the latter, by focusing on more graspable entities: the creative pair, like Lennon and McCartney. He cheats a bit by including a few rivals, like two basketball greats (Larry Bird and Magic Johnson), as competitors who spurred each other to perform even better. As a set of stories of how creative partnerships can form, inspire great work, and either persist or fall apart, it’s moderately interesting, but it’s hard to find big lessons except “be open to the contributions of others” and “look for someone who’s enough like you to communicate but different enough to make your work better.”