Peter Sims Explains How “Little Bets” Spur Big Creative Successes. (Podcast)

Psychology June 02, 2015 / By Scott Barry Kaufman

SYNOPSIS

Award-winning author Peter Sims shares some heartening research on how people like Steve Jobs, Chris Rock and Frank Gehry use small experiments to lay the groundwork for big creative successes. (...) Also, Scott and Peter banter across a wide spectrum of topics including improving education, the empathy deficit in America, deliberate practice and the importance of marching to the beat of your own drummer.

Award-winning author Peter Sims shares some heartening research on how people like Steve Jobs, Chris Rock and Frank Gehry use small experiments to lay the groundwork for big creative successes. It’s an encouraging episode for all the creative types out there thinking they have to have it all figured it out from the get go. Also, Scott and Peter banter across a wide spectrum of topics including improving education, the empathy deficit in America, deliberate practice and the importance of marching to the beat of your own drummer.

In this episode you will hear about:

How big name creatives use small scale experiments to find and improve ideas
The many benefits of being a black sheep
The philosophical frameworks big companies use to innovate
The vital importance of deliberate practice and forming a growth mindset
How creative success requires the ability to persist through failure
Developing healthy life expectations: you don’t have to have it all!
Pixar’s “Plusing” technique to craft their beloved film plots
The Darwinian model of creativity
The drive to be unique vs. the drive to belong
Crafting a social group that cultivates your desired attributes
A most heroic undertaking: to be yourself in a homogenized world
The practical ability to teach yourself new skills
Peter’s thoughts on measuring creativity and creativity in different fields

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“Peter Sims is a best-selling author, co-founder of The Silicon Guild, and founder of The BLK SHP (“black sheep”) Foundation. His latest book is Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, which grew out of a long collaboration with faculty at Stanford’s Institute of Design (the d.school), as well as his previous work in venture capital. He was also the coauthor with Bill George of the best-seller True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, a member of General Electric’s Innovation Advisory Panel, an Innosight Fellow, and the co-founder of Fuse Corps, a social venture that places entrepreneurial leaders on year-long grassroots projects with mayors to tackle some of America’s most pressing problems.” – Blurb taken from Amazon.com

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Author

Scott Barry Kaufman

Scott Barry Kaufman is a humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential. He has taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. He is interested in using his research to help all kinds of minds live a creative, fulfilling, and self-actualized life. Scott likes to share his enthusiasm and knowledge of the science of potential through his books, teaching, coaching, podcast, blog, articles, and speaking engagements. In his latest book Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, Kaufman presents a new hierarchy of human needs for the 21st century, one that allows for the fulfillment of individual potential as well as the actualization of transcendent purpose and peak experiences. Kaufman hosts the #1 psychology podcast in the world— The Psychology Podcast— which has received over 12 million downloads and was included in Business Insider’s list of “9 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior.” Kaufman’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review. Kaufman’s early educational experiences made him realize the deep reservoir of untapped potential of students, including bright and creative children who have been diagnosed with a learning disability (see the free monthly webcast “Critical Conversations on Cognitive Diversity”). Scott received a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University, and an M. Phil in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge under a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. In 2015, he was named one of “50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world” by Business Insider. Scott is a co-founder of The Creativity Post.

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