Nate’s Notes 38: Jeremy Utley | Quantity Beats Quality in Creativity

I could have listened to Jeremy for hours, and I look forward to applying the lessons he shared today.

First, when it comes to creativity, quantity drives quality. We need to fight our tendency to settle for the first creative solution we come up with. Just as the best photographs came from students who took one hundred pictures rather than one picture, so too will our best ideas come when we stop settling on our first ideas. By shifting from a quality mindset to a quantity mindset, we’ll improve our quality. 

Second, don’t confuse efficiency with effectiveness. Some of the most creative people of all time famously napped, played the violin, or juggled on a unicycle when they were stuck on a problem. In other words, they were willing to be underemployed. In the words of Amos Tversky, don’t waste years of your life by not being willing to waste hours. 

What I love about Jeremy’s work is that it gives me hope when I have doubts about my own creative ability. Consistent with the theme of many episodes on this podcast, if we want to improve in some area of our life, we probably should spend some time learning how to improve. 

And when it comes to creativity, Jeremy has demonstrated that creativity is a skill that can be learned. 

It’s a simple idea. Please take it seriously. 

Jeremy Utley Bio:

Jeremy Utley is an award winning professor at the world renowned Stanford Design school, nicknamed, the d.school. If Silicon Valley is the mecca of global innovation, the d.school is Silicon Valley’s ground zero for educating people on creative thinking. And when some of the worlds brightest, most creative and innovative people want to learn more about creativity, they turn to Jeremy. 

Jeremey teaches two of the most popular courses at the d.school: “Leading disruptive innovation,” nicknamed d.leadership and “Launch Pad.” 

Given that the brightest students in the world seek out Jeremy for his knowledge, I wanted to do the same.

I hope you enjoyed learning from Jeremy Utley, because I certainly did.