Thought is an art and a process. Graham Wallas introduces the four steps to the creative thinking process and how these steps interact and are connected.

2. The Creative Process
• Conscious vs. Unconscious wanders
• Voluntary vs. Involuntary thinking
• Deliberate vs. Serendipitous chains of
ideas
• In 1926, Graham Wallas, defined this
process infour stages:

3. Preparation
• Investigating the problem from “all
directions”
• Fully conscious stage
• Brainstorm, research, planning
• Relevant state of mind
http://bit.ly/1b5fR85

4. II. Incubation
• Unconscious stage
• “Combinatory play” (Einstein)
– Two or more ideas combined effectively
– Result in creative thinking
• “Negative Fact”
– During incubation, no conscious deliberation of a
problem
• “Positive Fact”
– Series of unconscious, involuntary mental events

5. III. Illumination
• “Sudden Illumination” (Henri Poincaré)
– Flash of insight that cannot be controlled
by conscious self
• Stephen Jay Gould agreed: “trains of
associations”
– Connections between the seemingly
unconnected are the true secret of
genius

6. IV. Verification
• Conscious and deliberate effort
• Testing the validity of the idea
• Reducing the idea to an exact form

7. Creative Process
• Interplay between the stages
• None of the stages exist on their own
• Mechanism of creativity is a complex
machine of innumerable, perpetually
moving and connecting parts

8. • This article was inspired by Maria
Popova, brainmother of Brain Pickings.
• Viva the Knowledge Revolution!

9. Inspired?
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