3-2-1: On Seeing Opportunities, Originality, and the Magic of Books | James Clear

The cellist, composer, and conductor, Pablo Casals , on being unique:

“Each second we live in a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and will never be again. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them wha... See more

The scientist, astronomer, and author, Carl Sagan , on the magic of books:

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millenn... See more

One form of originality is creation. Another form is synthesis.

People often focus so much on creating new ideas that they overlook the value of synthesizing ideas from different sources.

Innovation usually mean connecting previously unconnected concepts.

How to see opportunities others miss:

1) Study a totally different field, then return to the original problem. Apply insights from other domains.

2) Invert the problem. Try to achieve the opposite.

3) Talk to hyper-creative people. Their thinking will rub off.

If you have good habits, time becomes your ally. All you need is patience.