Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary

“Inside you is a vast reservoir of untapped wisdom,” contends former rocket scientist Varol (Think Like a Rocket Scientist) in this lighthearted guide to boosting creativity by looking within. Drawing on personal anecdotes and the stories of successful individuals, Varol encourages readers to discover the “real you” and outlines strategies for generating original ideas. Schools, he contends, squash creativity by rewarding memorization over curiosity, and he urges readers to revive their imagination by walking through a park alone with one’s thoughts or getting “lost in a foreign land.” Anecdotes of creative breakthroughs show how to come up with novel ideas, as when Varol touts the importance of pursuing “knowledge with no obvious utility” by telling how physicist Richard Feynman’s Nobel Prize–winning research on quantum electrodynamics was the unintended offshoot of his frivolous calculations on the physics of tossing a plate in the air. The author recommends readers emulate his practice of jotting down thoughts throughout the day and suggests that freewriting “connects you to your intuition” by helping sort through half-formed ideas. Though men are conspicuously overrepresented among the “extraordinary thinkers” anecdotes (Beethoven, Stephen King, Johnny Cash, but also Glennon Doyle, among others), Varol succeeds in distilling from their stories sensible advice that benefits from his encouraging tone. Readers who feel stuck in a rut will find this a boon. (Apr.)