Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention | Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Why it is included:

This is the definitive sociological study of innovation.

Based on interviews with 91 visionaries, Csikszentmihalyi dismantles the myth of the solitary genius and introduces the "Systems Model of Creativity."

He argues that creativity does not happen inside a person's head, but in the dynamic interaction between three distinct parts: the Person (who generates the insight), the Field (the experts who validate it), and the Domain (the cultural archive where it is preserved).

This framework transforms "Imaginative Courage" from a private act of dreaming into a public act of persuasion.

It demonstrates that true innovation requires not just a novel idea, but the resilience to submit that idea to the gatekeepers of the field and the skill to permanently alter the domain of human knowledge.