A creative mind can be wonderful, expressive, innovative, inventive, tedious, introspective, and, above all else, chaotic. It is entirely likely that the mind becomes overwhelmed by its own operation. Managing to quiet the noise, organize the objects of import, and make sense of it all can be challenging.

Doug Patton is an esteemed inventor and CEO of his own company. His book helps other creatives tame that mess within their minds so that they can be better at whatever it is they do. This goes for writers, artists, designers, inventors, content creators, scientists, philosophers, etc. Anything that requires creativity, analysis, organized thoughts, or anything in between. Patton helps you to conquer all that chaos that occurs within oneself when it comes to creativity. An excellent read for anyone who is embarking on new creative endeavors and for those who have been creating for years and seek to improve upon their creative process.

Doug Patton was inspired by his three professors at university so he combined their ways of solving problems into one integrated system, which he has used several times himself. This involves making a problem statement, brain-storming, flow mapping, and other processes to arrive at solutions. He provides a step-by-step account of how this is done, and gives examples of how he has used it in the past. I found this part of the book fairly involved.

However, I found the sections on ways to improve creativity, such as visual immersion and creative immersion, easier to understand. His suggestions for 'waking up' and regaining motivation and creativity are also very useful. I was pleased to note that Patton suggests skimming his book, and finding ideas which resonate.

This is an inspirational book, which will help anyone become more creative, and apply their creativity to problem-solving.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Conquering the Chaos of Creativity is a book focussed on creative problem solving. Although it does aim to reach everyone, I feel it is business and large organisation orientated. The examples, case studies, and authors experience is all based around huge organisations and working at a high level in American politics. I did not resonate with it at all or feel it reached out to everyone. It is quite padded out too with lots of background and information I wanted to skim over. However I can see that the author has a good method to share and would love to read a shorter version that was straight to the point and method being championed.

Honestly, this book is a delight. Since reading the work of Win Wenger I've not read many truly new approaches to creativity.

So imagine my right when Doug mentions Sapir-Whorf, a theory I heard 27 years ago in college"the limits of my language are the limits of my world'.

I've been using image streaming for years to transcend my immediate conscious thoughts but using symbols to transcend language.... Oooh, I can't wait.

I'm still reading but I'm confident this book.will become a key cornerstone in creativity theory and practice.

Beyond awesome. Thank you Doug.

Improve the cover though.