Froma NYTImes article

"The Rise of the New Groupthink"

Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.

and

Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence. “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,” Picasso said. A central narrative of many religions is the seeker — Moses, Jesus, Buddha — who goes off by himself and brings profound insights back to the community.

Recommended reading: An interesting article that confirms age-old truths about being creative -- focus, and let go (or in this case, "drop out").

Thiel says the huge cost of higher education, and the resulting burden of debt, makes students less willing to take risks. "And we think you're going to have to take a lot of risks to build the next generation of companies."

and

Newsweek article reorting on work and research by professor Michael Mumford (University of Oklahama).

Valuable insights into the creative process:

...half of the commonly used techniques intended to spur creativity don’t work, or even have a negative impact. As for most commercially available creativity training, Mumford doesn’t mince words: it’s “garbage.”

Paraphrasing, high creativity is achieved when we ask people to be unique, to show off their originality and resourcefulness.

Another excellent article by Fiona Smith.

Many good ideas, truisms concerning creativity, and the illusions concerning the creative process.

Smith reports:"Many organisations, trying to foster innovation, for example, create complex processes to encourage the generation of ideas, but those processes ignore the way breakthroughs emerge."

Smith quotes Johnnie Moore: