Week 4 Reading Reflection

Chapter 5

1) Something that stood out to me the most in this chapter is that despite social and political unrest in Africa, there are still a small number of entrepreneurs attempting to start business there. This intrigued me because, as an entrepreneur, you can start your business anywhere you want. And you probably would want to choose a place where there is an opportunity to earn profit (which to me is not a third world country). It seems that there would be a lot of risk involved with starting a business in a developing continent such as Africa.

2) One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the two hemispheres of the brain. Throughout my schooling, the psychology of our brains has always been something that confusing me and I do not really understand how it all works. The book described how the right brain helps us understand analogies, imagine things, and synthesize information while the left brain helps us analyze, verbalize, and rationally approach problem solving. In my opinion, a lot of these functions overlap so how are we able to distinguish what our right brain does and what our left brain does. This is something that greatly confuses me. 

3) First, I would ask the author about the "arenas of creativity." Does creativity start with the arena such as idea, material or event (as told in the textbook) or does it start with the individual? In my opinion, you do not decide to be creative because you want to make a new product or start a new event. Instead, a creative person stumbles upon creating something new and innovative as a result of their thinking process. 

Second, I would ask the author about where the misconceptions about innovation came from. In my opinion most of them should not even qualify as a misconception because it is common sense that they are not true. For example, "innovation is planned and predictable." This has never been something to be believed as true and I am not sure who wrongly stated this for it to even be considered as a myth. I think the author should cite who has claimed to have spoken these misconceptions before writing them down as misconceptions.  

4) I disagree with the author about the fact that mental habits can block or impede one's creative thinking. While this may partially be true, in the end, creative people are always going to be creative. There will always be less creative people. I don't think this can be blamed on negative mental habits, I think that their minds just work in different ways than creative people's.