Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

The first specific interesting concept I encountered was in Michalko (2001, p. 11). The concept was "Connecting the Unconnected." The ability to see connections where there ordinarily are no such connections, according to the author, is one of the traits of "creative geniuses, where they have "a facility to connect the unconnected by forcing relationships that enable them to see things to which others are blind." This is one of the faculties of creative thinking, where individuals engage in what Michalko terms "productive" rather than "reproductive" thinking. When faced with a challenge or problem, such individuals see things in a myriad of possible ways, which then enables the individual to find unusual solutions. This happened to Benjamin Franklin when he invented the lightning rod. Against all conventional wisdom, Franklin used a kite when there was a thunderstorm and, with this dangerous experiment, was able to...
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