Life skills course

Creativity and design thinking

Make better creative work: train your eye, find the real problem, and keep your voice when AI joins in.

6 parts23 lessonsAbout 7 minutes a lessonFirst 3 lessons free
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No card needed. The first three lessons stay free.

After this course you will be able to

  • Take a stuck problem and rewrite it as a sharper question.
  • Make ten ideas alone before you pick one.
  • Show one rough version to a real person inside thirty minutes.
  • Notice when AI is flattening your voice and push past it.
  • Pick the stage of the design process the work needs.

Myths this course clears up

Creative people are born, not made
If your first idea is strong, more ideas waste time
Group brainstorming makes the best ideas
Rough work is not worth showing yet
Good designers run all five stages every project

Lesson plan

6 parts, 23 lessons of about 7 minutes, with a short review at the end of each part.

PART 1 Train Your Eye for Good Work

  1. 1Write Your Own Definition of Creativity FREE7 min
  2. 2Read Closely, Then Pick a Side FREE7 min
  3. 3Choose What You Read and Watch This Week FREE7 min
  4. 4Copy One Thing on Purpose 7 min
  5. 5Recap: Train Your Eye for Good Work REVIEW7 min

PART 2 Find the Real Problem Before You Solve It

  1. 6Catch Yourself Solving the Wrong Problem 7 min
  2. 7Rewrite the Problem Around a Real Person 7 min
  3. 8Turn a Stuck Problem into a Sharp Question 7 min
  4. 9Recap: Find the Real Problem Before You Solve It REVIEW7 min

PART 3 Get Past Your First Idea

  1. 10Write Alone First, Then Share 7 min
  2. 11Pick a Method to Get Unstuck 7 min
  3. 12Add a Tight Rule or Steal from a Distant Field 7 min
  4. 13Name the Kind of Stuck You're In 7 min
  5. 14Recap: Get Past Your First Idea REVIEW7 min

PART 4 Show Rough Work to Real People

  1. 15Talk to One Real User for Ten Minutes 7 min
  2. 16Compare What People Say with What They Do 7 min
  3. 17Make a Rough Version and Show It in Thirty Minutes 7 min
  4. 18Change One Thing, Then Test Again 7 min
  5. 19Recap: Show Rough Work to Real People REVIEW7 min

PART 5 Use AI Without Losing Your Voice

  1. 20Spot When AI Sounds Like Everyone Else 7 min
  2. 21Push Past AI's First Answer with Three Prompts 7 min
  3. 22Recap: Use AI Without Losing Your Voice REVIEW7 min

PART 6 Pick the Stage the Work Needs

  1. 23Recap: Creativity and Design Thinking REVIEW7 min

A look inside

Read the first lesson

Write Your Own Definition of Creativity

7 min

A classmate asks Maya to help with a college essay because she is "the creative one". Maya freezes. She does not feel creative. She just notices things. She has no idea what her classmate thinks she can do.

Most people treat creativity like eye colour: you either have it or you do not. Studies of painters, engineers, songwriters and scientists point the other way. The people who produce creative work practise more, notice more and try more versions.

Creativity: Judgement plus a process you can practise. The process is the concrete steps: find a problem worth solving, make many rough options, pick the best one and improve it. Judgement is the eye that tells good from less good. Both grow with use.

Taste as a skill: Judgement built through exposure, comparison and feedback. People talk about taste as something you are born with. In this course it is a muscle. The more examples you study, the sharper your sense of what works and why.

The story that keeps you stuck

The most common blocker is one sentence: "I'm not the creative type." That sentence turns creativity into a personality label. A label gives you nothing to practise. Swap the label for an action, such as "I notice problems and try small versions", and the next step is back in your hands.

One rule to remember: Define creativity in actions, not in moods.

If your definition names something you can do this week, it is working. If it names something you feel or something you are, rewrite it.

Check your understanding

A friend says "I wish I had your creativity." Which reply treats creativity as a practice?

Try it yourself

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The first three lessons are free. About 7 minutes each.

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