Scaling the Paper Fish

• Published in: PsycCritiques Vol. 52; no. 28; p. No Pagination Specified
• Main Author: Knight, Tracy A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Psychological Association 11.07.2007
• Subjects: Business; Creativity; Human
• ISSN: 1554-0138; 1554-0138
• DOI: 10.1037/a0007894

Reviews the book, How the Paper Fish Learned to Swim: A Fable About Inspiring Creativity and Bringing New Ideas to Life by Jonathon A. Flaum (see record 2006-13467-000). Jonathon A. Flaum's How the Paper Fish Learned to Swim: A Fable About Inspiring Creativity and Bringing New Ideas to Life is an attempt to encourage creativity, particularly in the business and corporate worlds, and its dust cover promises that it contains a "proven technique," although Knight subsequently found no whisper of the alleged proof. Knight is initially suspicious of any claim that a structured technique will, in and of itself, spark creativity. In fact, Knight finds such a claim slightly paradoxical, as if one is saying, "Perform these three steps exactly in order to be spontaneous." Still, any efforts to attend to and nurture our creativity are worthy of attention. The hub around which this book is organized is a short, colorful fable (which, however, takes up over a third of the book's pages because only one or two sentences appear on each page) regarding an origami master whose creation has more potential than it seems on its surface (hence, the title of this book). The fable is indeed a valuable analogy of creativity and likely invites many of its readers to consider the potentials of their creations in a unique fashion. Using the fable, Flaum then details the principles of creativity that the fable embodies and demonstrates. Although Knight cannot recommend this book to colleagues and students, Knight does find it charming and well written. It does not, however, enhance our understanding of creativity, nor does it necessarily bolster it. It does, however, demonstrate it. The fable itself is a clear demonstration of the use of metaphor and analogy to create. The principles it embodies invite us to combine, to expand, to dream. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)