Growth Mindset: Original Thinkers by Adam Grant

 This week I watched a TED talk from Adam Grant about original thinkers, he talks all about students he has had in life that he recognized as 'Originals'. He says these originals not only have ideas but they act on these ideas and drive change in the world. He talks about his college life and how he rushed in and done everything early, he even submitted his final thesis four months early. Years later he had a student that told him they have their most creative ideas when they are procrastinating, this led him to look into and study the positives of procrastination. He found that the most creative people are moderate procrastinators, they operate in a sweet spot between early workers and procrastinators. If you learn of a task you have to complete and then you start procrastinating, the task will incubate in your mind and you have time to think outside the box before finishing the task. Originals will start their tasks fast but finish them slow, if you start an essay or assignment and then stop and let the idea sit for a couple of days you are likely to come back to it with fresh ideas that hadn't crossed your mind before. 

Adam Grant

He also found that the so called 'first movers' in an industry have a higher failure rate than the 'improvers', this would suggest that its much easier to improve on a pre existing idea rather than starting something new from scratch. For example, Facebook started their social network years after myspace and friendster and look at which one is most successful today.  So he discovered to be original you don't have to be first, you just have to be creative and think differently.