The creative mode in your brain is like a butterfly. It's beautiful and
erratic, hard to catch and highly valued as a result. If you want to
capture it, you need a net. Enter the executive mode, the task-oriented
network in your brain that help you tie your shoes, run a meeting, or
pitch a client. To succeed, you need both modes to work together--your
inner butterfly to be active and free, but your inner net to be ready to
spring at the right time and create that "aha!" moment. But is there
any way to trigger these insights, beyond dumb luck?

Thanks to
recent neuroscience discoveries, we can now explain these breakthrough
moments--and also induce them through a series of specific practices. It
turns out there's a hidden pattern to all these seemingly random
breakthrough ideas. From Achimedes' iconic moment in the bathtub to
designer Adam Cheyer's idea for Siri, accidental breakthroughs
throughout history share a common origin story. In this book, you will
learn to master the skills that will transform your brain into a
consistent generator of insights.

Drawing on their extensive
coaching and training practice with top Silicon Valley firms, Cabane and
Pollack provide a step-by-step process for accessing the part of the
brain that produces breakthroughs and systematically removing internal
blocks. Their tactics range from simple to zany, such as:

· Imagine an alternate universe where gravity doesn’t exist, and the social and legal rules that govern it.
· Map Disney’s Pocahontas story onto James Cameron’s Avatar.
· Rid yourself of imposter syndrome through mental exercises.
· Literally change your perspective by climbing a tree.
· Stimulate your butterfly mode by watching a foreign film without subtitles.

By trying the exercises in this book, readers will emerge with a powerful new capacity for breakthrough thinking.