Steve Jobs believes creativity comes from connecting different experiences and perspectives to solve problems in new ways. He notes truly creative people feel they did not really create something new but instead saw it after connecting their diverse experiences. Jobs stresses the importance of having a broad understanding of human experiences to design better products and solutions that are not just focused on surface attributes but also how things work.

1. Steve Jobs on
Creativity

2. “Creativity is just connecting
things.”

3. “When you ask creative people
how they did something, they
feel a little guilty because they
didn't really do it, they just saw
something.”

4. “It seemed obvious to them after a
while.”

5. “That's because they were
able to connect experiences
they've had and synthesize
new things.”

6. “And the reason they were able
to do that was that they've had
more experiences or they have
thought more about their
experiences than other people.”

7. “Unfortunately, that's too
rare a commodity.”

8. “A lot of people in our industry
haven't had very diverse
experiences.”

9. “So they don't have enough dots
to connect, and they end up with
very linear solutions without a
broad perspective on the
problem.”

10. “The broader one's
understanding of the human
experience, the better design we
will have.”

11. “Design is not just what it looks
like and feels like. Design is how it
works.”

13. Steve Jobs on
Creativity