YaleNews features works recently or soon to be published by members of the University community. Descriptions are based on material provided by the publishers. Authors of new books may forward publishers’ book descriptions to us by email.
The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery
Sarah Lewis, writer/curator at the School of Art
(Simon & Schuster)
In this book, Sarah Lewis contends that many of mankind’s most iconic and creative endeavors — from Nobel Prize-winning discoveries to entrepreneurial inventions and works in the arts —are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts.
“The Rise” begins with narratives about figures who range from writers to entrepreneurs; Frederick Douglass, Samuel F. B. Morse, and J. K. Rowling, for example, feature alongside choreographer Paul Taylor, Nobel Prize–winning physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, Arctic explorer Ben Saunders, and psychology professor Angela Duckworth.
“The Rise” explores the value of often ignored ideas — the power of surrender for fortitude, the criticality of play for innovation, the propulsion of the near win on the road to mastery, and the importance of grit and creative practice.
