I am in middle of reading a fascinating book that discusses how the brain, processes, interprets, and retains information as it passes from your Sensory Information Storage to your short term memory to your long term memory, as well as how you retrieve information from your long term memory. (The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis)
The book was written as a guide to CIA Analysts to understand the limitations their own filters and mental models place on new information they process.
One important point that I find applies to this essay is that the way we retrieve information is through schema that associate various memories with each other. Creativity is about mapping new pathways through your memory or applying other patterns and schema on top of existing memories.
So, reading a book a second time, or even "forgetting" what you read, can not only give you new patterns and schema to apply to your other mental models and memories and stimulate creativity.
The book was written as a guide to CIA Analysts to understand the limitations their own filters and mental models place on new information they process.
One important point that I find applies to this essay is that the way we retrieve information is through schema that associate various memories with each other. Creativity is about mapping new pathways through your memory or applying other patterns and schema on top of existing memories.
So, reading a book a second time, or even "forgetting" what you read, can not only give you new patterns and schema to apply to your other mental models and memories and stimulate creativity.
I highly recommend everyone read The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis... or if you want the abridged version you can read my brief recap. http://www.davidmelamed.com/2014/12/05/internet-marketers-ci...