--- title: Innovation: What Steve Jobs Said About Creativity description: "Creativity is just connecting things." canonical: https://time.com/3977222/steve-jobs-creativity/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-07T11:00:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:30.444Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What Steve Jobs Said About Creativity og:description: "Creativity is just connecting things." og:url: https://time.com/3977222/steve-jobs-creativity/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dc0c0b8a9205acb/69885d140a4a2225dd9c561f/steve-jobs1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Steve Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Steve Jobs Said About Creativity twitter:description: "Creativity is just connecting things." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dc0c0b8a9205acb/69885d140a4a2225dd9c561f/steve-jobs1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Steve Jobs Said About Creativity > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Steve Jobs Lost Interview Exclusive Clip [Watch (HLS stream): Steve Jobs Lost Interview Exclusive Clip](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j20YmQrI.m3u8) (0:30)  _Published 2011-11-15_ by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Aug 7, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Steve Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011. Steve Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011. Paul Sakuma—AP by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Aug 7, 2015 11:00 AM UTC In a [beautiful article](http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/06/secrets-of-the-creative-brain/372299/?utm%5Fsource=farnamstreet.org&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=brainfood) for The Atlantic, Nancy Andreasen, a neuroscientist who has spent decades studying creativity, writes: --- > “” --- The same point of view is offered by [James Webb Young](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/09/a-technique-for-producing-ideas/), who many years earlier, wrote: --- > “” --- A lot of creative luminaries think about creativity in the same way. Steve Jobs had a lot to say about creativity. In [I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=1932841660&asin-it=1932841660&asin-fr=1932841660&asin-de=1932841660&asin-uk=1932841660&asin-ca=1932841660&asin-com=1932841660), editor George Beahm draws on more than 30 years of media coverage of Steve Jobs in order to find Jobs’ most thought-provoking insights on many aspects of life and creativity. In one particularly notable excerpt Jobs says: --- > “” --- The more you learn about, the more you can connect things. This becomes an argument for a broad-based education. In his [2005 commencement address to the class of Stanford](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/07/steve-jobs-stanford-commencement/), Jobs makes the case for learning things that, at the time, may not offer the most practical benefit. Over time, however, these things add up to give you a broader base of knowledge from which to connect ideas: --- > “” --- While education is important for building up a repository for which you can connect things, it’s not enough. You need broad life experiences as well. [I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=1932841660&asin-it=1932841660&asin-fr=1932841660&asin-de=1932841660&asin-uk=1932841660&asin-ca=1932841660&asin-com=1932841660) is full of things that will make you think. **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/08/steve-jobs-on-creativity/)**_._** **Join over 60,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3977222/steve-jobs-creativity/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3977222/steve-jobs-creativity/"},"headline":"What Steve Jobs Said About Creativity","datePublished":"2015-08-07T11:00:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:30.444Z","description":"\"Creativity is just connecting things.\"","url":"https://time.com/3977222/steve-jobs-creativity/","keywords":["Innovation","Psychology","Apple","Steve Jobs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dc0c0b8a9205acb/69885d140a4a2225dd9c561f/steve-jobs1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dc0c0b8a9205acb/69885d140a4a2225dd9c561f/steve-jobs1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Steve Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011.","caption":"Steve Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011.","creditText":"Paul Sakuma—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3977222/steve-jobs-creativity/","name":"What Steve Jobs Said About Creativity"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Steve Jobs Lost Interview Exclusive Clip","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/j20YmQrI/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-11-15T19:35:48.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j20YmQrI.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3977222/steve-jobs-creativity/","duration":"PT30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3977222/steve-jobs-creativity/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```