1.  Eric Liu and Scott Noppe-Brandon begin Imagination First with examples of the quashing of imagination: a girl with dreams of space travel is scoffed at by her father, a biologist at a cancer research center is forbidden from doing his own work on immortality, a Harlem social worker isn’t allowed to expand his organization’s scope.  When and how has someone or something stifled your imagination?  What can you do to overcome a similar obstacle in the future?

2.  “Path dependence” is “what happens when an institutional arrangement gets locked in and becomes self-reinforcing.”  The authors point to the QWERTY layout of the keyboard as a quintessential instance of this, of an idea or practice living on even after its underlying reasoning has become outdated.  A first step toward imagining better possibilities, then, is recognizing path dependence in your life.  In what areas have you grown complacent?  What new vistas are you blocking yourself from seeing?

3.  A key concept to digest if one is to understand the importance of imagination is the ICI Continuum: Imagination → Creativity (imagination applied) → Innovation (novel creativity).  The Continuum puts imagination first both temporally and otherwise.  Given its abstract nature, it might be a good idea to discuss it with others.  Does the Continuum make sense to you?  More importantly, can you think of real-world examples, in your own life and beyond, of the Continuum at work?

4.  In making the case for imagination, the authors paint provocative pictures of our current national workforce and the present state of public education.  They cite the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, which advises that there is “only one potential competitive advantage left for Americans: our imagination.”  They also note that instead of remaining “committed to imagination,” “American classrooms are becoming more like those in East Asia—test-minded and drill-dependent.”  Take this opportunity to reflect on your own workplace and, if applicable, your children’s school(s): do they have cultures of imagination?  How so?  If not, why not?

5.  Practice 9 has the authors urging you to “renew your narrative”—that is, become aware of the story that you tell about yourself (we all have one, usually more), and if you see that it’s stopping you from actuating your full potential, scrap it and construct a new one.  A reading group is a perfect forum for putting Practice 9 into action.  Articulate your personal narrative to others.  Hearing it out loud, does it seem accurate?  Or, more likely than not, does it fail to do you justice?  What does your audience think?

6.  “We love it when our children play games of what-if,” the authors write.  Indeed, one recurring notion in the book is that children imagine much more easily than adults because they haven’t been exposed to the pressures of education, work, etc.  It isn’t surprising, then, that kids implement many of the authors’ twenty-eight-and-a-half practices naturally: making way for awe, swapping bodies, playing telephone, failing well.  What are some instances when the children in your life have exhibited imagination?  What can these teach you?  How can you enact them on an adult level?

7.  “Will we always accomplish what we imagine?  Of course not.”  The authors’ words highlight the fact that imagination sometimes does lead to failure.  Perhaps this is why the book’s final practice implores you to “fail well”—in other words, derive lessons and ideas from failure rather than feel bad about it or brush it under the rug.  This skill is positively essential to an imaginative life.  One way to start diminishing your fear of failure is to meditate on past failures from a safe distance.  How did you handle them?  What did you learn from them?  Were they really so bad after all?

8.  To illustrate what it means to imagine for good rather than destructively, the authors tell the story of chef Jerilyn Brusseau, who responded to her brother’s wartime death in Vietnam’s Quang Tri Province by founding an organization that removes land mines and plants trees there.  But if Brusseau were a different kind of person, she might have travelled to Vietnam on a mission of vengeance.  What accounts for imagination’s benevolent use in some cases and malevolent use in others?  What steps can we take to promote the former and avoid the latter?

9.  After tackling the myths about imagination and examining people’s fear of it, the authors explain that one approach to “combating such resistance is in fact combat.”  Though they mean the fight against one’s own prejudices, their prescription is also relevant on an interpersonal level.  Indeed, if you’ve enjoyed Imagination First and want to carry on the imagination campaign by reaching out to others (including skeptics), you might be wondering how to begin.  Discuss this with your reading group—a ready-made advocacy team!  How can you spread the word?  Where do you want to focus your attention?