Joshua Shenk on 'The Powers of Two' in creativity

Good ideas come in twos, says author Josh Shenk. His most recent book, "Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs," details the history of famous creative duos from John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple.

He discussed the collaboration between Lennon and McCartney on NPR:

Lennon and McCartney, they just encapsulate all of the themes. Their meeting story is just gorgeous. In 1957, 15-year-old Paul McCartney ambled onto the field behind a church in Liverpool, and he saw this 17-year-old kid full of swagger, and he was vamping to the lyrics of a Del-Vikings song, making them up, turning them into a blues song. And Paul McCartney was the kind of kid who would know exactly when that was happening because he was so meticulous, he had memorized the lyrics.

Later, John heard Paul do his stuff -- he could do perfect imitations of Little Richard and Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins. And so it was this perfect meeting of guys who were totally in line in their love of this music, and yet their sensibilities and their temperaments and their qualities were at odds. So you immediately have this profound union and a profound tension that carries all the way through their relationship and leads to their great work.

Shenk joins The Daily Circuit to talk about the ways in which a creative partner spurs more development than going it alone.