Randall’s creative process is pretty random, she says.

Lisa Randall: You know it’s pretty random. A lot of the time you just hear about an idea and you’re mulling it over and you think oh, you know, I could do this a better way. Or this could have this implication. It’s not just one thing. A lot of it is . . . I think . . . I think one thing that it’s . . . I think a lot of creative people . . . But different creative people work in different ways, but I think some just have a lot of ideas in their heads sort of buried. So when something comes up, you can sort of automatically make connections. And so sometimes it’s sort of piecing things together. And of course that always turns into something else. But realizing oh, for example, if there are extra dimensions, maybe it can have implications for particle physics to solve this problem that I’ve been worried about for years. So to be able to make connections and to sort of recognize good ideas, I think that’s another thing – to really listen. Sometimes it’s really easy to dismiss an idea, and sometimes they should be dismissed. But to really listen and be aware of sort of the full range of implications of some thoughts . . . of some particular ideas. So I think that’s important too. Recorded On: 11/2/07