ABSTRACT
Being creative can be lonely. The British think-tank Demos joked in its report on creative industries, So, What Do You Actually Do? 1 Charles Leadbeater had given his answer earlier: Living on Thin Air. 2 It is hard to discern what Leadbeater and others like him do, although he is clearly very good at it. He thinks, listens, has ideas, talks to people and writes books. These are ancient roles, feeding off diversity and change and using learning to encourage adaptation, but are now seen as central to the way we live and, more importantly, work.
