A writer must know how people read, what are the main sources of reading errors, and what can be done to possibly forestall them.

You can't build a vocabulary without reading. You can't meet friends if you ... stay at home by yourself all the time. In the same way, you can't build up a vocabulary if you never meet any new words. And to meet them you must read. The more you read the better.

Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done.