JOSHUA WOLF SHENK, Author of Powers of Two, explains what collaborating is and isn't.

How and why do we believe in the lone wolf who created everything when in fact most of us work with at least one partner? Others wish they could find that perfect partner-in-crime. Josh Wolf Shenk explains why these dyads are so potent in his book, POWERS OF TWO: Seeking the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs.

Shenk looks at his own partnerships in our interview. Like Shenk is credited with writing this book, as any, Shenk explains in our interview that the book, like any book, was actually a collaboration, namely with his Editor Eamon Dolan at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

He also examines well known collaborators John Lennon and Paul McCartney to Theo and Vincent Van Gogh to reveal how competition is healthy, but how "credit" can be confusing, and how many Beatles does it take to change a lightbulb?

A veteran writer, Shenk has contributed to Harper’s, Time, The Atlantic, Slate, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His first book, Lincoln’s Melancholy, was named one of the best books by The...