jason Womack of Davidco.com has seven ways to get him started.
No. 1 is amazingly simple and is just in line with Bert Webb’s advice: Move! It’s good for your thinking!
7 ways to increase engagement
June 20th, 2005Incharacter: Creativity
June 6th, 2005The whole Spring 2005 issue of “incharacter” magazine is about creativity.
Some bits:
Most Americans don’t agree on Thomas Edison’s famous “Genius is 1 % inspiration and 99 % perspiration”, but rather “Original ideas” and “The ability to solve problems” to be most important. Read more.
Higher IQ goes along with higher creativity: ““We saw creativity increase as IQs climb to 130 and even up to 150,” Carson says. But in those with average IQs, around 100, reductions in latent inhibition did not boost creativity. High intelligence, she adds, “should help you to better process the increasing information that goes along with low latent inhibition. To be creative, you can be bright and crazy, but not stupid.”” Read more.
And Howard Gardner has some advice for “Everyday creativity”: “We can encourage students to confront rather than run away from challenges, to gain pleasure for exploring the unknown, to mix with individuals who are different from themselves. We should also provide periodic obstacles, frustrations, even defeats, and help the aspiring creator deal with these in a way that makes them strong rather than despondent. ” Read more.
Oblique (Strategies) Widget
June 6th, 2005Guyd2 has made a Oblique Strategies Widget!e Cool! Everything you need to know about Oblique Strategies here.
Act stupid
May 30th, 2005Joyce Wycoff has been an inspiration for years. Always inspiring! Read her post about ad agency Wieden + Kennedy:
“Act Stupid. “Our philosophy is to come in ignorant every day. The idea of retaining ignorance is sort of counterintuitive, but it subverts a lot of [problems] that come from absolute mastery. if you think you know the answer better than somebody else does, you become closed to being fresh.” states Jelly Helm, creative director.”
And this little gem, dedicated to every boss out there.
“If you say an idea is bad, you’re creating conflict–you’re breaking an improv rule. You want an energy flow that moves you forward, as opposed to a creative stasis.”"
Print out and put it these five places:
- The first place your eyes will fall when you wake up in the morning
- On your bathroom mirror
- On your computer monitor, at the bottom of the screen
- Somewhere visible in your car
- On your tv
Leave it there for a week. Repeat in a month, and after half a year.
Free your ass and your mind will follow
May 29th, 2005Great advice from Jason Santa Maria. The subject is: How to maintain motivation:
“I suggest you get out of the house; go for a walk or a bike ride. I love going out for an afternoon by myself to ride or walk around and take photos. It’s a great time for my mind to wander and reflect on problems away from my work situations. By the time I get back to work, I am refreshed and ready to go. Free your ass and your mind will follow.”
The 6 myths of creativity
May 29th, 2005It’s a Fast Company article from 2004, but still interesting reading:
“[...] Creativity is positively associated with joy and love and negatively associated with anger, fear, and anxiety. The entries show that people are happiest when they come up with a creative idea, but they’re more likely to have a breakthrough if they were happy the day before. There’s a kind of virtuous cycle. When people are excited about their work, there’s a better chance that they’ll make a cognitive association that incubates overnight and shows up as a creative idea the next day. One day’s happiness often predicts the next day’s creativity.”
Eric Von Hippel: “Democratizing Innovation”
May 26th, 2005Eric’s new book is out. Download it for free at his site, or buy a printed copy at Amazon.com.
“Users’ abilities to develop high-quality new products and services for them-
selves are improving radically and rapidly.”
Creativity test
May 26th, 2005Marcus Vorwaller blogs about an interesting article in Scientific American MIND.
“Relaxation – Personally this has been the best tip of them all for me. I found that for months of my life I was so busy (or thought I was so busy) that I never took time to sit and meditate. When I finally did, it was like a floodgate of ideas were unleashed. It’s amazing what your mind will do if you give it time and room to work.”
Twelve Ways to Think Differently
May 20th, 2005Enjoyment = Flow = Innovation
May 19th, 2005“The more I learn about innovation, the more I believe that the organizations who innovate year over year over year are those who treat people well, who build cultures where enjoying one’s work — routinely reaching a state of flow — is not the exception, but the rule.” Read more at metacool.
Technorati tags: creativity / Innovation