In my drawer, or next to my computer there’s always a stack of cards. They’re in a yellow and white box and are labeled “Creative whack pack”. They are full of ways to twist my brain, to make me go other directions, and change the way I think.
Creativethink is the website of Roger von Oech, who made the excellent cards.
It’s a very basic website, but with lots of things you can use. When you enter the site at www.creativethink.com, you are presented with a “whack”, a whack in your head to make you think differently. Just refresh the page and you get more whacks.
But – let me warn you – don’t refresh. Why?
Beacause like “normal” whacks, they are more effective when they just hit you out of the blue. If you reload five times and then choose which whack to use, they lose lot of their strength. You should force yourself to use the first whack you get, no matter how hard it seems, no matter how remote it seems to be to your problem. That way you stretch your brain and your imagination, not just please yourself with old patterns.
Merlin Mann at 43folders has this to say about the whacks on the front page: “Smart move also to put free, useful, fun content on your business’s home page (instead of the usual “mission statement,” “best of breed” spiel). Very cool.”
Back to Creativethink.com: The next five categories are Seminar Info, Clients, Bookstore, Fun stuff and Contact us.
On seminar info, Creativethink.com writes: “Roger von Oech is an internationally recognized leader in stimulating creativity and innovation. Since 1977, his seminars, workshops, and presentations have enhanced the creative skills of more than a million participants.”
He has an impressive list of clients, with “all” the big ones; Apple. Microsoft, IBM, Motorola, Intel, Cisco, Disney, NBC, CBS, MTV, Amex, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Reebok, Gillette, Sony, Universal etc.
There’s the bookstore, where you can buy his books and the before-mentioned card deck
- “Creative Whack Pack” (card deck)
- “Innovative Whack Pack” (another card deck)
- “A whack on the side of your head: How You Can Be More Creative” (his first book)
- “A kick int seat of your pants” (excellent followup to “A whack on the side…”)
- “Expect the Unexpected or You Won’t Find It: A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus” (his latest book, from 2002)
The Fun stuff page has three links, with one of them being a link to a swimming magazine. Ok, swimming is fun, but come on Roger, there must be more fun stuff to link to than these!
And finally a Contact page.
Final verdict: Roger von Oech has written excellent books on creativity. And his card decks should be on every person’s desk. The Whacks on the front page are worth the visit alone. But the rest of the site is boring, and isn’t much more than a contact page, an impressive client list and some half-lame links.
Score: 6 out of 6 for the Whacks, but the other pages bring it down to a 4:
Technorati tags: creativity