Creative Think

Personal Highlights of the '00s

The '00s are at an end. On a personal level, I can say the '00s were a good decade. I spent most of my fifties there (I aged from 51 to 61). I had some wonderful experiences, met some interesting people, and created a few things along the way.

Here are some of my personal highlights from the '00s:

• I Imagined that a Rhombic Triacontahedron could be broken into 30 pyramids. This idea became the Ball of Whacks. I patented it, went to China to manufacture it, and created a company (with Stuart Kaplan, Creative Whack) to market and distribute it. Subsequent products are the X-Ball and Y-Ball, and more on the way.

   

• I Turned my life-long interest in the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus into a book, (Expect the Unexpected, 2001, Simon & Schuster) and a card deck (Innovative Whack Pack, US Games 2004).

• The favorite places that I've visited just before sunrise were: Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Karnak Temple (Egypt), Machu Picchu (Peru) Erg Chebbi Sand Dunes (Sahara Desert, Morocco), Temple of Concord (Agrigento, Sicily), Cappadocia faeries (Turkey), and Varanasi (on the Ganges River, shown below).

• Hachette (Grand Central Publishers) came out with the 25th Anniversary edition of A Whack on the Side of the Head. (Life sales: approximately two million in 18 languages. Not bad for what was originally a self-published book.) 2008

• Attended the Taormina (Sicily) and the Berlin Film Festivals.

• During the decade, I swam over 10,150,000 yards or 5,767 miles (9,300 kilometers), or just under a "quarter of the way around the world." (Swimming's a great way to get away from things.)

• Competed in the 2006 FINA World Masters Swimming Championships. Took a 6th, 8th, and 17th place in events in the 55-59 age group. Favorite swim: 800 free.

• Continued to do my Creative Think seminars for business, but at a much saner pace than the 80s and 90s. Favorite sessions were in South America: Colombia (shown below), Venezuela, and Argentina.

• Turned the Creative Whack Pack card deck into an iPhone app (with Phil Dhingra). In April, 2009, the Creative Whack Pack App spent two weeks at the top of the AppStore charts as the #1 seller in the Business category.

• Put a Ball of Whacks on the Moscow grave of former Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, who 48 years earlier told the West: "We will bury you." I had the last laugh.

• Went with my then-21 year son Alex to a place I had no desire to go when I was 21: Vietnam (2006).

• Celebrated my 60th birthday on the Mekong River in Laos, 2008 (shown below in a Hmong hut).

 

• Other travels included: Burma, Thailand, Russia, India, Canada, Britain, Italy, Japan, France, and Germany.

• Saw my kids graduate from college (Athena: Stanford '03, Alex: USC '07) and move on in life.

       

• Another enriching ten years with wife and life-partner, Wendy (2000-2009). [Shown at Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia]

 

This was a fun exercise! You might try it yourself.

I wish you a good start in the "Teens"!

Novel Omission

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For the past month, I've been Twittering — and having a lot of fun doing it. I was an early adopter of Twitter — March, 2007 or member #1,810,431 — but didn't much do with it until recently.

One thing that has helped make the experience enjoyable is the Tweetie app for iPhone. Now, I can take a few minutes here and there and check what's happening in the "river of Tweets" that flows by.

Many of the people I "follow" are interested in innovation, creativity, and the new social media technologies that enhance social interaction. Thus, there are many links to many interesting phenomena.

But there's an ominous omission. One thing missing from almost all the Tweets I see: references to the novels the Tweeters are reading.

I hope these people are not so addicted to the "quick buzz" of social media that they no longer have the free time available to read fiction. That would be unfortunate if that were the case.

Fiction provides us with a different narrative to view our own lives and problems. I think this is quite valuable for stimulating our creative process.

What fiction am I reading now? Paul Auster's (a long time favorite author) new novel, "Illusions."

I also recently finished "Motherless Brooklyn," and "Gun, with Occasional Music" both by Jonathan Lethem.

Another recent novel was T.C. Boyle's "The Women," which is a fictional rendering of the four women in Frank Lloyd Wright's life.

What novels are you reading?