Creative Think

Paradoxes of Creativity

I like this list of eight paradoxes of creativity from creativity thinker Michael Michalko (author of Thinkertoys, among other works):

To create, a person must

• Have knowledge but forget the knowledge;
  
• See unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder;
  
• Work hard but spend time doing nothing;
  
• Create many ideas yet most of them are useless;
  
• Look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different;
  
• Desire success but learn how to fail;
  
• Be persistent but not stubborn; and,
  
• Listen to experts but know how to disregard them.

These remind me a lot of the insights of the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus.

What other creativity paradoxes can you add to this list?

[photo credit: RvO]

New Version of Creative Whack Pack App!

Today, Apple approved a new version (3.1) of my Creative Whack Pack iPhone app. [Here is the link to iTunes.]

Since it was introduced last March, this product has become the iPhone's premier creativity/innovation tool. It has also been #1 in its category (Business). Great price too: $1.99.

 

The three main new features are:

• Note-taking workshops.
• Each specific Creative Whack card has its own sound effect. These enhance the user experience, and make the session more memorable.
• There is increased "sharability." You can now share Creative Whack cards with friends and colleagues via Twitter, Facebook, and email. A big Plus!

A five minute Creative Whack Pack break beats staring at your computer all day!

What's Your Creativity Style?

It's time again for some inspiration from Heraclitus, the world's first creativity teacher (he lived around 500 BC). Today's insight is: “I searched into myself.”

Heraclitus felt that consulting our own knowledge and intuition is a wonderful way to gain insight. Unfortunately, some of us never learned this lesson. Much of our educational system is an elaborate game of "guess what the teacher is thinking," and we come to believe that the best ideas are in someone else's head rather than our own. Heraclitus reminds us that there are good ideas within ourselves if we are willing to dig deeply enough.

I believe there's a creative strategy in Heraclitus' insight, and it is:

Discover your own creative style.

We can emulate Heraclitus by searching for own creative tendencies. Here are six of mine:

1. I get my ideas either when I'm under a lot of pressure — "the ultimate inspiration is the deadline" — or when I'm away from the problem altogether. I rarely get them when I'm doing routine tasks that require some attention.

2. If I'm mentally blocked in trying to solve a problem, it's usually because I'm in love with a particular idea — so much so that it prevents me from looking for alternatives. Only when I force myself to become detached from it and "kiss it goodbye" do I find new answers. Letting go of a previously cherished idea can be one of life's great pleasures.

3. I try to pay attention to small things: how much frowning takes place in beer commercials, what sorts of patterns dead leaves make around a storm drain, and so on. I do this partly because I've trained myself to do it, but also because I've been forced to. I'm left-handed, but the world is designed for right-handed people — something most "righties" don't even think about. I'm constantly being made conscious of how things are put together. For example, telephone booths are designed to make right-handed people feel comfortable and at ease, but lefties can feel clumsy using them.

4. My own ego can get in the way of discovering new things. However, if I allow myself to lower my resistance to those ideas that I typically dismiss as irrelevant or unattractive, I find that they can become doorways to solutions I've been overlooking.

5. I don't know what I don't know. I've got a big blind spot, and the only way to get access to what's lurking out there is to put myself in a humble, receptive frame of mind (not always easy to do) and ask others to point out what I'm not seeing.

6. Rejection of my work in the early phases of the creative process doesn't bother me. I'm not afraid of taking one of my less than stellar ideas and asking complete strangers what they think of it. I find their responses frank and refreshing.

Questions: What's your creative style? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

It's time again for some inspiration from Heraclitus, the world's first creativity teacher (he lived around 500 BC). Today's insight is: “I searched into myself.”

Heraclitus felt that consulting our own knowledge and intuition is a wonderful way to gain insight. Unfortunately, some of us never learned this lesson. Much of our educational system is an elaborate game of "guess what the teacher is thinking," and we come to believe that the best ideas are in someone else's head rather than our own. Heraclitus reminds us that there are good ideas within ourselves if we are willing to dig deeply enough.

I believe there's a creative strategy in Heraclitus' insight, and it is:

Discover your own creative style.

We can emulate Heraclitus by searching for own creative tendencies. Here are six of mine:

1. I get my ideas either when I'm under a lot of pressure — "the ultimate inspiration is the deadline" — or when I'm away from the problem altogether. I rarely get them when I'm doing routine tasks that require some attention.

2. If I'm mentally blocked in trying to solve a problem, it's usually because I'm in love with a particular idea — so much so that it prevents me from looking for alternatives. Only when I force myself to become detached from it and "kiss it goodbye" do I find new answers. Letting go of a previously cherished idea can be one of life's great pleasures.

3. I try to pay attention to small things: how much frowning takes place in beer commercials, what sorts of patterns dead leaves make around a storm drain, and so on. I do this partly because I've trained myself to do it, but also because I've been forced to. I'm left-handed, but the world is designed for right-handed people — something most "righties" don't even think about. I'm constantly being made conscious of how things are put together. For example, telephone booths are designed to make right-handed people feel comfortable and at ease, but lefties can feel clumsy using them.

4. My own ego can get in the way of discovering new things. However, if I allow myself to lower my resistance to those ideas that I typically dismiss as irrelevant or unattractive, I find that they can become doorways to solutions I've been overlooking.

5. I don't know what I don't know. I've got a big blind spot, and the only way to get access to what's lurking out there is to put myself in a humble, receptive frame of mind (not always easy to do) and ask others to point out what I'm not seeing.

6. Rejection of my work in the early phases of the creative process doesn't bother me. I'm not afraid of taking one of my less than stellar ideas and asking complete strangers what they think of it. I find their responses frank and refreshing.

Questions: What's your creative style? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Creative Whack Pack iPhone App!

I've turned the popular Creative Whack Pack card deck into an iPhone app. Go here for more information.

I spent the past three months working on it with Phil Dhingra, an Austin developer. It was a fun and energizing experience.

Like the card deck, the App consists of 64 creativity strategies that will provoke and inspire your thinking.

But App contains many, many more stories, examples, illustrations, and questions. In addition, it has features such as a "Whack of the Day," creative workshops, and an in-depth Index for quick strategy retrieval.

Lots of playability! Use it by yourself or with others!

Apple was really good to work with on this project. I had been an Apple developer in the early 90s, and back then Apple seemed out-of-touch and arrogant. On this go around, it has been significantly easier to create product with them.

I'm quite happy with the result. Go ahead check it out: info.

Here's a very nice review by Chuck Frey at Innovation Tools: The Creative Whack Pack Makes an Impressive Transition to iPhone/iTouch Platform.

David Armano at Logic + Emotion had some good things to say here A Creativity Workshop in Your Pocket and here.

Also Free Mac Blog and Lateral Action

Asking "Why?"

Let's check in with the Creative Whack Pack for some inspiration. Here goes. It's card #2: "Ask Why?" Let's see what it says.

Leonardo da Vinci: "I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells exist on the tops of mountains along with imprints of plants usually found in the sea. Why thunder lasts longer than that which causes it. How circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone. And how a bird suspends itself in the air. Questions like these engaged my thought throughout my life."

Curiosity is wonderful! It jump starts the creative process. It makes us ask questions. It encourages us to go beyond current right answers. It makes us become explorers.

These are the things I'm curious about today.

• Why does the moon appear much larger when it's on the horizon than when it's overhead?

• Why the vast majority of people would prefer NOT to know exactly how long they will live?

• Why happiness is the absence of striving for happiness?

• Why giving your money away makes you feel rich?

• Why the best time to buy stocks when is most people are panicking?

• Why do adults (over 25) use Twitter? (Personally, I have enough on my hands with my own innocuous thoughts. Also, I'm trying to strengthen my ability to concentrate and not be distracted. I think anyone who is trying to get something done would try to do the same. Why use yet another technology that runs counter to that?)

• Why do women put up with men?

• Why real knowledge is knowing the extent of one's ignorance?

•Why can some people can laugh at themselves and why others are easily offended?

• Why is that sometimes we'll spend a lot of thought and time on a post and receive one comment, and sometimes we'll take five minutes to throw something out and end up generating a lot of conversation?

• Why, if we call oranges "oranges," don't we call bananas "yellows," or apples "reds"?

• Why having three times as much money makes people only marginally happier?

[As you can see, I'm not in Leonardo's league, but these should get me through the morning.]

What are you curious about? Why?

Let's check in with the Creative Whack Pack for some inspiration. Here goes. It's card #2: "Ask Why?" Let's see what it says.

Leonardo da Vinci: "I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells exist on the tops of mountains along with imprints of plants usually found in the sea. Why thunder lasts longer than that which causes it. How circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone. And how a bird suspends itself in the air. Questions like these engaged my thought throughout my life."

Curiosity is wonderful! It jump starts the creative process. It makes us ask questions. It encourages us to go beyond current right answers. It makes us become explorers.

These are the things I'm curious about today.

• Why does the moon appear much larger when it's on the horizon than when it's overhead?

• Why the vast majority of people would prefer NOT to know exactly how long they will live?

• Why happiness is the absence of striving for happiness?

• Why giving your money away makes you feel rich?

• Why the best time to buy stocks when is most people are panicking?

• Why do adults (over 25) use Twitter? (Personally, I have enough on my hands with my own innocuous thoughts. Also, I'm trying to strengthen my ability to concentrate and not be distracted. I think anyone who is trying to get something done would try to do the same. Why use yet another technology that runs counter to that?)

• Why do women put up with men?

• Why real knowledge is knowing the extent of one's ignorance?

•Why can some people can laugh at themselves and why others are easily offended?

• Why is that sometimes we'll spend a lot of thought and time on a post and receive one comment, and sometimes we'll take five minutes to throw something out and end up generating a lot of conversation?

• Why, if we call oranges "oranges," don't we call bananas "yellows," or apples "reds"?

• Why having three times as much money makes people only marginally happier?

[As you can see, I'm not in Leonardo's league, but these should get me through the morning.]

What are you curious about? Why?

Loosening Up

Time to reach for another card in the trusty Creative Whack Pack. Ready? Here goes. Ah, yes number 40 which is “Loosen Up.”

“It's not so important to be serious
as it is to be serious about the important things.
The monkey has an expression of seriousness
that would do credit to any great scholar.
But the monkey is serious because he itches.”

This is always good advice, but especially timely now.

Here are three things I do to "loosen up."

1. I exercise — especially swimming. This just about always improves my outlook.

2. Being irreverent always helps. I try to look at things humorously and think of offbeat and goofy ways they might be used or come together. I tell myself jokes — or if I'm with other people ask them for their jokes.

3. If I need a 2-minute "loosening-up," I close my eyes and imagine a huge waterfall with water cascading down. I then follow this with three very long deep breaths. It works wonders!

What can you take less seriously? What specific things do you do to loosen up?

Favorite Creative Thinking Books

What are your favorite creative thinking books? Why?

Today is "Publication Day" for the 25th Anniversary Edition (fully revised, updated, and redesigned) of my book "A Whack on the Side of the Head." Naturally, I'm thrilled.

I got to thinking about my favorite creative thinking books. I've decided to list the ones that inspired me many years ago. So here goes (I'll limit myself to just five):

1. The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler. This is my very favorite "creative thinking" book. It came out in 1963, and I read it as a student in 1967. This is probably the best-written of all creativity books. Koestler, author of the landmark novel "Darkness At Noon," tackles the creative process with gusto. AOC is filled with great stories and anecdotes. Koestler coined the term "bi-sociation of matrices of thought" to describe the creative act, and he investigated it within the realms of science, humor, and art. I still read this book every couple years. Highly recommended.

2. Conceptual Blockbusting by Jim Adams. This book came out in the early 1970s (the edition I first read was published by the Stanford Alumni Association). Adams, an engineer and a practical academic, showed me just how interesting the creative process could be. It has a lot of classic "creativity" exercises in it. I was quite flattered when Adams wrote a blurb for the second edition of "Whack" in 1990.

3. Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono (1973) This book made me think hard and deep about just what the mind is doing when it's able to get off the beaten path. A real classic mind-stretcher.

4. Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution by Paul Watzlawick (1974) . Watzlawick was an Austrian born psychotherapist who founded the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto. Many great (off-beat) stories and examples to support his ideas about "creative reframing." This book still sells well.

5. Applied Imagination by Alex Osborne (from circa 1953, currently out of print, unfortunately). Osborne was the "O" in the famed (1940s-1970s) ad agency BBDO. Thus, he worked with real clients and was in the position of seeing efforts succeed and fail. He coined the term "brainstorming." He's also sometimes credited with originating the SCAMPER creative technique.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

You may notice that there are no books on this list that are later than the mid-1970s. There are two reasons for this.

First, I wanted to share with you the books that inspired me to go into business for myself as a creativity consultant in 1977.

And, second, I wanted to leave plenty of room for your favorites! (There have been many, many very good ones in the past thirty years.)

So once, again: What are your favorite creative thinking books? What would you recommend? Why?

Give Yourself A Whack on the Side of the Head

The more often you do something in the same way, the more difficult it is to think about doing it in any other way.

Break out of this "prison of familiarity" by disrupting your habitual thought patterns.

Write a love poem in the middle of the night . . . Eat ice cream for breakfast . . . Wear red sox . . . Visit a junk yard . . . Work the weekend . . . Take the slow way home . . . Sleep on the other side of the bed . . . Such jolts to your routines will lead to new ideas.

How can you whack your thinking? What would really disrupt the way you are currently thinking about your problem?

How would each of the following situations change the way in which you think about your issue:

• not being able to talk for a week
• breaking your leg
• losing your job
• suddenly growing ten years older
• suddenly becoming ten years younger
• swallowing a pill that gave you three times as much energy
• having to sleep fifteen hours a day
• your being forced to spend a night in a scary graveyard
• having your IQ increased by 50 points
• having your IQ decreased by 50 points
• having your deadline moved up to tomorrow morning
• having your budget cut by 75%
• having to crawl to work on your hands and knees
• having a good friend from your past allege that you did evil things
• suddenly becoming ten years old for a day
• a vicious civil war in your country
• heat waves in the winter and snowstorms in the summer.

How do you whack your thinking?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The 25th Anniversary Edition (completely revised, redesigned, and updated) of the book "A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative" will be published by Business Plus on May 5, 2008. It is currently shipping from Amazon. The retail price is $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon). Yowie! Zowie!

Practice the Art of Forgetting

Boost your creativity! The Creative Whack Pack is now a best-selling iPhone App. Check it out here!

It's time for some wisdom from Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher whom I consider to be the world's first creativity teacher. His words today are: "Knowing many things doesn't teach insight."

As with all of Heraclitus' ideas, there are many ways to interpret this. What stands out for me, though, is this creative strategy:

Practice forgetting.

I think what he's getting at is this: forgetting what we know — at the appropriate time — can be an important means for gaining insight. Without the ability to forget, our minds remain cluttered with ready-made answers, and we're not motivated to ask the questions that lead our thinking to new ideas.

For example, one day on his regular walk past the local blacksmith's workshop on the island of Samos, the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras temporarily forgot that the banging sounds produced by the smith's hammering of iron bars were "noise" — his usual reaction — and instead viewed them as "information." He soon discovered that musical pitch is a function of the length of the material being struck — his first principle of mathematical physics.

Remember: everyone has the ability to forget. The art is knowing when to use it. Indeed, novelist Henry Miller once stated:

"My 'forgettery' has been just as important
to my success as my memory."

Some questions to think about: 

What conventional wisdom are you relying on? What would happen if you forgot the obvious answers that spring to mind and searched for new ones?

When Do You Get Your Ideas?

The 25th Anniversary Edition (completely revised and updated) of the book "A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative" will be published by Business Plus on May 5, 2008. It is  appearing in stores this week, and is currently shipping from Amazon. The retail price is $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Exercise: When do you get your ideas? During what kinds of activities and situations do you get your ideas? For example, doing routine work, as a response to questions, during physical exercise, late at night, driving, in the company of others, under stress, etc.

I have asked this question to probably a million people. The answers I've received can be grouped into two categories. The first is necessity, and is represented by replies such as:

• "When I'm faced with a problem."
• "When things break down, and I have to fix them."
• "When there's a need to be filled."
• "When the deadline is near . . . that's the ultimate inspiration."

These responses bear out the old adage that "necessity is the mother of invention."

But interestingly enough, an equal if not greater number of people get their ideas in the opposite situation, and they respond along these lines:

• "When I'm just playing around."
• "When I'm doing something else."
• "When I'm not taking myself too seriously."
• "After my second beer."

From this I conclude that: "Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father."

Indeed, I sincerely believe that a playful attitude is fundamental to creative thinking. I'll bet that you generate most of your new ideas when you're playing around in your mental playground. That's because your defenses are down, and there is little concern with the rules, practicality, or being wrong. When you play, you give yourself a license to try different approaches without fear of penalty.

How can you play with your problem?