Creative Think

Forgive

Let's check in with Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher whom I consider to be the world's first creativity teacher. His thought for today is:

"The sun is new each day."

Like just about all of Heraclitus' insights, this one can be interpreted in a variety of ways. But today, the creativity strategy I see in his words is:

Forgive.

The act of forgiving can help us let go of past assumptions and also open our minds up to new possibilities. Here's an historical example.

After World War I, the victorious countries, still smarting from their huge financial outlays, demanded reparations from Germany. This was the most costly political decision of the entire World War I era. It undermined Germany's enfeebled economic political system, and fostered the conditions that led to the rise of Hitler.

A generation later, after World War II, Europe again faced economic and political chaos. But instead of demanding reparations from the vanquished Axis powers, the Allies took the opposite approach. Through its massive Marshall Plan aid, the United States helped to build much of the continent's infrastructure, including Germany's.

In doing so, it created conditions that encouraged economic health and political stability. By not perpetuating past grievances, they broke the cycle of war and poverty that had cost the world tens of millions of lives in the first half of the twentieth century.

Question: What can you forgive in a current problem or situation? What new assumptions can you bring into play? What solutions does that now make possible?

 

Think Like A Kid

Let's pick a card from the Creative Whack Pack. Here goes. It's "Think Like A Kid," one of my favorites. And timely as well! As you read this, think about how this creative strategy applies to a current problem or issue.

A high school teacher drew a dot on the blackboard and asked the class what it was. "A chalk dot on the blackboard," was the only response. "I'm surprised at you," the teacher said. "I did this exercise with a group of kindergartners and they thought of fifty different things it could be: an owl's eye, a squashed bug, a cow's head. They had their imaginations in high gear." As Picasso put it, "Every child is an artist. The challenge is to remain an artist after you grow up." What are the first things a kid would say about your problem?

If a kid were looking at your problem, and asked you the following questions, how would you (thinking like a kid) respond?

• How can you be more playful in how you think about it? • What's really fun about your problem? What's not fun?
• What doesn't make sense?
 • What new rules you can make up?
• What imaginary friend you should have to help you with this problem?
• If your problem or issue were a game, how do you score points? What rules do you need to follow? What constitutes a brilliant play? What puts you in the record books?
• What gets you kicked out? What receives a standing ovation from the fans?
• What do you have to do to get booed? Do you care?

Question: Where are your opportunities to "think like a kid" today?

In Solidarity with Kathy Sierra

By now many of you have read about the death threats made against blogger Kathy Sierra. And I'm sure you are sickened by these cowardly acts, as am I.

Kathy's blog, Creating Passionate Users, is one of my favorites because of its ideas, useful information, and lively style. (I might add that this blog, Creative Think, has been a beneficiary of her blog; every time she has mentioned my name or linked to this blog, her loyal — and discerning — readers have created a "Kathvalanche" of visits here.)

The threats and language against Kathy have thrown her. I hope that after she sorts this out, she'll get back in the saddle. We'd all be poorer without her and her perceptive "takes" on the human experience.

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

Here's a personal aside. Back in the 1980s and 1990s when I was doing a lot of speaking (200,000 miles flown some years) and selling a lot of books, I received a lot of "fan" mail. 98% of it was positive: people from all walks of life sharing stories of their own creative experiences. 1% came from people wanting money.

And then there was the strange 1%. And I guess this is the downside of "Success" and "Fame." Letters with profanity. Letters with hate. It made me wonder why someone would go to the trouble to do that. One of the weirdest and spookiest packages I received was from a reader who had gone through "A Whack on the Side of the Head" and cut out many of the drawings in the book. He then cut out the eyes in the drawings and pasted the drawings on a piece of cardboard with the note: "These people all look dead. Do you like death, Roger? Would you like to be dead?" No return address. Just a cowardly act.

You shake your head, speak out against it, take preventive measures, and move forward.

Twittering and Reading Update

David Armano and I are engaged in an exchange program: He's reading the novel The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason about Burma in the 1880s and I'm Twittering.

I'm in Day #5 and these are my observations about my experience with the Twitter phenomenon. (As a gesture of solidarity for David, I've been re-reading the Piano Tuner. Shown are some of my photos from my trip to Burma last year.)

Getting registered at Twitter is fairly simple. It's always good mental stimulation having to figure this stuff out. The Twitter interface seems fairly straight-forward.

My initial circle of "friends" consists of marketing people I've met blogging: Drew, Gavin, Ann Michael, Paul, David. Through Twitter, I also finally got to meet Mike Sansone. I'd seen his blog, but never commented. So we exchanged greetings.

I began to learn the ins and outs of "adding friends." I started receiving invitations from people all over: a veteran blogger in Austin, a teenager in Ann Arbor, a liquor store owner in Oklahoma, a designer in Munich, a lady (CleverClogs) in the Netherlands. I said "yes" to all of them. Why not?

I think that Twitter is having some major infrastructure issues. Response time during the day (I'm in California) was slow. I guess many people are responding to the Twitter buzz and wanting to try it out for themselves.

I found the most rewarding time (for me) to Twitter was 4-5 PM Pacific Time. Response time was good, and there were also a number of "friends" on at the same time. So, the experience felt a little like shooting the bull with about 10 other people. Some things were funny. Some were interesting. Some were inane.

This felt intimate — just a circle of "friends" tossing stuff out. But here's a big caution: you can go to someone's blog site that has "Twitteriffic" installed, and you can see that the whole conversation is being broadcast to the world. So, I learned it's important to watch what you say.

A lot of this experience made me feel like a teenager. I remember six or seven years ago when my then-in-high-school-son would spend a lot of time doing AOL IM with his friends. This is what he must have felt like.

Over the weekend, I tried to give people a sense of what I was doing: "Watching the Buckeyes put it to Memphis." "Took Corgis up to the hills to run around." "Planted De Arbol Chile Peppers." "Got up at 5AM  for Sunday morning swim practice." "Wondering how fast Michael Phelps will go this week." Etc. And I got pretty much the same from the "friends." "What's your favorite movie?" "What kind of bike is that?" "What do you think of Todd's Marketing list?" "Now that my wife is out of town, what should I do for fun?" "I've never been robbed in my liquor store, but the previous owner was." "I'm talking gratitude with my daughter."

At one point, I had the idea of using Twitter as an oracle. My question was: "What should I do next?" and the answer will be whatever the next entry in my Twitter box says. I tried this several times, but when the answers were "Drinking shots of tequilla, yum" and "Smoking a big cigar" I figured that the Twitter oracle was taking a break.

At this point, Twitter is still amusing. But I can see how it can suck a lot of time out of one's day. Also, as I mentioned, the Twitter folks have some serious infrastructure issues on their hands. Sudden popularity can be a real problem. Stay tuned!

Reading Books or Twittering: Which Stimulates Your Creativity (More)?

This is how our "exchange program" got its start.

In a recent conversation with designer David Armano, I asked him how many books he'd read in the past year. "Only a few. I've got too many demands on my time." Among these demands is mastering the various Web 2.0 tools that stimulate conversation such as Twitter.

I told David that he's wasting his time with Twitter. I said, "I've got enough going on with my own innocuous thoughts let alone a lot of other people's inanity."

I continued, "I'm trying to improve my attention span. If you want to create anything worthwhile, you need the ability to focus on what you're doing for a period of time."

David countered saying something to the effect that Twitter is right on the edge of . . . well, something, and he wants to be there to see it. He also mentioned that I was being too narrowed-minded.

I said to him, "Reading — especially fiction — gives you a much better sense of 'story' and 'narrative.' These are important aspects of the design process. You are short-changing yourself by not reading more books."

So we decided to have a "Digital-Analog Exchange Program."

Each of us assigned the other a task for the following week. Then we'll compare notes to see what each of us has learned.

David assigned me to join Twitter (which I have). Go here if you'd like to be my Twitter Friend. As I write this, Paul, David, Gavin, Liz, Ann M., and Drew are my Twitter Friends.

I assigned David to read a novel. I thought about Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (which I adored), but at 1,000 pages I thought it might be a little much. So, I picked The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason, which I read before I went to Burma last year. This is from Publisher's Weekly:

Edgar Drake lives a quiet life in late 19th-century London as a tuner of rare pianos. When he's summoned to Burma to repair the instrument of an eccentric major, Anthony Carroll, Edgar bids his wife good-bye and begins the months-long journey east. The first half of the book details his trip. Edgar then meets the unconventional Carroll, who has built a paradise of sorts in the Burmese jungle. Edgar ably tunes the piano, but this turns out to be the least of his duties, as Carroll seeks his services on a mission to make peace between the British and the local Shan people. During his stay at Carroll's camp, Edgar falls for a local beauty, learns to appreciate the magnificence of Burma's landscape and customs and realizes the absurdity of the war between the British and the Burmese.

I think David is getting the better end of the deal: he's going to enter the world of faraway, long-ago Burma. And I'm going to Twitter! I will keep an open mind.

Question: Who is getting the better end of this exchange? What kind of exchange programs would you recommend?

The Origami Art of Robert Lang

I just finished a wonderful profile of physicist turned professional origami artist Robert Lang. (It appeared as the "The Origami Lab" by Susan Orlean in the February 19, 2007 issue of The New Yorker.)

Shown at left is Lang's origami piece called "Mt. Diablo Spider," made from one uncut 7" square piece of paper. Amazing. The crease and fold pattern Lang meticulously designed to make this shape is shown below.

Lang has a master's in electrical engineering from Stanford and a Ph.D. from Caltech in applied physics, and also holds 80 patents. But seven years ago, he left his profession to devote himself full-time to his life long passion, origami.

To view some of Lang's origami art constructions, go to his website. Many of these are available for sale. There is also a discussion about the science and mathematics involved in origami.

I'm a big advocate of taking expertise from one field and applying it to another. On this score, Lang does not disappoint; he still does some part-time consulting for industry. But Lang's current assignments involve "folding" and packaging rather than physics.

According to Orlean, "One medical manufacturer hired him to figure out how to fold a heart implant — a mesh heart support system for people with congestive heart failure — so that it was compact enough to be implanted via a skinny tube but, when released from the tube, would unfurl properly around the heart." A recent project had Lang working on a similar problem: compactly folding a telescope with a 100 meter diameter lens into a shape small enough so that it could be packed into a rocket and sent into space.

Question: Think of one of your hobbies or side interests. What skills or knowledge from it can you apply to a current problem? What do you discover?

Focus on the Real Truth

Let's get some inspiration from the Creative Whack Pack. And the card we've drawn is "Focus on the Real Truth."

Two men went to a Sufi court to settle a dispute. After the plaintiff made his case, the judge said, "That's right." Then the defendant made his case, and again the judge said, "That's right." At this, the clerk of court exclaimed, "They both can't be right!" The judge replied, "That's right." Moral: truth is all around us. What matters is where you put your focus.

Questions: Think of problem or issue you're currently working on. You've come up with one solution. But what happens if you change your focus? Do other solutions appear? Where should your focus be? What's the real "below the surface" truth in what you're doing?

A Taxonomy of Blogs

In a comment to a recent post about the "Red Queen Effect," I challenged Tom Haskins of Grow Change Learn to come up with a "taxonomy," or classification structure, for the different types of blogs he sees in the blogosphere. And this is what wrote: "Different Motivations for Blogging."

It's a good post. Basically, Tom believes there are four types of blogs: "Distraction" blogs, "Archive" blogs, "Conversation" blogs, and "Democratic" blogs. Check out his post for a fuller description.

I think Tom is on to something. The Creative Think blog, like most, falls into all four categories, but I guess the predominant form is the archive one — I share my creativity stories and observations about the creative process. But this can change from week to week, and I find myself engaging in a conversation with my readers. I'd like to hope that there isn't a lot of distraction blogging here, but I'm probably as self-deluded as the next person.

Here are some questions for you: What types of blogs do you see? What structure do you recognize? Where do you fit in?
  

"Goldberg Variations" Update

In my recent post "Waking Up With the Goldberg Variations," I described the joy I've been experiencing listening to this set of 32 short pieces written by J.S. Bach.

One of the neat things about the blogosphere is that I got to hear from a number of people (either through their comments or private emails) who also enjoy this work. I'd like to point to two of these.

The first is Yuzu, who describes herself as a "self-taught hobbyist." She did the above pencil-drawing of Bach. She has also done drawings of many artists — including two of Glenn Gould — which you can see by visiting her site On Nocturnal Avenue 2. It's good stuff!

The other is Jorge Camoes, who is an "information visualization" professional. He challenged me to check out Uri Caine's "very personal" rendition of the "Goldberg Variations." I bought a copy, and I can report back to you that it's wonderfully inventive and playful. I think that Bach would really get a kick out of it. It consists of 70 different pieces that include: single harpsichord, choral ensemble, jazz trio, spoken word poems, and so on. Uri Caine has given me a lot of enjoyment. Thanks for the recommendation, Jorge.

Do You Know What I Do?

Ernest Gallo, co-founder with his brother Julio of the Gallo wine empire, died last week at age 97. He was a tough businessman — old school through and through.

I read the following story in Gallo's obit in the Wall Street Journal.

In an early 1970s exchange with Michael Mondavi, son of the famous vintner Robert Mondavi, Ernest Gallo suggested that size was not his biggest priority.

"Do you know what I do?" Mr. Mondavi recalls Mr. Gallo asked him when they first met.

"Yes, you run the largest winery in the country," recalls Mr. Mondavi, then in his mid-20s.

"No," Ernest corrected him. "I go out and visit customers in stores."

What a great perspective, and also a telling reason for the success of Gallo's business. Ernest Gallo was first and foremost a marketing and distribution man. And the mindset he displayed in the above story shows how he got his marketing ideas and pushed product.

But the story made me think how would I answer the question, "What do you do?"

Well, this past weekend I worked on the writing and design of the new, fourth edition of my book, A Whack on the Side of the Head (it will be published by Warner Books early next year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its first publication).

If I were thinking like Ernest Gallo, and you asked me what I was doing on Saturday, I would have replied,

"Well, I'm stimulating the minds of three different people: a college honors student in 2011, a designer/entrepreneur in 2014, and a minister in 2016."

That thought gave me inspiration.

What do you do?