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?
A few that occupied me today, so far:
1. Why do bird knees bend the opposite way
from homosapien knees?
2. Why does the fish rise three feet from
where I just cast?
3. Why do we take economists, particularly
those who develop "sure fire" formulae,
seriously?
4. Why can't we "get" the message from the
songs "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"
and "Universal Soldier"
5. Why does the school with the worst
record usually win the Cal-Stanford "Big
Game"?
6. How does Amy Ringholz draw so fast?
Posted by: Randy Bosch | 17 July 2008 at 02:26 PM
Today's curiousness:
Will the new "hot" market in carbon offsets bring the next major economic melt-down a la
derivative mortgages?
Why? No history, no rules, no deliverables, no oversight, some of the same people.
Posted by: Randy Bosch | 18 July 2008 at 04:50 PM
Good stuff Randy. I especially your curiosity about the carbon offset market. Very curious indeed.
Posted by: Roger von Oech | 18 July 2008 at 05:14 PM
I am curios about why we allow ourselves to be governed by others when if we were educated or responsible enough we'd be able to do a better job of it ourselves?
And the how of getting there - Why hasn't someone come out with a way of bringing lots of folk into going for it rather than the rather small groups who show it can be done.
Posted by: Free to think, free to believe | 19 July 2008 at 07:01 AM
Ahh... the Carbon Offset Market. Is that where large urbanised countries can continue to pollute while they pay for developing countries to implement cheap and effective sustainability? What will they (have to) think of next.
Posted by: Steve | 21 July 2008 at 04:00 AM
1) I've been a huge fan of "Whack" for a long time. I consult it often, and own my own Ball of Whacks... So, why has it taken me so long to find and subscribe to this blog?
2) Why does my creativity seem to come in waves, with prolific periods when ideas flow freely, followed by "dry spells?" Does this happen to anyone else? To everyone else?
Posted by: Brett Slater | 21 July 2008 at 11:10 AM
Brett: Thanks for the kind words and thanks for stopping by. My creative production seems to come in waves as well. Sometimes I need to lay "fallow" for a while.
Posted by: Roger von Oech | 21 July 2008 at 04:53 PM
fallow is the gap, or space lag we all need in order to be the super creators we are automatically. How is that? Universe does flow as a science "physics" with all the push, pull; wet ,dry; happy, sad; etc. etc.
Even when you rest there is a creative idea spiralling up. It is automatic! When you stop the show, you can move on...stasis. Die, but not die because you are eternity.....Infinity.
Clean out the dust of old worn out, not so useable anymore software. You are IT!
Posted by: Penelope Wolfe | 30 July 2008 at 12:00 PM
I often wonder how a school of fish can react so quickly as a unit to a potential threat. I have experimented with this many times while diving in the Gulf of Mexico. They seem to operate as one creature. Something serves as a high speed network to allow these creatures to react in this way. What is it? Do we also do this?
Posted by: Darin Boyd / Braingerous | 25 October 2008 at 01:20 PM
:( This is a wonderful thread, but alas, no one has posted for almost a year.
Posted by: Gordon | 23 February 2009 at 03:45 PM
• My best guess would be that the curvature of the Atmosphere would "enlarge" the moon or at least out perception of it just as a lenses magnify anything else.
• If you know exactly when you are going to live you will worry about it and quite possibly go insane until you die.
• If you're striving for happiness it means you are not yet happy.
• Depends on you're definition of rich but the helping of others causes your body to release hormones or chemicals that would cause happiness or the "warm feeling" assuming that is the "rich you're talking about
• If most people are panicking they want to sell their stocks asap and soon as they're done with their little fright you can sell it all back to them and make a killing.
• Facebook is better
• Because women have 1 thing men can't live without.
• If you know the extent of your ignorance you know what you have yet to learn thus making you less ignorant
• They way a person was brought up largely affects how they react to banter or intended insults.
• Because unless your post is interesting people will largely ignore it and sometimes what you find interesting is not felt the same way by the rest of the community.
• Because "they" wanted to make life more difficult
• Because people as a whole are selfish greedy little bastards who always need more money =( sad but true
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