The Creative Contrarian: 20 "Wise Fool" Strategies to Boost Creativity and Curb Groupthink
A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative (25th Anniversary Edition)
A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge & Warrior to be More Creative
Innovative Whack Pack: 60 Heraclitus Inspired Creativity Strategies
Chuck Frey at Innovation Tools has a new post up, Innovation Lessons Learned 2007, in which he asked over 100 people in the innovation field from around the world to share their top of mind thoughts about Innovation 2007. It's well worth reading. Check it out!
[Pictured: Razzbo, Wally Doodle, and Ziggedy Zack]
Let's check in with the Creative Whack Pack for some inspiration. Today's card is: Take A Whack At It. This is quite appropriate for this time of year!
Let's see what it says.
You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can't
catch fish unless you put your line into the water. You can't make your
idea a reality unless you take a whack at it. If you want to be a
singer, go sing. Sing in the shower. Sing for your friends. Join the
choir. Audition for a musical.
As adman Carl Ally put it, "Either you let you life slip away by not doing the things you want to do, or you get up and do them."
How can you take a whack at your idea? What are the two most important things you can do to get going on your issue?
For the past year or so I've been watching the brewing 1080 DVD format battle between "Blu-ray" and "HD DVD."
The confrontation between the Blu-ray consortium led by Sony and the the HD DVD one led by Toshiba seemed reminiscent of the early 1980s struggle between VHS and Beta in the video tape arena.
Some pundits have predicted the battle may go on until 2009. Like many of you, I'd been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a clear winner to emerge before plunking down several hundred bucks or so on a high-def player. After all, who wants to own obsolete and/or non-supported hardware?
My son Alex, however, got me into the game with a Christmas gift to me and my wife of a Samsung Blu-ray player. So, now I'm a Blu-ray partisan! It provides a great viewing experience.
He also gave us the Blu-ray edition of the BBC production of "Planet Earth." It's quite a viewing treat! Alex calls it "nature porn" and he's not far off the mark.
Netflix has also made it easy for customers to change their preferences to Blu-ray (which I've done).
I'm sure the HD DVD viewing experience is also enjoyable. I will say, though, that from a marketing perspective it sure has a clunky name. To my ears, the Blu-ray name has always seemed sexier.
Furthermore, I think that in five or six years this format battle will seem quaint as more and more people download their movies directly.
One of my Christmas presents from my wife was a turn table. For those of you under the age of thirty, here is a photo of what it looks like (at left). It's one of those turn tables with a USB attachment that allows you play a record, and at the same time turn what's playing into an MP4 file.
It's been a good fifteen years since I had a turn table. But I never got rid of my records most of which I collected in the 1960s and 1970s. I've had a great time playing some of my old favorites. Also, I can't believe what a great classical music collection I had in the form of LPs. I'm listening to Schumann's Symphony #3 (the "Rhenish") as I write this.
And they sound so rich—much fuller than MP3s.
I've also enjoyed some works that I doubt ever got turned into tapes or CDs: Ken Nordine's "Word Jazz" and "Colors"; Firesign Theatre; Ralph Towner; early Pat Metheny. A special treat has been listening to some of the very first records I ever owned: early Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary. The turn table has been a wonderful time machine to allow me to hear them again.
So far, the only downside to LPs is having to get up to turn them over to hear what's on the other side.
I've turned a few of the tracks into MP4s, but not as many as I thought I would. That's because I've enjoyed them in their vinyl form.
Interesting thought question: forty years ago when I was listening to some of these LPs, it never really occurred to me that one day they would be obsolete, and that I would be transferring their contents into a different format.
Forty years from now, what format will today's 20 year olds be turning their MP3s and MP4s into?
So here we are in January, named after the two-faced Roman god Janus,
who in their mythology was the god of gates and doors, and beginnings
and endings.
I believe that Janus's double-faced nature also symbolizes much of what goes on when we engage in creative thinking, that is, seeing something in more than one way. I love how the Nobel prize winning physician Albert Szent-Gyorgyi describes creative discovery:
When we tap into our "Janus-like" powers, it's as though we use one head to "look at the same thing as everyone else," and the other head to be creative and "think something different."
When we think like Janus, we take something out of a familiar context and then think about it in other contexts so that it takes on fresh new meanings. Human beings have been using their imaginations in this way since the beginning.
Do you have these Janus-like powers? Well, if you've ever
used a pen as a weapon, or a potato as a radio antenna, or a T-shirt as
a tourniquet, or a telephone book as a booster seat, then the answer is
a resounding "Yes!"
So, this month, every time you see or hear the word "January," think to yourself:
Have a good month!
Not long ago, I read about a group of Russian immigrants in Los Angeles who have the tradition of celebrating New Year’s Eve on the afternoon of December 30th.
A reporter for the Los Angeles Times heard about this and, thinking that there was a story there, went out to interview them.
“Why are you celebrating the new year thirty-six hours before everyone else?” she asked.
One of them, a man in his late sixties, responded, “When we were
growing up in the Soviet Union forty years ago, we were very poor, and
we found that it was a lot cheaper to get a band on December 30th.
That’s how the tradition started.”
The curious thing is that most of these people are now well
off — they've prospered in America. They could easily afford lavish
entertainment on New Year’s Eve, and yet they still celebrate it on the
previous afternoon.
I think we've all experienced this phenomenon many times.
- We make rules based on reasons that make a lot of sense.
- We follow these rules.
- Time passes, and things change.
- The original reasons for the generation of these rules may no longer exist, but because the rules are still in place, we continue to follow them.
Almost every organization I’ve ever worked with — including my own — has some of this mentality of celebrating New Year’s Eve early for an obsolete reason.
I think this story highlights an important aspect of innovation:
Now that Putin has been selected "Man o' the Year" by Time, that amazing magazine, I thought it would be good to repost my list of my Putin jokes. (By the way, I won this same award in 2006 — and believe you me, it's a good feeling.)
• When Putin smiles, a child is born in Russia. If the smile is wider than usual, expect twins.
• When Putin is sad, the national suicide statistics go up.
One of my favorite souvenirs of my recent trip to Russia is a 3" high hand-painted metal action figure of Russian President Vladamir Putin (shown at left). Vladman: he's superpowerful!
Russians like their leaders powerful. Here are some jokes that are floating around Russia now. These jokes reveal just how powerful Putin has become.
• A fork that Putin ate from can slay a vampire with one stab.
• A chair that Putin sat on gets promoted to the rank of Major General.
• When Putin was little, he broke a cup. The spilled water turned into oceans and the splinters became continents.
• Putin can scratch his own heel without bending over.
• Shirts worn by Putin are sent to a secret military facility and
converted to the strongest layer of armor for the Russian tanks.
• Socks worn by Putin are routinely dropped on Chechen rebels.
• Putin’s used tissues become the property of the Department of Cartography and their content is classified.
• Putin knows every Russian citizen’s name, address, and phone number.
If you say a dirty word, Putin will call you in the evening to
reprimand.
• When Putin’s name is typed, the first letter capitalizes itself.
• By squinting his eye Putin can read and write multimedia DVDs.
•
Putin’s stare has downed 15 American satellites spying over the Kremlin.
• Putin’s stare penetrates a ten foot lead wall and brings a kettle to
a boil within 10 seconds from three miles away. For public safety he
must wear special contact lenses at all times.
• Chechen rebels blow themselves up when they hear Putin’s true name.
• Saying Putin’s name repeatedly contributes to the common good in the universe.
• Putin inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen, ensuring the continuation of life on the planet.
• Putin’s love for humankind heats up the planet by 2.35 degrees annually - a phenomenon also known as the Global Warming.
• Putin appeared in Thomas Edison’s dream and revealed how to live in
harmony with the Universe. But all Edison could remember in the morning
was how to make the light bulb.
• Everything Putin touches turns into a national project.
• If a sunbeam shines beautifully through the clouds, Putin is nearby.
• If you shake hands with Putin you will be taken to heaven alive.
• If you hate Putin you may die early through your own fault.
Need a jolt of inspiration? Let's take a card from the Creative Whack Pack. Today's message is "Beware the Unintended." Let's see what it says:
In preparing for the Olympics, the coach of a leading crew team invited
a meditation instructor to teach awareness techniques to his crew. He
hoped that such training would enhance their rowing effectiveness. As
the crew learned more about meditation, they became more synchronized,
there was less resistance, and their strokes got smoother.
The irony is
that they went slower. It turned out that the crew became more
interested in being in harmony than in winning. What are the unintended
consequences (both positive and negative) of your being successful in a current project?
Unintended consequences are fascinating. Each of us has examples of things that we did for a particular reason, and something much different was the result.
For example, in September, 2006, I started blogging with the purpose of promoting my (then) brand new product, the Ball of Whacks. As I got into blogging, though, it turned out that very, very few of my posts pertained to this product. What happened instead are two main things: 1) I've met a lot of interesting people from all over the world; and, 2) I developed a lot of new content ideas some of which I've been able to put into the new edition (25th Anniversary Edition) of my book, A Whack on the Side of the Head (coming out in May, 2008).
Question: I'd love to hear some of your "Unintended Consequences" stories — both negative and positive. What are some of your favorites?
For the past month, I've been listening to Peter Saccio's "Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies" (36 lectures presented by the Teaching Company). Saccio, a professor of Shakespearean Studies at Dartmouth, does a wonderful job of bringing the Bard, his work, and his times to life. This has been one of my favorite Teaching Company programs, and I heartily recommend it.
Listening to these lectures motivated me to seek out and watch a number of film adaptations of Shakespeare's tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, MacBeth, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet. I had read all of these (except Othello) when I was student in the 1960s and early 1970s, but hadn't gone near them since. Thus, I was able to approach them both with a "fresh eye" and also nearly forty years of "life experience" that I (obviously) didn't have as a student.
Let's start with the Hamlets (I watched three versions).
Hamlet (1948), starring Laurence Olivier. This won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actor. I had a lukewarm reaction to it. There are two reasons. First, the entire Hamlet play is four hours long, but this version was abridged to just over two hours, so I felt like I was missing something. Second, it was essentially a film version of an austere stage play, and felt cold and remote. Plus, I felt Olivier's performance was unconvincing (he was 41 at the time). I'd give the film **1/2 (out of four).
Hamlet (1990), abridged and directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and starring Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Helen Bonham Carter, and Alan Bates. Mel Gibson brings a freshness and energy to the role of Hamlet; I thought he was quite believable in the part (at that time he made this picture, Gibson was the world's top box office attraction and the "sexiest man on the planet"). I also liked Glenn Close as Gertrude. Her bedroom confrontation scene with Gibson after the murder of Polonius is absolutely riveting. I'd give it ***.
Hamlet (1996) complete and unabridged, screenplay and directed by Kenneth Branagh, and starring Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Kate Winslet, Charlton Heston, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, and many more. This version is stunning. It is four hours long (with an intermission) and is on a scale comparable to Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. The color, light, costumes, and detail are outstanding (it's filmed in 70mm TechniColor — a huge plus).
Branagh has set the play in a mid-19th century Denmark (he used Blenheim Palace for the exteriors), and you really get the sense that the characters (especially Claudius and Polonius) are running a country. And for the first time, I got a sense of the larger context of Hamlet. Branagh had lived and breathed Hamlet (and Shakespeare) for years, and it shows in his imaginative screenplay. There are also many well-choreographed tracking shots.
This was the best DVD I've seen this year, and I recommend it to all. Indeed, I watched the entire film again (yes, all four hours) with the Director's Commentary on. Most edifying. I'd give it a well-earned ****.
Here a few quick comments on the other films I watched.
Othello (1995) starring Laurence Fishburne (in the title role) and Kenneth Branagh (as Iago). A delightful production. ***1/2
MacBeth (1971) directed by Roman Polanski. This version still holds up well today. Polanski made this soon after his wife, Sharon Tate, had been murdered by the Charles Manson family. I'm sure the second witches scene in which MacBeth has something akin to an acid trip had some therapeutic value for him. I saw this version when it first came out when I was a student at Stanford in 1972. It seemed like half the people in Mem Aud recited MacBeth's final soliloquy along with him ("To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time . . ." ***
King Lear (1974) starring James Earl Jones, Raul Julia, and Paul Sorvino. This was a video tape-to-DVD production of a live performance in Central Park (New York) in 1974. The audio and video quality aren't great, but the enthusiastic audience give this production a certain warmth. **1/2
Julius Caesar (1953) starring Marlon Brando, James Mason, and John Gielgud. I felt that (a young) John Gielgud as Cassius stole the show. And Brando (as Marc Anthony) is interesting to watch as well. ***
Romeo and Juliet (1968) directed by Franco Zeffirelli. I first saw this in 1969, and I remember there wasn't a dry eye in the house at the end (it was a great "date movie"). Zeffirelli's version holds up well today. This won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Costumes and nominations for Best Picture and Director. ***1/2
Also: Last year during my Akira Kurosawa Marathon, I saw his adaptations of MacBeth (Throne of Blood, 1957) and King Lear (Ran, 1985), and I'd give each of them ***1/2.
Question: What other Shakespeare film adaptations would you recommend (or avoid)?
