IdeaConnection :: Right Brain Workouts

Getting Started with Procrastination

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The story goes, an actor complains to a playwright, “You get too much credit for our success. At the end of the play, we take our bows, the audience cries, ‘Author! Author!’ and you come up and bow with us after sitting through the performance. Where were you,” the actor continues, “when we were learning our lines, rehearsing for months, blocking, fighting with the dirctor, and developing your play night after night?”

Reinventing Babbage

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

A long time ago a man named Charles Babbage conceived something like a computer. I say “something like,” because what we call a computer today looks and works much differently than what Babbage had in mind. Although it’s not precisely clear what Babbage had in mind in the 1830s. It looks as if we might find out sooner than later, though, if a certain creative inventor has his way.

Artists Assisting Artists

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Art, just like invention, begins as a product of the mind. Then—whether a creative person plays the bassoon, invents a smartphone, sings an aria, spins a pot, formulates a theory, or leaps off a pommel horse—the body of the creator always seems to be involved.

Creative Miss Pelling

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Andrew Jackson and Mark Twain have both been credited with saying something along the lines of, “I have no respect for a man who can spell a word only one way.” I have to agree. But that’s not the problem. Most of us can spell a word any number of ways. The challenge is to do so creatively.

Creative Dishonesty

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In a working paper titled, The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can be More Dishonest, a pair of Harvard Business School researchers propose the glaringly obvious proposition that, possibly, “creative thinking may also have a hidden cost in the form of increased dishonesty.” All together now... Well, duh!

How to Play Ricliché

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

People believe a lot of what they believe because that’s what they’ve always believed. A solid set of beliefs, especially if they derive from solid research and critical thinking, make modern living possible.

Seven Questions for Solving Really Tough Problems Fast

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

From Stephen R. Grossman, author and problem-solving consultant, comes a way to take the waste and chaos out of traditional brainstorming. To begin, Grossman advises not to brainstorm problems until they become intractable. Got a problem? Put somebody bright and creative on it. Then only after your best people fail to crack it should you put a brainstorming team on it.

We Are the Walrus

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

When I think, I use words. I wonder why. Are words necessary for thought? Or do scientists think in formulae, choreographers in wordless space and motion, visual artists in images? Do musicians think melody the way I think thoughts or speak English? When I hum an improvised tune to myself, am I thinking?

Paraprosdokian Creativity

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination whatsoever. This not-so-subtle juxtaposition of imagination and hallucination, invites me to show off another big word you don’t hear too often—paraprosdokian. If I understood the word correctly, I’d be surprised.

Yes, You Too Can Fail

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

From as early as I can remember, someone was trying to tell me that I could change the world. As sincere as they may have been in their effort to point me in a positively productive direction, I think they messed with my creative ambitions. I think those who continue to urge others to change the world, or promise young people that they can, do us all a disservice.

Patently Ridiculous

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

I like to browse second-hand bookstores, because I’m always surprised by what people throw away. Much of it interests me. Sometimes I’m floored. Recently I learned a lesson in creativity.

Creative Computers. What Do They Want?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The best ideas seem to have been kicking around longer than you might think. So it makes sense that a question like, “Will computers ever think or create?” and a concept like artificial intelligence might be found hanging around with the earliest versions of computers.

Working With Your Brain

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The ironic question, “Why is there only one word for thesaurus?” reminds me of another. Why is there only one way to brainstorm? You’d think a process designed to generate a lot of ideas might work a lot of different ways. Okay, maybe there are two ways—the right way and the wrong way—but that’s all.

The Collaborative Primate

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Humans, that is, some humans, like to work together. Others think it’s all about self-reliance, every man for himself, and if you want the job done right, do it yourself. Now there’s research that finds these two approaches not only break along party lines, as it were, but also between species.

Benchmarking Worst Practices

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Most creative people, I would think, look to best practices when choosing whom to emulate. Winners don’t usually imitate losers. The idea of benchmarking is to find the best, start where they left off, and beat the pants off them. But that strategy will only get you so far. Don’t overlook losers. They have valuable lessons to teach.

Personal Music

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Inventor Tod Machover makes what he calls hyper-instruments for great musicians from Prince to Yo Yo Ma—instruments that respond to more than the fingering and bowing that a cello, for example, normally responds to. But it’s what he invents for non-musicians that make him a creative hero in my book.

Making the Most of Analogies

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

It has happened to me. I know it has happened to you. You’re making a point in a political, philosophical, or personal argument. A brilliant analogy pops into your head and you use it, confident you will make your point. Maybe even sway your ideological opponents. Instead they blow holes all through your analogy. Not because it’s a bad analogy, but because they don’t understand how to use analogies!

How to Play Star Force

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

It’s a fact burned into reality as permanently as the Grand Canyon is carved into the earth: you will always think and make decisions along the paths of your past experience. Unless you actively work to break this pattern of habitual thinking, you will generate only incrementally creative ideas. To get big ideas, you have to force your brain out of its ruts or mental patterns.

Too Many Notes

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

When I read the headline “People are biased against creative ideas,” my first reaction was to exclaim, “Well, duh!” I’d venture to say that most creative people could reel off stories of idea rejection long into the night. That’s not just speculation. I’ve sat around with colleagues trading war stories of new ideas discarded for trivial reasons—ideas that would later win recognition, success, and profit.

Something to Crow About

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The way we humans define things affects the way we think. And the way we think determines how successful we will be solving problems. If we think, for example, that humans are the only animals capable of solving problems or performing creative acts, then we may fail to learn what animal problem solvers have to teach us.