From "How to be creative" by Jonah Lehrer @WSJ

Consider the case of Arthur Fry, an engineer at 3M in the paper products division. In the winter of 1974, Mr. Fry attended a presentation by Sheldon Silver, an engineer working on adhesives. Mr. Silver had developed an extremely weak glue, a paste so feeble it could barely hold two pieces of paper together. Like everyone else in the room, Mr. Fry patiently listened to the presentation and then failed to come up with any practical applications for the compound. What good, after all, is a glue that doesn't stick?

On a frigid Sunday morning, however, the paste would re-enter Mr. Fry's thoughts, albeit in a rather unlikely context. He sang in the church choir and liked to put little pieces of paper in the hymnal to mark the songs he was supposed to sing. Unfortunately, the little pieces of paper often fell out, forcing Mr. Fry to spend the service frantically thumbing through the book, looking for the right page. It seemed like an unfixable problem, one of those ordinary hassles that we're forced to live with.

But then, during a particularly tedious sermon, Mr. Fry had an epiphany. He suddenly realized how he might make use of that weak glue: It could be applied to paper to create a reusable bookmark! Because the adhesive was barely sticky, it would adhere to the page but wouldn't tear it when removed. That revelation in the church would eventually result in one of the most widely used office products in the world: the Post-it Note.

Creativity is to use "glue that doesn't stick" and turn it in a multimillion idea.

When the end comes, what would come to your mind?

Thanks to Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who spent several years caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives, we know that most people share 5 final thoughts:

1) Courage. It's understandable that we might have compromised some dreams along the way. The “sad” realization is the amount of compromises made. The most tragic realization to me is this: Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

Being courageous and healthy is more fun!

2) Work to live. Men regret what work forced them to miss: kids, youth and relationships. The good news is this: you know today that you don’t need as much as you think you need.

Adjust your lifestyle to make room for more meaningful relationships.

3) Speak honestly. We all suppressed our feelings in order to keep peace with others. Unfortunately many times this turns into bitterness and resentment.

Honesty about how we feel drives away bad relationships and improves the best ones. 

4) Value your friends. Its no mystery that we are social animals. It’s too bad that we get caught in our own lives so much, that we forget to give the time and effort to those friendships we truly care about.

It all comes down to love and relationships. That’s all that matters at the end.

5) Laugh and have silliness in your life. We all get stuck in old habits and old patterns. And we are afraid of change.

We can choose how to live our life.

Let's choose happiness.

Let go and smile often.

Via swissmiss, via The Guardian, via inspiration and change

Two great articles about Innocation: one from Fascoexist by Sarah Krasley:

Last fall Bill O’Connor began researching the 1,000 greatest innovations of all time last spring. O’Connor called the investigation the Innovation Genome Project. The goal was to discover and codify patterns and practices that people could apply to their day-to-day work to be truly innovative.

These six innovation questions are:

What could I look at in a new way? (Steve Jobs looked at the computer in a new way, leading to the Mac and the personal computer revolution.)

What could I use in a new way? (Paleolithic humans turned fire from a scourge into a means of cooking, heat, light, and protection.)

What could I recontextualize in space or time? (The Sumerians moved language from spoken to written form, expanding its power and reach.)

What could I connect in a new way? (Thomas Edison connected the light bulb to the electrical grid, leading to electrified cities.)

What could I change, in terms of design or performance? (Nearly 3 million years ago, the world’s first “innovator” transformed a simple rock into a stone hand-axe.)

What could I create that is truly new? (In 1776, American colonists created the first “intentional” nation, based on specific abstract principles.)

And the second by Bronwyn Fryer on HBR where she talks about Idea Fusers:

the ability to associate unlike ideas is fundamental to innovation: "Overall, associating is the key [innovative] skill because new ideas aren't created without connecting problems or ideas in ways that they haven't been connected before."

The magic of that association is related to two fundamental events in somebody's life:

1) That a specific subject is stored in your subconcious. (perhaps the word obsession fits here)

2) And that you expose yourself to "new and different" disciplines. (the curiosity we have talked about lately)

Why look at somebody's resume, when you can talk about hobbies and passions?

I really enjoyed the recent article by Chris Baylis, ECD, Tribal DDB Amsterdam about ideas in the post digital world.

He argues in favor of the Big Idea, a world so vast and engaging that is capable of turning brands into popular icons, and websites into movements (Nike +)

I’ve been an idea professional since I first got paid to “come up with ideas” back in 1997. Yet, the definition of “idea” has remained complex and mysterious.

What magic happens in your brain when we have ideas?

Where do they come from?

Why do we have ideas?

Are creative ideas and ideas the same?

The truth is, these answers fall more on the realm of neuroscience and cognitive science than that of the advertising world.

In the book “Thinking; Fast and Slow” Daniel Kahneman offers a fascinating insight into the concept of ideas:

Psychologists think of ideas as nodes in a vast network, called associative memory, in which each idea is linked to many others.

An idea that has been activated does not merely evoke one other idea. It activates many ideas, which in turn activate others.

Furthermore, only a few of the activated ideas will register in consciousness; most of the work of associative thinking is silence, hidden from our conscious selves.

The implications made by D. Kahneman are fascinating and filled a black hole in the ideation process: By the time you are sitting in your brainstorm trying to make connections, all the impressions in your memory are already made.

Basically, for us to ‘create” an idea we must fill our memory with all kinds of data, let it simmer in our subconscious, and wait for that magic connection to happen.

If we only watch ESPN, we are limiting our possibilities to the universe of ESPN and X.

In a world where ideas have become the ultimate currency, being curious has never been more valuable.

You might not realize it, unltil you think about it.

So what would our mornings look like if we re-engineered them in the interest of maximizing our creative problem-solving capacities? We’d set the alarm a few minutes early and lie awake in bed, following our thoughts where they lead (with a pen and paper nearby to jot down any evanescent inspirations.) We’d stand a little longer under the warm water of the shower, dismissing task-oriented thoughts (“What will I say at that 9 a.m. meeting?”) in favor of a few more minutes of mental dilation. We’d take some deep breaths during our commute, instead of succumbing to road rage. And once in the office — after we get that cup of coffee — we’d direct our computer browser not to the news of the day but to the funniest videos the web has to offer.

For decades, psychologists have manipulated the emotions of subjects in the lab by showing them short film clips. But now there’s YouTube — and, in fact, the clip that made the participants in Ruby Nadler’s study happiest of all was a YouTube video of a laughing baby. Laughing babies and a double latte: now that’s a way to start the day.

Mainly about media, humans and advertising, but so much more than that. 

Read a great commentary on the subject by only dead fish

Having the title "creative" attached to your job description sets high expectations. 

From the outside-in means that you need to (you are expected to) be creative 24-7. I guess we share this with comedians who are always expected to be funny, no matter where or with who.

From the inside-out is more a "curse"... your brain is always on, generating ideas, connecting dots, seeing possiblities. Is a life spend in tension with our environment.

All this just means that we are a complex mind to understand, even by our own. 

Most creative people, the ones that are truly creative (not by title but by action) are most times unaware of the workings of their own personality, our own mind or even our own behavior.

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So who better than psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to bring some clarity into the subject:

Here are the 10 antithetical traits often present in creative people that are integrated with each other in a dialectical tension.

1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest.

2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.

3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.

4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.

5. Creative people trend to be both extroverted and introverted.

6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time. 

7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping.

8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.

9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.

10. Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment. 

In his 1878 book Human, All Too Human he wrote:

Artists have a vested interest in our believing in the flash of revelation, the so-called inspiration…shining down from heavens as a ray of grace. In reality, the imagination of the good artist or thinker produces continuously good, mediocre or bad things, but his judgment, trained and sharpened to a fine point, rejects, selects, connects…All great artists and thinkers are great workers, indefatigable not only in inventing, but also in rejecting, sifting, transforming, ordering.

via Jonah Lehrer 

Today's surprise was a post about parenthood. Specifically Jeff Atwood’s on what it means to be a parent.

Many can relate to the subject, but having spent a few "play-dates" with Tina and her beautiful children, the post and the subject inspired me to write about parenthood too.

@hazeliz and I have 5 kids. They challenge our foundations like nothing I have ever experienced before. Patience sometimes works, but sometimes it doesn't. Getting very serious sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes 1 cries, and other times the 3 of them cry... at the same time. They demand and request and plead and negotiate and bargain with you all day long. yet, I can't imagine life without them.

My favorite part of Jeff's post is this paragraph, which I think says it all.

When I am holding Henry and I tickle him, I can feel him laughing all the way to his toes. And I realize, my God, I had forgotten, I had completely forgotten how unbelievably, inexplicably wonderful it is that any of us exist at all. Here I am with this tiny, warm body so close to me, breathing so fast he can barely catch up, sharing his newfound joy of simply being alive with me. The sublime joy of this moment, and all the other milestones – the first smile, the first laugh, the first "dada" or "mama", the first kiss, the first time you hold hands. The highs are so incredibly high that you'll get vertigo and wonder if you can ever reach that feeling again. But you peak ever higher and higher, with dizzying regularity. Being a new parent is both terrifying and exhilarating, a constant rollercoaster of extreme highs and lows. 

And with that emotion you close your eyes most days. 

Soon to be opened by a little hand poking you in the chest: I'm thirsty!

A rollercoaster indeed. Is there anything more exhilirating!!!