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So what am I getting at here? Basically, we all need to shake it up sometimes and get different stimulus going to remain creative and fresh. Fight brain rust, you know? Try some of the following methods to see things from a new and different perspective and supercharge your innate sense of creativity.
Click "read more" to, um, read more.
1. Try a different route to get to your job. Don't follow the same old path. For example, go an extra subway stop and walk back. Or plan a new route that exposes you to new streets, new buildings, new inputs. You may be a few minutes late, but you also may be twice as jazzed with ideas when you get there.
2. Ask a child's opinion on something. Kids see the world without all the gunk you've built up your entire life. To them, things are far more clear. If you're designing something show it to a kid. They may say "I don't get it." But you also may get some gems like "it could use more elephants", or "the colors look like a bathroom", or "That's lame". This may just put you back in touch with your calcified sense of wonder and inner-candor.
3. Combine the two most absurd ideas you can and see what happens. "Science Fiction and Westerns" is one of my favorites. I always wanted to write a screenplay in these mashed-up genres as a personal challenge (but, alas, never did). Would the results be foul? Possibly. But I just found out "Cowboys and Aliens" was just greenlit so somebody got away with it (with Robert Downey Jr, no less!). Anyway, the point is that combining seemingly disparate ideas is the source of innovation. Start mashing up the absurd! Be stoopid. New killer ideas will be spawned.
4. Do something you normally criticize. If you don't lke sports, go to a baseball game. If you hate romantic comedies with Cameron Diaz, watch one. Strike up a conversation with someone you think is lame. You may have all of your initial feelings validated. Or you may expose yourself to a whole new world. Creativity ensues.
5. SIgn up at some cool new Web 2.0 website and really explore it top to bottom with a critical eye. Some won't take you very long. But looking at a competitive site thoroughly may trigger your competitive streak and get you revving on how it can be improved. And before you know it you are in creative mode. EVERYTHING, can be improved to the point where it doesn't even resemble what you originally started riffing off of in the first place. Folks, you may have heard that there are no new ideas. Sorry to type this but it's kind of true. Innovations build on the past and do not spring whole cloth out of the ether. But there are ways of reinventing old ideas for the first time (!). If that makes any sense.
Got a good tip to shake yourself out of automatic pilot and see things from a different perspective? Bring 'em on! Comments box below.
And, ok, any day of the week can be Fresh Perspective Day. But it is always best to attach some kind of date to things or otherwise they have a tendency to drift.
Ideas rule.
Click "read more" to, um, read more.
1. Try a different route to get to your job. Don't follow the same old path. For example, go an extra subway stop and walk back. Or plan a new route that exposes you to new streets, new buildings, new inputs. You may be a few minutes late, but you also may be twice as jazzed with ideas when you get there.
2. Ask a child's opinion on something. Kids see the world without all the gunk you've built up your entire life. To them, things are far more clear. If you're designing something show it to a kid. They may say "I don't get it." But you also may get some gems like "it could use more elephants", or "the colors look like a bathroom", or "That's lame". This may just put you back in touch with your calcified sense of wonder and inner-candor.
3. Combine the two most absurd ideas you can and see what happens. "Science Fiction and Westerns" is one of my favorites. I always wanted to write a screenplay in these mashed-up genres as a personal challenge (but, alas, never did). Would the results be foul? Possibly. But I just found out "Cowboys and Aliens" was just greenlit so somebody got away with it (with Robert Downey Jr, no less!). Anyway, the point is that combining seemingly disparate ideas is the source of innovation. Start mashing up the absurd! Be stoopid. New killer ideas will be spawned.
4. Do something you normally criticize. If you don't lke sports, go to a baseball game. If you hate romantic comedies with Cameron Diaz, watch one. Strike up a conversation with someone you think is lame. You may have all of your initial feelings validated. Or you may expose yourself to a whole new world. Creativity ensues.
5. SIgn up at some cool new Web 2.0 website and really explore it top to bottom with a critical eye. Some won't take you very long. But looking at a competitive site thoroughly may trigger your competitive streak and get you revving on how it can be improved. And before you know it you are in creative mode. EVERYTHING, can be improved to the point where it doesn't even resemble what you originally started riffing off of in the first place. Folks, you may have heard that there are no new ideas. Sorry to type this but it's kind of true. Innovations build on the past and do not spring whole cloth out of the ether. But there are ways of reinventing old ideas for the first time (!). If that makes any sense.
Got a good tip to shake yourself out of automatic pilot and see things from a different perspective? Bring 'em on! Comments box below.
And, ok, any day of the week can be Fresh Perspective Day. But it is always best to attach some kind of date to things or otherwise they have a tendency to drift.
Ideas rule.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Posted at 7:29PM on Jun 30th 2008 by Andrew Wilson
#4 is terrific, because I've found you will often have a spark when you're forced into something you weren't keen on. If you keep an open mind and pay close attention, you'll learn something from what is going on around you.”
Posted at 1:30PM on Jul 21st 2008 by Victor Agreda Jr