Stroke of insight
Here is an interesting insight into the right-brain from Jill Taylor: Jill seems to suggest that creativity comes from the right-brain, whereas logic and language belong to the left-brain. I’m not sure if it’s as much a distinction between the left and right hemispheres, as a mode of operating. Shortly after watching this video, I came across another distinction on …
Anxiety and mind-chatter
This week, I am taking note throughout the day of the thoughts that race through my head. My thoughts are heavily pre-occupied with not having enough time to get things done. I am quite aware of this (and am actively trying to get a handle on it), but I wasn’t aware of the negative messages I keep repeating to myself, …
Discovery and perspective
Just caught this new ad for the discovery channel (via the Creative Generalist) It reminds me of one of my favorite clip, the Caral Sagan tribute – Pale Blue Dot: What a wonderful way to put a perspective on the beautiful diversity and possibility that lies on our planet.
Efficiency vs Mental space
My experiments with Getting Things Done have started. (Right-brained people of the world – don’t have a heart attack… it’s just an experiment.) Objective: to use this methods for reducing stress and to become more efficient by: Gathering all the thoughts on my mind Processing the thoughts Ensuring that items which need accomplishing have a clear, concrete next step attached …
Finally, a cool image search
Or so they say. The Creative Space search engine is like viewing images in OSX’s finder on the web. Looking for random images? There is are great repositories for free stock images at the Stock Exchange and many other nooks and crannies on the web. Go knock yourself out.
Tackling the stress of commitments
One of the biggest inhibitions to creativity and creating mindful work environments is the stress that accumulates from the looming cloud of vague commitments. In an age addicted to the hyper-speed of technology, e-mails, meetings, tasks and “stuff” flying around – the stress from trying to hang on to what we need to get done is often overwhelming. Recently, I …
Innovation with Brad Bird
Being creative is more than letting people run wild with their ideas, as uncovered in an insightful interview with Brad Bird on Innovation lessons from Pixar, where the McKinsey Quarterly examined issues around creating a successful creative environment: The Quarterly: How important is team dynamics to innovation and creativity? Brad Bird: Making a film, you have all these different departments, …
Do schools kill creativity?
An insightful and entertaining reflection on our educations system from TedTalks, by Sir Ken Robinson, and the essential need for schools to learn how to promote creativity. Both the education system and the corporate work environment are not conducive for creativity, and that the structure favors following procedure and being right over the freedom to try new things and fail. …
Hivelogic.com: offices and the creativity zone
Check out the insight from Hivelogic into Offices and the Creativity Zone. Dan discusses some reasons why the corporate work environment isn’t the right setting to be creative – through countless distractions and pressures to produce results. Reminds me of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi… where too many demands coming from too many places, makes it …
Get over it
People tend to life seriously and make situations overly complicated. Or is that just me? Does drama ever do anything remotely useful? One approach I find to be effective in combating this is Rule #6, from Ros and Benjamin’s Zander’s Art of Possibility. The story of Rule #6 is: An executive is in meeting at another company with one of …