Thursday, October 23, 2003

[Dewayne Mikkelson and his Radio WebDog, Shadow] has this posting Perceptual Creativity Tricks from  [Ming the Mechanic] on helping along creativity.  I like this portion/strategy: An effective and well-known way of provoking lateral thinking is to introduce a random element. For example, while closing your eyes, open up a dictionary and point somewhere on the page, and see what word it is. And then pretend that it has something to do with your problem at hand, and try to figure out how. And some percentage of the time, you'll actually come up with surprisingly good ideas. If you have no problem or idea to start with, you can pick up two words by that method, and then pretend that they relate to each other, and sometime you might actually invent something new. ----------------- Magnify it; Reduce it. Reverse it; Spin it; Re-orientate it. Turn it inside out. Heat it up; Cool it down. Move it forward; Roll it backward. Raise it; Lower it. Move it left; Move it right. Project it; Inject it. Squeeze it; Expand it. Replicate it; Decimate it; Weed it out. Make it portable; Make it importable. Speed it up; Slow it down. Age it; Rejuvenate it. Transpose to the past or the future. Change from analog to digital. Implement it in hardware or software. Be it; Do it; Have it. Take it apart; Put it together Make it heavier, lighter. Centralize it; De-centralize it. Grow it; Design it Focus on it; Make it peripheral. Explode it; Implode it. Wear it, live in it, sit on it, transport it, eat it. Color it, add sound, touch it. Take on its identity, what does it feel like, what does it want to do? Split it in complementary parts, or put it together with its counterparts. If this exists, what else would exist? Make it transparent, clear, fuzzy, opaque. Energize it; Tap its energy. Make it 1-, 2-, 3-, or 4-dimensional. Make it have two states (on/off), or have infinite grades. Put in water, underground, in the air, or in space. Pressurize it; put it in vacuum. Make it weightless; increase the gravity. In other words, play with the new idea or the problem at hand. Stretch it, bend it, turn it upside down, inside out, in any way you can think of. And you might realize that what didn't work on a large scale might work on a small scale, and what didn't work one way might work the opposite way. Also, when you play with actual perceptions, you're making things more real. Purely abstract ideas have less chance of materializing than if you can actually see them, feel them, hear them, smell them, taste them. Being creative isn't always easy or fun, but thinking of things in these terms makes it a more enjoyable tasks and gives you some different starting points.  Comments9:19:32 PM

Good article from [Managing Product Development] - Showing Project Progress (NOT percent complete). Begins with: The percent complete problem occurs when you have to report progress to management as "the project is x% complete." In my experience, the x has two values: 50% and 90%. The project doesn't stay in 50% too long before it goes to 90% :-) Ends with:  When you discuss project progress, make sure you're looking at all sides of theh:  project pyramid so that you explain how the assigned people are using the budget, time, work environment to produce the product with it associated defects. That's the most effective technique to discuss project progress. This was interesting to read.  I find myself getting stuck at 5% and 70% most often.  Reaching 100% is a toughie.  I mean, I might say it's 100%, but rarely do I really felt it's reached the quality of "as good as it can get" even if I feel like it's "as good as I know how to do." Comments9:07:41 PM

Henry Ford. "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs." This is my solution to my problem of seeing the beginning and end and not the whole thing.  "okay, what can i do next.  and then what.  and then what."  So much less overwhelming! Comments3:25:58 PM

[The Occupational Adventure (sm) Blog] had an article on Some guidelines for "success" that discusses an article in the September issue of Entrepreneur on success, called "End of the Road? Here are the guidelines: 1. Become an adventurer. (I like it already!) 2. Stress process, not outcome. 3. Don't fear failure. 4. Avoid comparison. 5. Tell others that your goals have changed. (if they have) 6. Make the journey fun. How fun is that?  One and six are about enjoying yourself...duh, that's hard to beat.  Stressing process over outcome is a difficult one for me, but something I definitely believe in.  I'm not the best at always seeing the big picture. I seeing the starting line and the ending line and the rest can be a blur!  Doh!  Avoiding comparison is another one that can save a lot of wasted time, but also hard to do.  It's hard for me to say "am i doing well" without saying "am i doing better or worse than xx."  Goal communication is a sure-fire thing to communicate and act on.  In your life, period.  No one can help you if they don't know where you're going....   Comments3:17:48 PM

Fritz Perls. "I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine." Expectations.  In a lot fo way that's a 4-letter word when I hear it.  You know that feeling you get when you realize you didn't (or even worse, can't) meet someone's expectations?  Or when you set yourself up with having big expectations for someone else? It sucks.  Can you truly train yourself not to have high expecations for peoplez?  None?  Can you be proud without expecting something of someone?  Do you really want low expectations for people? Oh, I don't know...I'm just asking. Comments3:11:56 PM

Wendy Wasserstein. "No matter how lonely you get or how many birth announcements you receive, the trick is not to get frightened. There's nothing wrong with being alone." Last year my two best friends had babies and I got my first apartment all on my own.  Life can be odd how it twists and turns and a single decision can take you down a different path than one you once walked alongside a friend down.  Right now I'm okay with being alone, but I must admit that it makes me a little nervous when I read all the magazines about the growing number/percentages of single people in the world who are great, but can't seem to find a connection that's strong enough for marriage and babies.  It seems to me that it gets harder and harder the older you get.  What you want is more specific.  Who you are is less easy-going and fun than those 17 year olds that "find their soulmate."  I'm not pessimistic, but I do a lot of thinking of what I want out of life if it ends up not being a huband, two kids, two dogs, a big house with bikes out back and...a tree swing.  What do I want if it's just Rebecca? Comments3:09:02 PM

Lawana Blackwell. "Forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of its immense benefits to the one who forgives." Forgiveness seems to either come too hard or too easy for me.  Truly I feel like once I love (and trust) a person, forgiveness is very easy.  My mom could yell at me and say mean things, but I know that she loves me and doesn't have ill-intentions so she wouldn't even have to say sorry for me to forgive her.  For other people (okay, so the exact opposite...my dad) they could write "i'm sorry" in the sky, give me a million bucks and beg for forgiveness and I'm not sure I could do it.  It's like a locked door that I just don't know where the key is.  But, on those rare occasions that I can find the key and open the door...it is a grand reward for me.  Where did I put my keys... Comments3:04:21 PM

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