First Blog

  Becoming Creative Don Allen Introduction . How to become creative? This question is on all minds if only out of curiosity, but specifically on how to do it. In this short note, we identify two main types of creativity. Many types associated with a topic, e.g. digital, educational, art, and science, have detailed interpretations online. We look here at more of a foundational level, as in what’s common with all. Assume there is some problem at hand about which you want to find a solution or an explanation. Very rarely, if ever, does the creative process work spontaneously, rendering up some solution to something about which you are substantially unknowledgeable or unaware. Sometimes, though, it happens when you notice something unusual that you cannot explain. However, this creates a problem, upon which you must focus. Alternate terms for creativity include innovation, inspiration, and intuition.   Creativity is not for amateurs, even though folks, me included, are always firing

  Field of Dreams We know it well. Picture this field as a vast plane, stretching to infinity. In it is contained all your hopes, ideas, wishes, aspirations, yearnings, and desires. Even faith has a presence. Many visit often. Some live there. Only a few have forgotten where it is. This field is special, part fantasy, part spiritual, part a plan, and part the solution. It is the place where dreams meet reality. Each of us sees this field stretching before our present and future. For each, there are hopes, even prayers for those dreams to come true.   Your field of dreams is a fertile plain, lush with flowers and grasses, but also with spines and thorns. because not everything growing there is what you want.   To be avoided are those most tempting, the dreams of excess. We should thus call this short essay Your Field of Dreams Parents often say, “Sweet dreams” to their children on tucking them in. Before that, you dreamt of having children, healthy and able, good and happy. Befo

You think of a good idea.  You try the new idea. The new idea fails totally. A. You can say, "This sucks," and dump the new idea. B. The politician with the same idea cannot.  They will double down and say either it does work or will work, and especially, we need more money to make it work better.  The hapless politician has not the luxury of dumping something they create.  So, why? 1. Why?  Because opponents will excoriate them, and people will believe them, and then not vote for them. 2. Why? Because people are simplistic computing machines accepting everything at face value. 3. Why? Because our education system simply does not teach critical thinking but superficially jumping to the next fad. 4. Why? Because the colleges don't teach anymore. They merely transfer talking points.  5. Why? Because college teachers are busy with their research or fear repudiation by irate students. 6. Why? Because their parents hover above their kids trying to protect them at

We hear so often about innovation at whatever you do.  It seems to be the current brass ring to the next and greatest APP ever.  Websites are devoted to it. Papers are issued on what it is.  Lectures are given on how to do it.    There are even degree programs on achieving this illusive ability. One of the keys to invention is the so-called “thinking outside the box.” However, for innovation from outside the box, the first need is understand what’s inside the box. Namely, is your idea actually outside the box? In this connection, it is important to know your great new idea is not simply one that fails.  The alternative is to expend resources to determinine it doesn’t.  Wasted time! All new innovations I’ve ever heard of come from experts on the “inside, looking outside.”  You need some examples. a.     Pasteur and the application of germ theory to serious disease such as anthrax or rabies. b.     Object oriented programming as a method of accessing and using inform

You go to meetings; so do I. If the meeting is small with just a few attending, and if the meeting about a specific topic, much can be accomplished.   Attendees are not only on the same page but often on the same sentence or even same word.   Focus, sift, winnow, achieve, do.   Move on.   Love it. Such is not the norm.   Let's talk about big meetings with lots of folks, with vague directives, with no clear focus, and without any central core other than generalized commands.   For example, "We need to get a grant," or “We need more profits for the third quarter,” or some such thing. I've been to lots of these meetings and you too .    Much time is brainstorming; that is, with conversants storming all with a blizzard of ideas, most of which are little more than chaff or specks on the wall .    Some do this just to participate.   A new idea is thrown out, not because it is relevant, but because it hasn't been mentioned earlier . (You get parti

Homework 101  - Run for president of the USA Really?  Of course not.  But everyone should write their speech of what they have to offer, of what they stand for, and of why others should cast their vote in your favor. You can mention your family values, religious values, philosophical ideas, what the public means in your life, and all the rest.  You can invoke your party, your beliefs, your convictions, and your humor.  You should state what you have done, how you have led, and how you wish to lead your country and the world. You should express your big ideas, bold ideas, new ideas, the wrong ideas, and all ideas which comprise your vision. With your speech you have created your vision for America.  With your speech you can compare your vision as compared with what is offered by opponents. Only when you impress your ideas on paper can you know in your heart what you wish for, hope for, and what you demand for your country. This is your homework assignment.

We all talk about ideas, and how much we need a good one.  But an idea basically amounts to a direction change. Put this way, we pose whether a change in direction is needed, and moreover really wanted.  Thus...  It may be unproductive to seek for a new idea when none is needed. Indeed, such a search may point one in the wrong direction. Can it be a folly to innovate when such is unrequired? Different does not imply better. A little weird.  The other day I was watching a movie on NetFlix.  My settings showed the subtitles in English. I have become accustomed to reading them. But for some reason, the subtitles were a about two minutes delayed.   So, while I watched, the titles were two minutes or so behind, making them useless.  Interesting and unusual though it was, but after a couple of minutes I stopped watching them.   It occurred to me that suppose the subtitles were two minutes in advance.  This implies having a look on the subtitle channel into the future (of the movie).  T

IDEA SPACE – PART II, THE IDEA OF IDEAS The is the second part of our blog on ideas but stands independently.  See http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2014/07/idea-space-part-i.html What is the “idea of ideas?”   It is the conceptual framework through which problems are solved.   Prior to solving any problem whatever, it is key to have an approach to solving the problem.   This is the idea!   It could be routine, an idea applied previously.   It could be a variation on other successful ideas.   It could be complex requiring some approach beyond the norms of normal problem solving.   It could be dictated by belief or better put fit within the constraints of faith.   Yet, prior to any solution offered, there must be an idea that proceeds the solution.   This is the firmament upon which solutions are formed.   We have problem →idea → solution.   The idea is the forms the first steps on the pathway toward the solution.     The idea is a “proto-solution.”   It is a first glimmer.   I