Creative Insights From the Worldwide Web

Here are five awesome creative insights I found while surfing the web:

1.  Biomimicry is something I’ve mentioned before on this blog; it’s a new discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. At inventorspot.com they have an article about a skyscraper that is being built in Qatar–a city in the middle of the dessert with daily temperatures near 100°F–in the shape of a cactus.  The giant structure doesn’t just look like a cactus, the shades around the building open and close in response to the heat, like cactus cells.

2. Long time readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of Dr. Edward de Bono and his lateral thinking creativity techniques.  Here’s a great example of lateral thinking which I found on the blog Stepcase Lifehack:

Ford Motor Corporation asked Edward de Bono for advice on how they could clearly differentiate themselves from their many competitors in car manufacturing.

Ford had approached the problem of competing from the point of view of a car manufacturer and asked the question, “How can we make our cars more attractive to consumers?”

Dr. de Bono approached the problem from a completely different angle and asked the following question, “How can we make the whole driving experience better for Ford customers?”

The new entry point that was created by looking at the problem from a different perspective allowed Dr. de Bono to come up with the following idea: Ford should buy up parking lots in all the major city centers and make them available for Ford cars only.

Unfortunately, Dr. De Bono’s innovative idea was too radical for Ford; they saw themselves as an automobile manufacturer with no interest in the parking lot business.

3. Ernie Schenck is an advertising and creative director, as well as the author of the book “The Houdini Solution”. He argues that the best way to come up with great ideas is not to think outside of the box, but instead to think within the box. He explains this concept in his squidoo lens, houdinisolution and quotes psychologist and creativity expert Rollo May as follows:

“Creativity requires limits, for the creative act arises out of the struggle of human beings against that which limits them.”

Schenck argues that you don’t need to wait for “the muse” to appear or for your life circumstances to change; instead, work with the circumstances in which you currently find yourself and use any existing parameters or limitations as a vehicle to give your creativity direction. He adds that by the time you finish reading “The Houdini Solution” you’ll understand the following:

“The biggest secret of truly productive creative people is that they embrace obstacles, they don’t run from them. In their mind, every setback is an opportunity, every limitation is a chance. Where others see a wall, they see a doorway.”

One of the examples used by Schenck to illustrate his point is that of Jack White, a guitarist and songwriter and the leader of the Grammy Award-winning rock band, White Stripes. These are some of Jack White’s self-imposed restrictions:

• No computers.
• No digital recording technology.
• No bass guitars.
• No studio equipment invented after 1968.
• No clothes that aren’t red, white or black.

This forced creative captivity nurtures innovation and results in music that is more centered on talent rather than on technology.

How many of us are waiting for something to happen or for some obstacle to be removed before embarking on our creative endeavors?  Start using any limitations in your life as a way to mold your creativity, instead of using them as excuses for not getting started.

4. This blog post shows 15 brilliant business card designs that will guarantee that the person handing them out will stand out from the crowd. One of these cards is shown below; it’s for a hair and make-up artist and it contains actual hair pins arranged in such a way that they look like a woman’s hair.

5. Elizabeth Gilbert–author of the bestseller “Eat, Pray, Love”–gave a fabulous talk at Ted.com titled “A Different Way to Think About Creative Genius”. She explains that after the mega success of her book, everywhere she goes she’s asked the following question: “Aren’t you afraid you’ll never be able to top that?” And she confides that in fact she is afraid that at forty her best work is behind her. So she asked herself how she could continue to do the work she loves.

Elizabeth concluded that in order to be able to continue writing she had to be able to create a safe distance between herself as she’s writing, and the natural anxiety she feels about what the reaction to her writing will be. In order to do this she began to look for models on how creative people can manage the inherent emotional risks of creativity.

She explains that in ancient Greece and ancient Rome people did not believe that creativity came from human beings. Instead, they believed there was a divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source. The Greeks called these beings “Daemons”. It is well-known that Socrates believed that he had a daemon who spoke wisdom to him. The Romans called the disembodied creative spirit a “Genius”. That is, a genius was not a particularly clever individual, it was a magical entity that lived in the walls of an artist’s studio and would come out and invisibly help the artist with his work.

Elizabeth argues in her Ted talk that adopting a belief similar to that held by the Romans and Greeks is a good way for a creative person to establish some distance from their work. By believing that there’s a being that works through you, you keep your ego in check: after all, if your work is a success it wasn’t entirely you that created it, you had help. At the same time, it keeps performance anxiety at bay: if you create something that fails, that wasn’t entirely about you either: your genius or daemon is also to blame.

As an illustration of a modern artist that uses the concept of getting help from the Divine to help him cope with the anxiety of creating, she mentions the musician Tom Waits. In his early years Tom was the very embodiment of the tormented contemporary artist trying to control and manage uncontrollable creative impulses that were completely internalized. But as he got older he got wiser and more sane until one day he was driving along the highway and he heard a fragment of a beautiful melody. At that moment he had no way of catching it and he began to feel some of the old anxiety that had plagued him: he wouldn’t be able to capture the melody in time and it would be lost to him forever.

However, instead of panicking like he used to do, he simply stopped this mental process; he looked up at the sky and said “Excuse me, can’t you see that I’m driving? Do I look like I can I write down a song right now? Come back at a more opportune moment when I can take care of you.” His work process and the anxiety that surrounded it changed at that moment. He took the genius out of himself where it was causing nothing but trouble and released it back to where it came from. That is, he turned his creative process into a collaboration between himself and the external creative impulse that worked through him.

Elizabeth goes on to say that when she was in the middle of writing “Eat, Pray, Love” she started to fall into one of those pits of despair that come when you feel that the work is not flowing, and you start to dread that what you’re working on is a complete disaster. She decided to try Tom’s method and she started talking to an empty corner of the room:

“Look, you and I both know that I’m putting everything that I have into this; I simply don’t have anything more to give. If you want it to be better then you have to show up and keep your part of the deal. But you know what: even if you don’t show up I’m going to keep writing, because that’s my job. So if this book is a failure it’s your fault for not doing your part. I would like the record to show that I showed up and did my part.”

This immediately relaxed her and she was soon able to get back to work.

Centuries ago in the deserts of North Africa, people used to gather for moonlight sacred dances that would go on until dawn. The dances were magnificent, but every once in a while one of the dancers would become transcendent. We’ve all seen performances like this: it was as if the dancer had stepped through a portal and he would be lit from within and lit from below and he would appear to be lit on fire with divinity.

People would immediately recognize what had happened and they would begin to clap and chant “Allah, Allah”, recognizing that they had gotten a glimpse of God. When the moors invaded the south of Spain they took this with them and over the years the pronunciation changed from “Allah” to “Olé”, which you still hear at bull fights and at flamenco dances in Spain when the performer has done something magical.

Elizabeth advices that you just do your job: continue to show up for your piece of it. If the divine genius assigned to you decides to make an appearance then “Olé”, and if not, do your dance anyhow and bravo to you nonetheless for showing up and daring to try to do something great.

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photo credit: r-z

Related Posts:

• 18 Ways to be Uber Creative
• Three Incredibly Effective Creativity Techniques
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• Thoughts to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
• Creative Thinking Techniques: The Playful Edition

I Recommend:

My ebook “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists” explains that creativity is not the sole domain of the arts but is important in any field. Whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better. Discover practical advice on how to be more creative in every life endeavor by reading my ebook.

The Sedona Method is a simple, powerful, easy-to-learn technique that shows you how to let go of any negative, unwanted or painful feelings you may be experiencing at any particular moment. It consists of a series of questions you ask yourself that lead your awareness to focus on what you’re feeling in the moment and gently guide you toward letting it go. Read my review of the Sedona Method here.