Pure Content

2005-04-21T14:04:00.000-04:00

2005-03-12T04:32:00.000-05:00

Fruit is good for you... appartantly.

I came across what may be one of the coolest sites ever; eatfruit.com I cannot see any reason for its existance other than to let you "remind people to eat fruit." This shows the growing concern of eating healthy foods and does in fact work, I myself am eating an apple as I write this. So go ahead and remind more people to eat fruit.
Quite absurd, but worth a look in.

2004-04-06T15:46:00.000-04:00

NY PRESS ARTICLE ON EAST HARLEM ARTIST JAMES DE LA VEGA

AND LOCK AWAY THE KEY

HOORAH?

THE CRACKDOWN on the city's real criminals continues! "Artist" James de la Vega, known for his "inspiring" and "poignant" and "lovely" sidewalk sketches is facing jail time for vandalism. Go, go, go, city government! How dare this man actually deface our pristine sidewalks. Furthermore, in defiance of the new Code to Moderate Artistic Expression, he hasn't even been licensed by the Bureau of Artistic Judgment and Certification. Pinkos and commies who would dare defend this monster can be found rallying their support on Weds., April 14, 3:30, 1651 Lexington Ave. (E. 104th St.).

http://www.nypress.com/17/14/pagetwo/pagetwo5.cfm

To contact James De La Vega,please call 212.876.8649 or visit his gallery at 1651 Lexington Avenue @ E. 104th Street.

2004-03-11T10:40:00.000-05:00

harnessing (or choking off) creativity

For those of you with access to Management Today, I urge you to check out Stefan Stern's March 1 report on "How to make creativity contagious." It's central point is this:

Companies may identify fresh thinking as a core value, but this doesn't square with a corporate strategy in which minimising risk is seen as a virtue. How can an organisation adapt its culture to embrace innovation?

Towards the end of the article, there were some sage observations offered:

TWELVE THINGS PEOPLE SAY TO KILL GOOD IDEAS

1: It's too risky/unpredictable. (In the Gold Rush of 1849, people made money through the creative production of commodity shovels, not from stab-in-the-dust exploration.)

2: Best to be a fast follower, not a first mover.

3: It will cannibalise sales of our existing products and services, in which we've made a large investment. You can't just write that off.

4: We haven't got a budget for that/we'll have to cut money from other departments in order to find the funds.

5: Engineering/Human Resources/Legal/Ethics/shareholder activists say it can't or shouldn't be done.

6: We're too big and cumbersome to make the most of this and other ideas. We need to form partnerships with SMEs, government labs and universities, or set up an autonomous unit.

7: We/somebody else did that before and it failed.

8: Our suppliers will never rise to the challenge.

9: The punters are so dumb they will never buy it/will snap up every one we've got.

10: Punters and sales staff will be too slow to grasp how it works. Anyway, they don't need to know that and, apart from a few geeks, aren't usually interested.

11: We need to protect our intellectual property and our brand at all costs: diverting resources into this innovation doesn't help in that.

12: It's impossible to forecast the market for this innovation.

Have you avoided killing ideas today?

EJ in Richmond

2004-03-08T14:37:00.000-05:00

Positioning: The battle for your mind

What a cool book! Not being a marketing person by nature - trying hard though - I found this book to be powerful. It talks about our over communicated society and the need to be heard over the din.

Positioning, by Al Ries and Jack Trout with an updated forward by Philip Kotler, Ph. D, teaches (which is why I love it - it teaches) the concept of listening as a customer to get positioned in their brain. It is not about the product, it is about the product in the customer's mind. Cool!

Peace.
Dave Dec
dave@davedec.com

2004-02-25T15:37:00.000-05:00

creativity and tradition: a notion

If we're willing to explore all avenues of innovation, we cannot ignore the traditional constructs, as this excerpt from "What Bach could have taught Spinoza about Judaism" points out:

It was within the "confinement of the law" that Bach burst out with unprecedented creativity. This proves, against all expectations, that the "finiteness" of the law leads to infinite riches. What Bach proved as nobody else was that it is not in novelty that one reaches the deepest of all human creative experiences, but in the capacity to descend to the depths of what is already given. Bach's works were entirely free of any innovation, but utterly new in originality.

This type of conventional creativity we do not find in Beethoven. Beethoven (in his later years) broke with all the accepted rules of composition. He was one of the founders of a whole new world of musical options. But it was his rejection of the conventional musical laws that made him less of a musical genius. To work within constraints and then to be utterly novel is the ultimate sign of unprecedented greatness. This is what Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) the great German poet and philosopher meant when he said:

In der Beschraenkung zeigt sich erst der Meister, Und das Gesetz nur kann uns Freiheit geben. (Sonnet: "Was wir bringen")

(In limitation does the master really prove himself. And it is (only) the law that can provide us with freedom)

Would you agree?

EJ in Richmond

2004-02-25T15:06:00.000-05:00

thomas edison in a box

"His first patent was for a Device for the Autonomous Generation of Useful Information," the official name of the Creativity Machine, Miller said. "His second patent was for the Self-Training Neural Network Object. Patent Number Two was invented by Patent Number One. Think about that. Patent Number Two was invented by Patent Number One!"

An excerpt from an absolutely fascinating article about the Creativity Machine, invented by Stephen Thaler, founder of Imagination Engines. It's at heart a computer network that thinks creatively--Thaler set up programs that mimic the pathways of the human brain and then jolt them and the system spits out creative ideas, just as the human brain does when its neurons are washed by "noise." It's a functioning model of the human creative capacity.

Creative Machines are responsible for the invention of the Oral-B CrossAction toothbrush. One composed 11,000 songs--"some are good"--over the course of a weekend. They indulge in writing supermarket tabloids. They can improve Internet security and be better interplanetary rovers.

There is, of course, a downside: will such networks supplant human workers? Are we setting ourselves up for a Terminator-like uprising of the machines?

It seems doubtful to me. In the meantime, though, just the fact that such a thing can be invented and function successfully intrigues me.

If you're interested in the original patent for the Creativity Engine, click here. Others are available at the Imagination Engines, Inc. site above.

EJ in Richmond

2004-02-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

Pitching In

A friend and mentor of mine died last week. He was way too young to go - cancer, Mitch died at 50. Another friend of mine told me of a young woman from the town we work had leukemia. They held a marrow donor drive to find a donor. The passing of my friend compelled me to help this woman, Kimberly.

I'm not trying to depress you, so why am I posting this here? In my search to bring passion to my own work and others, I would like to ask you all to pitch in and write more on this site. The passion my friend had in life and the passion of all the people who were tested to help Kimberly teaches me that pitching in and being part of a community is in our soul. We are here to do wonderful things for and with each other.

I know I don't own this site, but I do feel it is mine as well as yours. Use your power and passion for good. Keep the ideas flowing here on this blog. We can all be on this amazing team. It's awesome to be a part of it and I thank you for that feeling.

Peace.
Dave Dec
dave@davedec.com

2004-02-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

My Right Breast - genius or ...something else?

I love the Patriots. I also think Janet Jackson is beautiful. She stole the thunder from my football team.

Apologies? Wasn't planned? Nonsense. I watched CNN last night and counted 3 times they re-ran the stunt in 45 seconds. You just know Justin feels payback to Britney for kissing Madonna.

All that aside, I am not insulted by the wonderful human body, my family see no shame in it, and I will get over the Pats win being a side note. To say no one at CBS, MTV, NFL (enough TLAs - three letter acronyms), or sponsors knew is the greatest insult.

CNN showing this 3 times in 45 seconds - does anyone believe there are no CNN, or other network commercial time sales people saying, "and they are going to show that clip over and over again during the 6 o'clock news, how much time do you want?"

In the play tradition, let's through down a challenge: Take the crotch grabbing, flag tearing, breast showing schemes and rise above. Let's keep some integrity even though this is all about money. Look at more stuff and think about it harder.

Peace.
dvd

2004-02-02T12:56:00.000-05:00

Jobless Recovery?

Have you heard this one yet, Jobless Recovery? If the economy is getting stronger without job growth, why is it called a recovery? Why don't they call it, "Let them eat cake!"

Pay employees 40 hours a week and expect 60 - 80 hours worth of work - that's why the production rate increases in this economy without substantial job growth rate. If people are passionate about their work and they want to put in those hours, that's the best. But if it is anything but passion, and we are not careful, many people will leave their jobs for more meaningful work with fewer hours and less money. There has to be passion of will, not force and expectation to drive a true recovery.

Peace.
Dave Dec
dave@davedec.com

2004-01-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

I ran across an interesting site today-it's something I suggest everyone should take a moment to read. Whitwell Middle school in Tennessee came up with a class project 3 years ago to collect 6 million paper clips and use them to create a memorial for the 6 million people killed in the WWII Holocaust. I called and spoke with the director to inquire about their progress. She told me that they have currently received a little over 32 million paper clips. Two U.S. Congressmen purchased an authentic German rail car (one of the last few remaining in the world) that transported prisoners to camps during the war, and had the car shipped to the middle school. There it was filled with 11 million paper clips by the children, and stands today as a memorial for the victims of the Holocaust. The teacher that headed this project also disclosed that they had received paper clips and documentation from all 50 U.S. states and 44 countries on 6 continents. Recently, Miramax filmed a documentary about the project that is touring the world. The film will be playing in Germany in 2 weeks. Another 11 million paper clips collected were placed in an obleisk that was constructed beside the rail car. The volunteers are making plans for more memorials to house the remaining paper clips. It's amazing how powerful something like a paper clip can be! Congratulations to the teachers, students, volunteers, and every individual that mailed in a paper clip!

HERE's the site: (go to www.marionschools.org and scroll down to the link.)

2004-01-22T15:05:00.000-05:00

Making fun of Passion for our work?
I am by no means a Howard Dean fan, but I am offended by how the media and others are making fun of his speech the other night. Shouldn't we all be that excited about our life's work? I mean his job right now is trying to become president. Think about how much work defines us. When you meet a stranger in a bar, on the street, in an airplane and they ask what you do, you answer with your job description. Though you may be a mother, father, lover, poet, you still answer with your work. Let's all answer with passion. Let's get swept up by the idea of 'what we want to be' is exciting. If others make fun, as Gordon MacKenzie said, they are trying to shame us. Shame on them!
Peace.
dvd

2004-01-21T15:39:00.000-05:00

sleep on it

German scientists have just released the results of a study that shows that sufficient sleep can enhance creativity (another article here). A good sleep cycle seems to give the mind a chance to restructure memories in such a way before storing them as to enhance creative problem-solving. The study itself can be found in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

This study, in conjunction with a recent article in Newsweek that declares a good night's sleep as necessary to overall health as a good diet and exercise, means that I gotta get to bed.

EJ in Richmond

2004-01-15T15:26:00.000-05:00

'Healthier' Food

Hey, did I just coin a new phrase? Not Health Food, Healthier Food. From McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's selling salads to Kentucky Fried Chicken's new campaign about the health benefits of Fried Chicken. Now the best - Snickers makes an energy bar Marathon So, I will eat my Snickers bar while I jog to Wendy's for a double classic - biggie size of course - and choke it all down with a diet coke. Anyway, I am impressed with the efforts of the traditional fast foods grabbing a piece of the health food markets. Heck, up here in Vermont we have an author, Rowan Jacobsen, who wrote a book, "Chocolate Unwrapped; The Surprising Health Benefits of America's Favorite Passion." Ah, desert!

Peace.
Dave Dec

2004-01-14T15:02:00.000-05:00

hey, what is that buzz? a vibrating razor?

In an echo of the super-secret but way-hyped launch of the Segway (remember IT?), Gillette will be announcing the launch of a new product--some new product--tomorrow. The way they've built the hype is pure artistry, from the clear green plastic invitations to the super-secret development process to the unveiling at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel tomorrow to the speculation in the press.

My hat's off to 'em.

EJ in Richmond

p.t. Happy New Year, everybody!

2003-12-31T08:18:00.000-05:00

Happy Everything!

Funny, we need a year ending and beginning to reflect on what has past and plan for what is new. Why these dates? Tradition I guess. We can reflect anytime really, as well as start something new anytime. The time to create is now! I know, where am I going with this? I just wanted to wish all participants of Pure Content - readers and writers alike - a very happy, healthy, and creative new year! Especially the awesome folks at Play! You are a daily inspiration to me. Thank you for being here.

Peace.
Dave Dec
dave@davedec.com

2003-12-12T15:11:00.000-05:00

the number 8 wire culture

The (Singapore) Straits Times has a fascinating column about New Zealand's culture of adaptability and creativity.

It starts off with an anecdote about the folks at Weta Workshop--the ones bringing Middle-earth to life in the Lord of the Rings movies--dealing with the question of creating artificial rocks. The time-tested technique involved chiseling away at a polystyrene block; Richard Taylor at Weta Workshop just went out and took a cast of actual rocks, doing it in a hundredth of the time.

Mr Taylor's refreshing approach is what his fellow New Zealanders would call the 'Number 8 wire culture' - a term derived from the days when people lived on lonely farms scattered far apart.

Number 8 fencing wire was the only material they had in abundance. So they used it not only for cattle fences and paddocks, but also as an all-purpose material, bending, twisting and shaping it into coat hangers, kitchen utensils, gate-locks and even chairs.

Over time, the Number 8 wire came to epitomise a culture of adaptability and creativity, a 'can-do spirit' of which the Kiwis are proud.

And the New Zealand government is working to harnass that inborn ingenuity:

To that end, [the government] has launched a national campaign to promote what it calls 'effective innovation'. It has identified as its new growth engines, sectors such as the arts, infocomm technology, biotechnology as well as research and development in these fields.

Is your nation ready to intentionally innovate? What's your number 8 wire?

EJ in Richmond

2003-12-03T17:43:00.000-05:00

customer-driven product development

Ducati, maker of luxury motorcycles, is taking an Internet-driven approach to developing new bikes, according to this article from Fortune.

The eternal question for automotive manufacturers is whether it's worth mass-producing their concept vehicles.

These are the big questions all manufacturers would like to have answered before they launch new products. Ducati is using the Internet in a way that’s unique among vehicle makers to help answer them at very low cost. Bike buffs who log on to the www.ducati.com website can fill out a detailed "opinion survey" (http://www.ducati.com/sportclassic/index.jhtml#) that gives them a chance to weigh in on all sorts of styling and equipment matters. Motorcyclists are a notoriously detail-oriented lot, and now they can comment on the fine points of future machinery they might like to buy. All importantly, the quiz asks: how much would you pay for these bikes?

. . . . "We’re getting a tremendous amount of feedback, and the company is going to sift through it and see what themes keep cropping up from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Berlin," says Michael Lock, CEO of Ducati North America in Cupertino, Calif. "Ducati is very much interested in hearing what people think before we bring this kind of machines to market. And we’ve got to be open to changing things they don’t like."

Power to the people! (And help to the manufacturer.)

EJ in Richmond

2003-11-26T15:20:00.000-05:00

talking trash

And speaking of unusual trash cans (see the post about the Clios below), Berlin is installing talking trash cans soon. Drop some trash, and Oscar calls out "Thank you!" (Or "Danke" or "Merci.")

I'm struck that they chose not to have it respond verbally after dark, figuring that too many people would be creeped out by talking trash cans at night. I think they're probably right.

EJ in Richmond

2003-11-21T14:43:00.000-05:00

the promise and peril of Amazon's 'Search Inside the Book'

Amazon.com recently introduced it's 'Search Inside the Book' feature to great fanfare. Users can now search the complete texts of 120,000 titles (33 million pages of text) in the Amazon.com database for a particular word or phrase. If you remember that seven years ago you ran across the phrase "glass flagon" but have no earthly idea where it's from, a quick search with the 'SItB' feature will tell you that two different books by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander and Voyager) carry that exact phrase, while the Larousse Gastronomique includes the sentence "The first of these brought the wine in a flagon, and the king's glass, covered; the second brought a silver jug full of water. . . ."

It's a wonderful tool for the searcher--but some authors and publishers are a little distressed that making the full text available on a page-by-page basis will enable people to find just what they want--a recipe, a citation to another work, a museum address and description--without having to buy the book. Some are saying that "what Amazon is doing is no different than what Kazaa is doing to music" because "it presents major copyright problems for a large class of authors who have largely been silent thus far."

I'm intrigued, however, from the pure searcher/researcher angle. As a Wired article on the Amazon initiative stated, "I immediately recognize the power of the archive to make connections hitherto unseen. As the number of searchable books increases, it will become possible to trace the appearance of people and events in published literature and to follow the most digressive pathways of our collective intellectual life. . . . The Amazon archive is dizzying not because it unearths books that would necessarily have languished in obscurity, but because it renders their contents instantly visible in response to a search. It allows quick query revisions, backtracking, and exploration. It provides a new form of map."

On the other hand, the very fact that you're searching using a particular, predetermined keyword or phrase precludes you from stumbling across completely unrelated--yet helpful and/or interesting--information just by pure chance. The lack of serendipitous discovery is painful to contemplate, as Ted Gup pointed out in his essay "The End of Serendipity" (referenced here ):

When I was a young boy, my parents bought me a set of The World Book Encyclopedia. The 22 burgundy-and-gold volumes lined the shelves above my bed. On any given day or night I would reach for a book and lose myself for hours in its endless pages of maps, photographs, and text. Even when I had a purpose in mind -- say, for instance, a homework assignment on salamanders -- I would invariably find myself reading instead of Salem and its witch hunts or of Salamis, where the Greeks routed the Persians in the fifth century B.C. Like all encyclopedias of the day, it was arranged alphabetically, based on sound and without regard to subject. As a child, I saw it as a system wondrously whimsical and exquisitely inefficient. Perfect for exploration. The "S" volume alone could lead me down 10,000 unconnected highways.

The world my two young sons inherit is a very different place. That same encyclopedia now comes on CD-ROM. Simply drop the platinum disk into the A-drive and type in a key word. In a flash the subject appears on the screen. The search is perfected in a single keystroke -- no flipping of pages, no risk of distraction, no unintended consequences. And therein lies the loss.

The Amazon.com 'Search Inside the Book'--or hypertext on the Internet, for that matter--is helpful if you want to follow threads among related bits of information. But what if you want to run across something new and completely unrelated? Or even if you don't want to, but you do it anyway--how easy is it going to be?

EJ in Richmond

2003-11-20T14:05:00.000-05:00

on the origin of play

I've been doing some research into the origin of play (the activity, not the consultancy). Some interesting current tidbits I ran across recently:

Play is responsible for giving us bigger brains

The New Scientist reported recently (reprinted here) on new research into the origin and benefits of play:

[P]lay shapes the overall architecture of the brain rather than individual circuits connected with specific activities. "Most likely, [animals at play] are directing their own brain assembly," says [the University of Idaho's John] Byers.

"People have not paid enough attention to the amount of the brain activated by play," says Marc Bekoff from the University of Colorado. Bekoff studied coyote pups at play and found that their behaviour was markedly more variable and unpredictable than that of adults. Behaving this way activates many different parts of the brain, he reasons. Bekoff likens it to a behavioural kaleidoscope, with animals at play jumping rapidly from one activity to another. "They use behaviour from a lot of different contexts--predation, aggression, reproduction," he says. "Their developing brain is getting all sorts of stimulation."

Not only is more of the brain involved in play than was suspected, but it also seems to activate higher cognitive processes. "There's enormous cognitive involvement in play," says Bekoff. He points out that play often involves complex assessments of playmates, ideas of reciprocity and the use of specialised signals and rules. He believes that play creates a brain that has greater behavioural flexibility and improved potential for learning later in life. "It's about more connectedness throughout the brain," he says.

Play helps us deal with the unexpected

Mark Bekoff (above) joined two others in a June 2001 article in the Quarterly Review of Biology, in which they proposed the following:

Our major new functional hypothesis is that play enables animals to develop flexible kinematic and emotional responses to unexpected events in which they experience a sudden loss of control. Specifically, we propose that play functions to increase the versatility of movements used to recover from sudden shocks such as loss of balance and falling over, and to enhance the ability of animals to cope emotionally with unexpected stressful situations. To obtain this "training for the unexpected," we suggest that animals actively seek and create unexpected situations in play through self-handicapping; that is, deliberately relaxing control over their movements or actively putting themselves into disadvantageous positions and situations. Thus, play is comprised of sequences in which the players switch rapidly between well-controlled movements similar to those used in "serious" behavior and self-handicapping movements that result in temporary loss of control. We propose that this playful switching between in-control and out-of-control elements is cognitively demanding, setting phylogenetic and ontogenetic constraints on play, and is underlain by neuroendocrinological responses that produce a complex emotional state known as "having fun" . . . . We argue that our "training for the unexpected" hypothesis can account for some previously puzzling kinematic, structural, motivational, emotional, cognitive, social, ontogenetic, and phylogenetic aspects of play. It may also account for a diversity of individual methods for coping with unexpected misfortunes.

All this to say, play isn't just about playing for its own sake--it helps us to tackle the intricate and rapidly-changing world we live in in a way that will prove successful. In stasis lies death--we've got to be ready to deal flexibly with unexpected challenges, learn from new situations and apply those lessons to even newer situations. Playing makes learning possible.

And if we're intentional about our play, we're gonna be ready for anything.

EJ in Richmond

2003-11-20T07:48:00.000-05:00

If I hear one more CxO say...

Today's economy - unemployment is up, but so is productivity. If I hear one more CxO or journalist/analyst say the reason is because the low performance employees are being weeded out I'll scream. So instead of waiting here is my 'scream.' I know a lot of talented folks that are looking for work. These are high producing folks that are in a bad economy. Especially where I live in Vermont. The economy has been weak here for over 5 years - can you say Howard Dean? - But that's another blog entry.

The reason production is high during low employment is fear. People produce at unbelievable rates when they fear losing their jobs. These same CxO level folks (see above) know this. I'm not here to say, "wait until the economy gets better and I'm outa here." What I am saying is people, even super-producers - can only work in this fear for so long without re-evaluating what is important.

The truly creative managers are those who see this trend of fear and instead of embracing it wish to change it. Capture the high productivity, but breed soul into the job. Make it a relationship worth pursuing for the long run. Truly commit, not just to stockholders, profits, or owners of family owned businesses, but to your workforce. Make them a part of your team before other creatives discover your employees’ high production and start an affair to remember - and leave you for the new romance.

Peace.
Dave Dec

2003-11-19T12:56:00.000-05:00

pssshhhttt, glug, glug--mmmm, the refreshing taste of turkey & gravy!

At the end of the local news last night, they did one of those crazy-but-true-at-the-end-of-the-news stories about the Jones Soda Co.'s latest product--turkey & gravy soda, ready to entertain your taste buds for Thanksgiving.

Described as "the color and consistency of watered-down gravy minus the floating giblets and globs of turkey fat, " the drink "has a faint meaty, peppery smell that falls short of teasing the taste buds like a turkey roasting in Grandma's oven. The taste? Hard to describe. It has a salty, sweet lingering bite."

Yummola!

2003-11-18T16:37:00.000-05:00

X(3872), or matter ain't as static as you think

Scientists at the KEK electron-positron collider in Tsukuba, Japan, have discovered a new particle, the X(3872), that either means there's a whole new family of subatomic particles out there or that current theories on sub-atomic mass need to be reworked.

In looking for a particular kind of charmonium (a meson made up of a quark and an anti-quark, if that helps), the scientists realized they'd found something brand new, a particle apparently made of another pair of particles (the same way a molecule is made up of multiple atoms)--something that opens whole new avenues of research, and thereby whole new regions of knowledge. There are articles on the discovery here and here.

How fantastic is it that we're continually revising our models for the way the world is put together? It's a blow for serendipity! The fortuitious discovery of a thing unlooked-for. If research in quantum physics ain't "looking at more stuff," I don't know what is.

Incidentally, I love the merging of poetry and science when it comes to naming features of the subatomic world: "beauty" mesons, and quarks of six flavors (strange, truth, beauty, charm, up, down), the "colour" force. Maybe science is art and art is science. I like to think so, anyway.

EJ in Richmond

2003-11-17T15:13:00.000-05:00

the artist as corporate commander

They make products that can hold the attention of paying customers. They're skilled at developing talent, and at making sure that talent works well together.

They're CEOs. Or they're artists. The one can help the other, for sure.

"Executives, however, could learn from artists' ability to dare to break molds, lead changes in taste, raise funds and be productive while being frugal. Artists also can show how to take criticism but not let it thwart their individuality or stop them from developing their work."

So says Carol Hymowitz in the Wall Street Journal.

EJ in Richmond

2003-11-17T12:57:00.000-05:00

ADWEEK just reported that the Clio Awards have announced that they're adding a new category: Content & Contact.

Content & Contact "will recognize [advertising] campaigns that show both innovation in media as well as excellence in creativity."

One example they cited for a campaign that might do well in this category is Crispin Porter + Bogusky's outdoor installations for Mini. Nick Brien, the jury chair, said that "[t]he effort's oversize trashcans in airports excelled both in creativity and the innovative way they interacted with the public."

Here's a summary of the Content & Contact category, from the 2004 awards entry kit: "Content & Contact is a new category for work that demonstrates excellence in creative communications through the effective marriage of content creativity and contact innovation. Entries will be judged by an Executive Jury comprised of strategic media directors and creative directors. Judges will evaluate the intersection of media and creative concept to award the work that engages the target audience in a breakthrough way."

It's that "engaging the target audience" thing that's exciting--the "contact" in Content & Contact. No advertising--or any communication--is successful if it doesn't engage its audience, and it's good to see the Clios rewarding creative thinking in this area.

How does your message interact with its audience?

EJ in Richmond

2003-11-17T12:35:00.000-05:00

Awright, I can't bear to see such a great resource languishing. . . .

EJ in Richmond

2003-10-08T01:14:00.000-04:00

You are taking fall internships? Crap. Too bad I have a job... I can be swayed however....

The following is a recent article I have been spending some time researching and writing on my blog, Downsize This. I appreciate your review.

Why Business School Prof's know nothing about business....

So, have you ever sat in a college class and listened to a Prof ramble on about something, all the while knowing in the back of your head that this can never work? Well, there is a reason for that. The reason is fundamental and goes all the way back to the admission practices of Top University Business PhD programs.

The PhD by its very nature is a research degree. This is good and bad. Research is very applicable in scientific fields. Fields where experiments can be done in a controlled environment and the results recorded, repeated, recorded, and so on, until regularity can be established. For degrees in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, etc., this makes perfect sense. Business, however, is totally different. Business is the science of people, culture, trends, economics, and politics, and changes everyday. What worked in 1999 certainly does not work today in business. What worked in physics 5,000 years ago is exactly the same today. The Laws of thermodynamics are the same. Science and Business are completely different schools of thought, the research and PhD degree programs, however, are approached in the same ways.

So what does this mean? What it means is you have professors teaching in business schools based on their research, not experience. Just take a look at the Business School Faculty Page of Stanford University, certainly one of the world's most prestigious business schools. One thing to note, for professors that are teaching BUSINESS, there is no mention of any work experience for any of their professors! If this does not bother you, it should. PhDs telling people how to run a business, that have never worked in one.... Hmmmm..... "Do as I say, don't do as I do." I mean look at this woman. Are you bloody kidding me?! Her research interests are listed as:

Culture and persuasion (e.g., understanding the dynamic role of culture and its impact on attitudes), self-expression (e.g., identifying dimensions of brand personality and exploring how brands are used for self-expressive reasons) and emotional experience(e.g., examining the creation and impact of emotional experience).

Gimme a break... Oh but she has a lot of papers published. Is that what it takes to educate a Manager or Entrepreneur on the in's and out's of successfully running a business?

The problem with the Business Professors starts with the Business Schools' methodologies for recruiting, admitting, and compensating PhD candidates. Let's start with recruiting. There are virtually no part-time PhD programs. Certainly none at any respected University. PhD programs recruit only at other Universities. They want to bring students on board, not business people. Staying with Stanford as an example, here is a complete list of their recruiting locations in 2003:

George Washington University
Atlanta Universities Center
Emory University
Princeton University
Harvard Business School
5 Colleges, Amherst College
University of Illinois

Notice anything funny here? They are all colleges, and gee, look at the list... Emory, Princeton, Harvard, Kellogg (Univ. of Ill). Gee, all Top Tier Business Schools. I do not want some Princeton blow hole with an MA in English telling me how to direct corporate strategy.

Admissions follows the same philosophy. Admission is weighed heavily on GPA and test scores. Stanford's Admission page for PhD Students measure many applicant statistics, but does not measure work experience. Again, proof they are recruiting professional students trained in theory, but not practice.

Finally is compensation. Stipends for PhDs typically average around $20k per year. Good luck getting a top notch successful business person to leave his career and teach his success to others for a $100k per year pay cut. Many PhD students provide valuable research and teaching duties to their respective Universities, and this pay amount is very humiliating to a business professional. To professional students used to living off of student loans, free tuition plus 20 grand seems like hitting the jackpot. Therefore its easy to see who is running into these programs. In America, success in business means having a good income. It logically follows that Business PhD programs must not want to recruit people that are successful in business.

PhDs and MBAs are completely different degrees. PhDs are based on research, and are typically pursued by students who have never had any real work experience. MBA's are based on case study, practical application, and are pursued by business professionals looking to advance their careers. The problem is, these MBAs are taught by the PhDs who a) have no relevant work experience to refer to in their teaching and b) are teaching a degree program that they have never went through themselves (most of the time. Some PhDs do indeed also have MBAs).

The result: MBAs that learn and apply business philosophies and ideologies that seem great on paper, but may have no real-world practical application. These philosophies are taught my Business PhDs that can not relate to their students. A lot of Business PhDs still think that Communism makes the most sense. Need I say more? And Miss Aaker and her "identifying dimensions of brand personality" reeks of jargon-fueled research that sounds impressive but isn't functional in practical application. PhDs are granted their degrees when other PhDs with equally non-existent work experience determine their research has simply followed scientific methodology.

How to fix it: offer part-time PhD programs in Business. And even before that, recognize that Business PhDs are different from Science PhDs. Business PhD research can be drawn from real-world experience from someone who maintains a job while pursuing the degree. Do that and the compensation issues goes away. I would get my PhD today if I could do it part time. Do you really expect me to give up a six figure income for $20k a year?! Are you nuts?! And that is too bad, because I would make a good professor. Why? Because I have been there. I have seen what works, and what doesn't. I have created strategies, and put them into practice. I don't have a 4.0 undergrad GPA, I did not get a 750 on my GMAT, but I have been in the trenches like so many other business professionals that are refused the chance at a PhD simply because we are unable to go to class full-time.

Get off your ridiculous, arrogant high horse that "The PhD program is intellectually rigorous and requires full-time attention." Refocus that attention from books and interviews to the office. Recruit successful leaders. Get some credibility for cryin out loud. I don't care how many degrees you have from Yale, or how many languages you speak, if you have never led in the business community, do not tell me how to lead it.

2003-09-29T11:09:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Rehm-applicant for fall internship at Play

I've read an article from Fortune Magazine called "Tree Huggers, Soy Lovers, and Profits" by Marc Gunther. It tells the story of Paul Tebo, a chemical engineer who is now corporate vice president for safety, health, and environment, at DuPont. In the past Tebo ran DuPont's petrochemicals division, the portion of the company responsible for labling DuPont as America's worst polluter. However, DuPont's case today is much different, in large part thanks to Tebo. The focus of this article is an innovative idea called sustainable growth, which deals with an economy that produces profits while befitting the environment simultaneously. For DuPont it has gone beyond reducing waste and pollution and has crossed over boundaries in an attempt to have a successful plant that will never deplete natural resources. This idea has been imagined and spoken of for years, but for the first time someone is actually living up to the challenge. This company has finally found a way to be profitable and safe. While its hard to determine how successful DuPont will be, I admire them for making such a bold statement. Tebo believes it is the business' corporate responsibility to help protect the planet. Sustainable growth is all about this responsibility and the ability to follow through with commitments. DuPont has set the benchmark for the future, its time to sit back and see who follows them. I truly hope this innovative idea is a success because the possibilities it opens up are vast. For anyone interested in this article about changing the face of chemical engineering it can be found in the June 9 edition of Fortune.

2003-09-29T02:24:00.000-04:00

I recently read an article in the September edition of Fast Company about Les Schwab Tires, a company that goes above and beyond in customer service. The article is titled "Four Tires, Free Beef" because customers get a package of steaks complimentary with their new tires during “free beef month.” This is just a small example of how generous the company is to their customers. Unlike most tire repair shops, mechanics are trained to treat their customers as if they were family members. Also, the company replaces so many flat tires for free that it loses $10 million a year on this expense. Such hospitable service keeps customer retention very high. Satisfied customers have developed a cult following with the tire company. Customer loyalty is proven with their estimated $1 billion in revenue. The service that Les Schwab provides to his customers is a testament that kindness is rewarded with allegiance to a company.

-Boris Sharapan, Play internship applicant.

2003-09-29T01:09:00.000-04:00

My Name is Bradley Oswald I am a Junior at the University of Richmond Applying for the Fall Internship at Play. I recently read "Failure is Glorious" from Fast Company.

The article focuses on the importance of learning from your failures. The basic premise of the article allows the reader to understand that through failure you can innovate and change an industry. Through failure you can develop and create new more unique products that can create market growth and share. This is an extremely interesting article that focuses on a fundamental business practice: innovation. Companies need to constantly innovate in order to continue to do business in our fast paced economy.

The article talks about walking a fine line between the "possible" and the "not possible." Walking this line forces companies to constantly be on there toes; in order to adapt and change to a certain business market. While walking this fine line, failure is not a problem so long as you learn from the "not possibles" (failures) and turn them into "possibles." This is essential to innovation for a company. If a company can transform their failures to success...Then a company is extremely innovative and adaptive.

I recommend you take a look at this article. Its short, sweet, and to the point. It provides a wealth of information that all businesses should have.

2003-09-12T21:03:00.000-04:00

Pass This Along to A Teacher -- Here's a cool project I've been helping out on recently. It's the Global Virtual Classroom project of Give Something Back International. It's a program that is aimed at providing opportunities for cross-border, cross-cultural collaboration and communication between primary and secondary school students. The cornerstone of the initial launch is a website design contest in which teams of three schools from three different countries will work on web projects from October through February. In another month or so, we'll be launching the second piece of the project, a Clubhouse that will allow for similar projects, but without the restrictions or structure of a contest.

The project is particularly interested in drumming up participation from outside the US (we expect plenty from these shores, and need at least twice as many non-US schools to form the contest teams without duplication of country in a team). So I am calling upon non-US Pure Content readers especially to please consider passing information about the Global Virtual Classroom to teachers and schools in your part of the world.

And fellow bloggers...since we're trying to get the word out widely, a link would be appreciated. It would be very cool to see the Global Virtual Classroom make it into Technorati's top stories.

-- Frank Patrick

2003-09-03T23:29:00.000-04:00

COGNOSIS?

Came across an article titled: Citigroup is Like President Bush and, of course, I couldn't resist. A research group which focuses on organizational behavior adapted psychometric tests, used for personality profiling, to analyze the 'corporate personality' of several banks. Interestingly this research was motivated by a "massive erosion of trust" between banks and employees.

G

2003-09-03T01:31:00.000-04:00

Reading through the Yamamoto Moss conference highlights reminded me of two things. One was the Alternatives to Violence Project
(AVP) and the other is a Swedish researcher, Goran Ekvall. Ekvall's research into companies with a creative environment led to his discovery of 10 dimensions of the climate. One of those was the level of Trust and Openness - to what extent does everyone feel valued and important? The first line of the AVP mission statement reads: To empower people to lead nonviolent lives through affirmation, respect for all, community building, cooperation, and trust.
What I like about this is how it reflects the nurturing and development of an overall work, family, team...culture of honest, open, non-hidden agenda style behavior. Workplace Folklore is an interesting term describing traditions of culture. Kinda cool to recognize the influence.

Garth

2003-09-02T18:43:00.000-04:00

I went to Fortune's conference ages ago in April but met this company - and they included highlights from the conference on their site. It was generous of them to share that learning and I thought I'd point to it, since there's some good stuff in there. Yamamoto Moss: Notes on Trust

2003-09-01T04:40:00.000-04:00

Oooh...

Creative Tourism

Cool.

Garth

2003-09-01T04:38:00.000-04:00

Creative Environment

In 1961 Mel Rhodes put forth the results of his attempt at finding a unifying definition of creativity. As many would expect, he failed. However, as we know, failure is often the door to success and Rhode's failure is no exception. AS he analyzed definitions he began to observe differences and similarities. His observations became the foundation for a framework which is useful in understanding observations of creativity. Rhode's framework is often referred to as the 4 P's - Person, Process, Product and Press. Press refers to the dynamic interaction of two basic components of the "Creative Climate/Environment): Pyschological and Physical.
Some organizations - PLAY included - have begun to deliberately design their work space to encourage, invite, nurture and support creative behaviors. Adding unusual design elements such as unusual shapes, private talking areas, colorful furniture, open spaces, offices with no names, corrodors designed to encourage mind mingling, etc...all add to the physical characteristics which encourage creative behavior. Classrooms are a classic example...visit any kindergarten/primary shool classroom and you can expect to find a colorful, dynamic space with much to discover and inspire growing minds. Enter higher education classrooms and you begin to expect lectuer style rooms with standard tables and chairs, fewer colors, perhaps a motivational poster or two, no toys or games, etc... In effect, the expectation is to find a more "serious" space for learning. The folks at NewandImproved have an easy to digest message regarding the physical space for creativity.
What do you think? In what way(s) might you design a creative space? Do you have examples?

John F. Kennedy once state "If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow [his/her] vision wherever it may take [him/her]". If the process and application of creative thoughts/behaviors are to nourish the roots of individuals and societies then it is also imperative that we deliberately attend to the task of understanding and creating physical and psychological climates that will nurture them.

Wuzz happening in your neck of the woods?

Garth

2003-08-29T07:07:00.000-04:00

Looking and Thinking...are they enough?

Nope. The concepts of looking and thinking are directly related to one of the first stages in the creative process, discovery, but do not represent the whole enchilada. Imagine the world in which everyone invests their effort towards looking at more stuff and thinking about it harder...great awareness and awesome thoughts. Additionally there must be some form of action to create and maintain purposeful value of new awareness and thoughts. For example, in the early formation of the PureContent blog there was a high level of awareness created and a sharing of awesome thoughts. The forum became well known quickly as a direct result of looking, thinking, and acting. Contributions were many and quality was high. Recently the PureContent blog appears to be stuck as potential contributors have locked into observational mode and leapt out of contribution (action) mode.
If we think of creativity as Dr. Ruth Noller (an early pioneer in the creativity research field) did in terms of three areas perhaps it will bring another layer to our understanding of creativity. The three areas of creativity she described are Personal, Recognized and Transformative. Personal represents that which is new and useful to the individual who thought it up. It represents what is unique to the individual such as special hobby talents and/or ones' personaly style. Adding a social element brings us to Recognized creativity which represents what is new and purposeful to larger communities, groups, organizations and society at large. It represents highly utilitarian novelty...automobile, airplane, dishwasher, electric range, etcetera. The result is often seen as increased efficiency in the way something gets done. At the Transformative level we find those discoveries, outcomes, actions, methods, process...which fundamentally alter individuals, societies, and cultures. Such high level creativity is represented by nuclear energy, internet communications, or revolutions such as Women's rights, Colonial, Industrial...etc...
Open to other's insights I offer a thought... Perhaps the PureContent blog, at this moment in time, represents one of the greatest challenges to applied creativity...sustained value. I think this forum was born of an Individual who was higly interested in creating a new and valuable sharing and discovery forum temporarily Recognized by a particular community.
Contiunuously challenged by the thoughtful and actively engaged Individual PureContent continued to grow. When the Individual was 'removed' from the community its degree of Recognition decreased.
For creative achievments/contributions to achieve sustained value requires the continued contribution of Individual which is recognized and Transforms the culture in which it is introduced. Without Transformation...Individual contributions are required to sustain 'creative' momentum through group Recognition.
Simply put, PureContent represents a creative achievement driven by consistently valuable contributions made by individuals. Without valuable individuals there will be no recognition (meaningful community involvement).
In what way(s) might we challenge the PureContent Street Team and the PLAY Oraganization Team communitiy to bring this forum to a higher level of meaningful interaction?
How might the members of PLAY post informative insights? - round Robin sharing...commit to one post each per week...invite a personal friend to provide an insight...
How might the PureContent Street Team post informative insights? - Commit to one post each/week...keep a list of most interesting websites visited during the week and publish it weekly...
How might the publisher of this message post informative insights? --- perhaps a weekly commentary, facilitate dialogue on a particular post...suggest a them for each week...

I'd like to propose the following (flexible) structure for the next 4 weeks starting Monday Sept. 1st. Week one will focus on contributions related to the Creative Environment. (What are the characteristics, dynamics, attributes...of an environment which supports, enourages and sustains creativity?) Week two will focus on contributions related to the Creative Person. (What are the characteristics, traits, skills, abilities of creative people? Who are creative people? Why?....) Week three will focus on what are the elements of the Creative Process and week four will focus on what are the necessary attributes needed for us to identify a Creative Product?

Look.Think. Act.

anyone wanna play?

Garth

2003-08-28T04:54:00.000-04:00

Oooh.....

Magic Ink

cool.

2003-08-28T01:59:00.000-04:00

Creativity Pool

Got Ideas? Write 'em down!!! The Creativity Pool is an open source for ideas of all kinds. Ideas can happen at anytime and can be lost just as quickly. Maintaining an idea capturing system...notebook, pda memo, voice recorder, corporate suggestion scheme etc...is a hallmark of many highly recognized creative people (the special talent type). What I like about the creativity pool is the fact that it's ideas out in the open. Too often we keep our ideas to ourselves and they never have a chance to become real. I know there's a lot of talk about how we often don't share our ideas because we're afraid of being laughed at, ridiculed, or reprimanded. We all know of idea killers such as "we've never tried that before", "it's not in the budget", "that could never work", "the way it is works fine"... How about the more subtle kind of subterfuge? The fear that someone else might profit from your idea without ever getting credit. The fear that a 'subbordinate" with the 'great idea' is going to steal your job. The Creativity Pool...just a place to take a few laps, wade arround in shallow waters or do a cannonball and leave a splash.

Zidea

2003-08-27T05:54:00.000-04:00

Garth

For years many have heard about or experienced interview questions from http://www.sellsbrothers.com/fun/msiview/default.aspx?content=question.htm. Increasingly potential employers are paying more than just lip service toward their desire for creative problem solving skills, their interviewing for them. While puzzles and brainteasers aren't exactly valid tests of one's work talents many are using them in their selection process. Questions such as these also help level the playing field between those with formal education and those without. Perhaps PLAY observes their 4 Square court to zero in on potential hires...a direct way to find whose willing to play!
It's amazing to me how many of my students ask the question 'Why do we have to learn about creativity?'. Perhaps I'll share this with them. It's easy to observe that creativity is more than just new products it's also going beyond traditional processes to find a way that works better. I like the 'Lookatmorestuff' motto because, like a compass, it points towards the way. I also like the fact that more and more actions are being taken to go beyond the "compass" and actually buy the boots get on the trail and reach the summitt.
cheers

2003-08-25T02:26:00.000-04:00

I like to complain and I'm pretty good at it. I mean, I'm good at finding stuff that doesn't work too well or could be working better "if only". I don't think I'm alone at this. In fact, I believe the world is full of great complainers whose potential momentum for change is often lost. Some of the world's greatest ideas, products, philosophy's etc...were a driect result of complaining about something because someone knew it could work better "if only". And not the kind, gentle, softened complaint style advocated by experts. I'm talking about gettin' right down deep into the "goo"...the shit, the crap, the stuff that really pisses us off. NO holds barred and totally open. When's the last time you were able to completely hold a "bitch" session and complain openly and honestly about everything bothering you for the past 6 months? I think companies and families and friends would benefit greatly from a monthly gripe session held out in the open with everyone present. How cool would that be? Once a month you get to vent about anything you want to with everyone else...the only purpose is to openly and bitterly complain about anything to everyone and, of course, there can be no negative repercussions of the event. The world has gained great benefit from Brainstorming why not "ShitStorming"....

2003-08-18T03:22:00.000-04:00

A recent post at The House of Innovation by David Berkowitz shares insight into a PHISHY approach to creativity. Phish has made its mark as an improvisational band that moves with the moment. As with any good improv they have talent and a focused mission. They've embraced the online music sharing debate with open arms and encouragement. At a recent concert in Maine the band provided access to Apple computers and the ability for any fan with an iPod to download special tracks of music. Combining wireless technologies with internet basics the band was able to overcome a problem with radio transmissions in a novel way. Improv. Improvisation is a unique skillset and flexible structure with an attitude that says 'yeah, that'll work'. Talented people working a flexible process with an attitude focused towards finding a way that will work. What examples do you have?

2003-08-18T00:46:00.000-04:00

Serious Play

Genrich Altshuller, the mind behind the Russian Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ - pronounce "treez"), discovered and developed a concept of 'contradictions' that is inherent in inventions. Many inventions are brought about due to the desire for a contradiction. A tire needs to be both hard and soft - sticky and smooth, we want high performance with low energy, mpeg4 is having a file that is both large and small. Serious Play. Legos. The department of executive discovery (what a name!!!!) at LEGOS has engaged the contradiction of being serious and playing through a discover process the call SERIOUS PLAY. Apparently a contradiction the concept of being serious and playing at the same time is a hallmark of many creative programs... (think bouncing red ball). From elementary school to executive development and federal agencies playing is serious business. Contradictions...a great start for creative inspiration. I think I'll go make me a hot bowl of icecream.

2003-08-15T17:39:00.000-04:00

Ran across this article updating the goings-on of Richard Florida's Rise of a Creative Class concept, this time in Tampa Bay. Marketing bigwig Deanne Roberts plugged the book at a recent meeting of the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce:

Roberts defined creative communities as ones that have nightlife, outdoor recreation, historical significance and unique places to eat and shop. More food for thought: Areas need a thick job market where people have plenty of options in their fields. Cities also must welcome international brethren who want to establish roots here and start businesses.

The most attractive cities cater to 24- to 35-year-olds, the "workhorses" and "show horses," who log long hours and have the latest skills. And don't ignore the bachelors, gays and single working parents, warns Florida, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The Leave it to Beaver days are over. Not everyone is married with kids.

Here's fodder for employers. Florida says the creative class worries less about money and instead prefers a challenging work place where they can make a difference and won't get bored. He advises supervisors to tell their often-tattooed employees: Go play in a rock band at night, and if you're a little hung over the next day come in at 10 a.m.

Wow.

But cooler than that is the fact that Roberts and some other Florida disciples have put together a group, Creative Tampa Bay Inc, specifically promoting the creative class concept for Tampa ("to help make the area more appealing to people who think for a living"), and their site went live today:

http://www.creativetampabay.com/

How 'bout it, Richmond?

--Eric at UR

2003-08-14T16:38:00.000-04:00

I Miss Pure Content

My, this blog has been relatively quiet. I've missed Charlie and the gang's frequent contributions. This post is rather self-serving, but Play and Pure Content have been long-time supporters of Fast Company and my personal blog, Media Diet. So I thought the Purely Contented might be interested in Fast Company's new staff blog, FC Now. It's only about a week old, but we're having a lot of fun with it. Let us know what you think! -- Heath

2003-08-04T22:43:00.000-04:00

The Internet is Dead! Long Live the Internet!

This is my first post here, so, hello. How do you do. Okay, back to my post.

Spent last week in Waikiki. Noticed amid the maddening crowds, groups of children between the ages of 8 and oh, say 13, walking around with gameboys and such glued to their field of view. The tourist and local kids alike all seem to share this condition. What happened to dodge ball?

After a week away I check my 3 email accounts and receive hundreds of email. Almost entirely spam. "Increase your penis length by 25%!" "Watch Anna get stretched wide!" and so on.... I recently added an HTML stripper to my email app (Outlook), and to test it, I clicked on one email. Sure enough, it was entirely blank. Clicked on another just to make sure. Well, this one was chock-full of HTML, with all sorts of images and links and such. It also loaded a trojan horse virus that tried to take over my computer. I promptly killed the virus and the remaining spam emails.

I then go to catch up on some news and it seems like all the major news sites have added multiple pop-ups/pop-unders - all hawking crap I sure don't need. Closing one pop-up only spawns 2 more. I eventually have to ctrl+alt+delete and kill my browser altogether. CNN.com will never see my IP again.

Today I decide to catch up with some of my favorite blogs (including this one). Sadly, participation seems to have dropped off dramatically at all that I visit.

I've been involved in web development for more than a decade. The most recent potential clients I've been courting have decided not to use my services and instead use the (much cheaper) services of kids with nose rings, crappy Flash ideas, and no clue what the acronym 'HTML' means. They're producing annoying-and-entirely-non-intuitive web sites. Their clients couldn't be happier.

I'm beginning to wonder when I'll come to my senses and throw my computer off a high cliff and get on with real life. Imagine, putting pen to paper, feeling the slight tug as the ink rolls from the ballpoint. Imagine sitting in cafe, having lunch with a friend, seeing their smile and smelling their cologne/perfume, giving them a hug until the next meeting. Imagine watching trees blowing in the breeze - you think 16:9 widescreen format looks great? Try the real thing. You'll be amazed at the resolution.

In spite of the tone of my ramblings here, I'm rather upbeat. I'm realizing that the textures and flavors of the 2-dimension world are simply hollow. I doubt I'll give my computers away, but I'm sensing change upon the ether - how bad can organic dirt farming be!

All the best.

-Anonymous

2003-07-31T10:26:00.000-04:00

Cuban truck rafters seek political asylum in U.S.

HAVANA, July 30 (Reuters) - Twelve Cubans who tried to sail to Florida in a 1951 Chevy truck ingeniously converted into an amphibious craft are making a second attempt to get to the United States, this time as political refugees..

The group, repatriated to communist-run Cuba by the U.S. Coast Guard 10 days ago, applied on Wednesday for political asylum at the U.S. Interest Section in Havana.
"This is our last hope. We want to go. We love our country very much, but there is no future here," said Michael Lau Valdez, 25.

The nine men, two women and a three-year-old boy got halfway across the Florida Straits in the bright-green truck floating on twelve oil drums with a propeller attached to the transmission before they were intercepted by the U.S.. Coast Guard. They were making 8 mph (13 kph) in the Chevy.

"We weren't looking for publicity or money. We just wanted to get to the United States. We hope we can do that legally now," said Eduardo Perez, owner of the truck, which was sunk by the Coast Guard.

The group, all under 35 years, said they had not been harassed by Cuban authorities since their return to a Havana suburb, but they did not expect to find work again in Cuba.

They drove to the U.S. diplomatic mission in another 1951 Chevy truck to turn in their application forms.

U.S. diplomats hand repatriated migrants a form to apply as refugees if they feel they are being politically persecuted.
"These 12 felt that they qualified. Whether we as the U.S. government feel that they qualify is a different matter," said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Interest Section.

President Fidel Castro's government has not been known to allow repatriated rafters permits to leave Cuba legally.

The would-be-emigres said they will take to the sea again if they do not get U.S. visas, but next time in a faster craft.

- Dan Myers (last day of internship)

2003-07-29T12:54:00.000-04:00

Method patents: aiding or stifling innovation?

Ran across a report from the Associated Press about the patenting of business methods--how something gets done rather than the thing itself--and how the world of the Internet has affected the debate.

On the one hand, you have Tim O'Reilly, who through his company (Global Network Navigator) essentially invented the Internet banner ad (or so it is claimed). "According to a landmark court decision handed down five years ago this month, O'Reilly may have been able to patent the idea as a 'business method' -- a move that could have changed the course of Internet history.

"But even if he could have, O'Reilly says he wouldn't have."

His argument is that patenting such ideas puts the clamps on innovation. "If I had been able to put a patent on that and collect from everybody else who did it, that would have held back the industry tremendously," he says.

Contrast that with Jay Walker, founder of Priceline.com -- who considers himself a champion of innovation. He owns more than 200 patents ranging from online dating to running slot machines. He believes that patent protection--and presumably the money that can be made therefrom--spurs innovation. "If you want to give your house to the city for a public park, great," he said. "On the other hand, we shouldn't deny people the right to have houses."

From the AP article:

Experts say the 1998 "State Street vs. Signature Financial" decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was an acknowledgment that intellectual property was as much about ideas as about things. The U.S. Patent Office had been granting business method patents for years and the court simply signaled its approval.

But the decision inspired thousands to file patents on things like new kinds of credit card offers and methods for teaching a golf swing.

....

Patents are designed to encourage innovation by guaranteeing inventors some reward -- generally exclusive rights for 20 years. The idea must be considered useful, new and "non-obvious."

In computers, the definition of "obvious" is blurry. Programs are instructions telling a computer to do something. The "something" may sound obvious, but the instructions may not be.

That fuzziness has sparked concerns that too many "obvious" ideas are getting patented.

Among the criticized:

-- "One-click" shopping. . . .
-- Online auctions. . . .
-- Online DVD rentals. . . .

....

But O'Reilly says the computer revolution really is different.

"The Internet was very much a culture of leapfrog, not king of the hill," he said. "There was this sort of orgy of copying, which I think led to some pretty substantial innovation. As we see more patents, I see the innovation slowing down."

To patent or not to patent? That is the question!

Here's a link to the full article: Critics say method patents stifle innovation, by Justin Pope, AP Business Writer.

--Eric at UR

2003-07-17T16:59:00.000-04:00

I was surfing the web recently for information about serendipity and creativity when I ran across this article about the "Serendipity Generator" at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania:

In Search of Serendipity: Bridging the Gap That Separates Technologies and New Markets

It took 37 years before Kevlar – a bullet-proof, fire-resistant material first used for tires – was applied to making home shelters strong enough to resist tornadoes. It took decades before advances in reinforced fiberglass technology made for the Apollo space project were applied to the making of tennis rackets.

In retrospect, these crossover applications of technology may seem inevitable – but they are not. According to Ian C. MacMillan, director of Wharton’s Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center, crossover applications depend largely on serendipity. “You have to hang around for 15 years for someone to make the connections,” says MacMillan. In many cases, the serendipity never happens – and technologies die on the vine before they achieve their full commercial potential.

To overcome those problems, MacMillan, along with Wharton professor of operations and information management Steven Kimbrough and John Ranieri, vice president of the bio-based materials business at Du Pont, have developed a patented process that will help companies analyze databases of information about technologies and suggest new markets where they might be commercialized. “We have a serendipity generator,” notes MacMillan. “Serendipity happens every now and then, but this process reiterates the connection.”

Click here for the rest of the article.

Basically, they've tried to set up a system that "searches through documents and makes connections between highly technical descriptions of properties – often familiar only to narrow 'silos' of technologies – and broader terms that could suggest market applications to those who work in other areas. As Ranieri describes it, 'We found a clever way to make a link between attributes and markets.'" That way a material developed for one purpose (such as the fiberglass mentioned above for the Apollo project) can be more readily "discovered" and applied to some heretofore unconnected project (tennis rackets).

If you want to see the patent application, it's available at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office as Process and system for matching products and markets . It's full of dry USPTO talk, but it's interesting to read (after reading the article above, especially).

--Eric at UR

2003-07-16T10:12:00.000-04:00

Creativity Quote of the Day

"The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."

Winston Churchill

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-07-15T09:37:00.000-04:00

Creativity Quote of the Day

"It may increase the creativity of all children if they can be taught to resist peer pressure towards conformity."

Teresa M. Amabile

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-07-14T16:59:00.000-04:00

Creativity Quote of the Day

"The larger the number of creators in one generation, the larger will be the number of creators in the next."

Teresa M. Amabile

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-07-11T17:09:00.000-04:00

Creativity Quote of the Day

"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have mastered, you will never grow."

C. R. Lawton

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-07-10T12:12:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

"There is no great genuis without some touch of madness."

Seneca

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-07-09T17:08:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

"A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery."

James Joyce

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-07-08T11:29:00.000-04:00

2003-07-08T11:27:00.000-04:00
Creative Training

A little over two years ago, our clients began to ask us to teach them our creative models, tools, and processes. In response, we developed Play's Creativity Training. The two day session addresses the 4 M's (Mood, Mindset, mechanism, Momentum) , helps participants explore their creative tenets, discover our five-part process for creative thinking, and acquire concrete tools they can take back to their organizations.

We're offering a two day creativity training session on September 16th and 17th. If you or (or someone from your organization) are interested in attending, email me amanda@lookatmorestuff.com for more information.

Some of the companies that have gone through Play's Creativity Training include: Mattel, Sara Lee, Boeing, Turner Classic Movies; Capital One; Kayser Roth; JP Morgan Chase; BMW; Dial; Disney; Lego; and Krispy Kreme. To add your name to the list, send me a note.

2003-07-08T09:16:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

More creative individuals are not as deferent, obedient, flattering, conventional, predictable, easy to control, or flexible to internal demands and changes as their less innovative counterparts. Generally, they tend to view authority as conventional rather than absolute.

Kenneth E. Boulding

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-07-07T09:10:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

The belief that creativity is limited to artists is dangerous and costly. It stops many who work outside of the arts from using their creative abilities, since they don't believe they have any.

Derm Barrett

Nathan Skreset aka The Quotemeister
who is back from Oregon rested and ready

2003-06-25T15:31:00.000-04:00
gladwell

This just in ...

Malcolm Gladwell just released his latest article, "Group Think." It's the first one I've seen from him since The Naked Face, back in early August. I have to say, I love Gladwell's writing and thinking. I was a little confused about this article at first (is it a book review? a normal Gladwellian analysis? what?), but it has some really nice pieces. The general premise, summed up in the subtitle, is "What does 'Saturday Night Live' have in common with German philosophy?"

The answer to that question is that both contained passionate, connected individuals, whose interests and networks inspired the others within their circle to develop bigger, better, wilder ideas. They — the early cast of Saturday Night Live and the German philosophical society that called itself the Lunar Men — both discovered that "clusters of people will come to decisions that are far more extreme than any individual member would have come to on his own. ... at times this quality turns out to be tremendously productive, because, after all, losing sight of what you truly believed when the meeting began is one way of defining innovation."

We are inclined to think that genuine innovators are loners, that they do not need the social reinforcement the rest of us crave. But that's not how it works, whether it's television comedy or, for that matter, the more exalted realms of art and politics and ideas. In his book "The Sociology of Philosophies," Randall Collins finds in all of known history only three major thinkers who appeared on the scene by themselves: the first-century Taoist metaphysician Wang Ch'ung, the fourteenth-century Zen mystic Bassui Tokusho, and the fourteenth-century Arabic philosopher Ibn Khaldun. Everyone else who mattered was part of a movement, a school, a band of followers and disciples and mentors and rivals and friends who saw each other all the time and had long arguments over coffee and slept with one another's spouses.

Gladwell reviews two books, Jenny Uglow's The Lunar Men, and Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. He finds parallels in these two seemingly disparate books, in the way that he finds connections in random associations all over the place. His focus, though, is on the manner in which collectives are able to grow beyond the realm of individual thinking. It's a nice mirror to Play's Radiant Model of Creativity.

Uglow's book reveals how simplistic our view of groups really is. We divide them into cults and clubs, and dismiss the former for their insularity and the latter for their banality. The cult is the place where, cut off from your peers, you become crazy. The club is the place where, surrounded by your peers, you become boring. Yet if you can combine the best of those two states — the right kind of insularity with the right kind of homogeneity — you create an environment both safe enough and stimulating enough to make great thoughts possible.

Plus, you have to love an article that contains the line: "Freud may have been the founder of psychoanalysis, but it really began to take shape in 1902, when Alfred Adler, Wilhelm Stekel, Max Kahane, and Rudolf Reitler would gather in Freud's waiting room on Wednesdays, to eat strudel and talk about the unconscious."

(myth of the Lone Ranger) (Radiant Model of Creativity) (discovery through discussion)

2003-06-25T14:47:00.000-04:00
352nd Harvard Commencement
Thursday, June 5, 2003

Class Day speech
June 4, 2003

-Given By Will Ferrell-

This is not the Worcester, Mass Boat Show, is it? I am sorry. I have made a terrible mistake. Ever since I left "Saturday Night Live," I mostly do public speaking now. And I must have made an error in the little Palm Pilot. Boy. Don't worry. I got it on me. I got the speech on me. Let's see. Ah, yes. Here we go.

You know, when Bill Gates first called me to speak to you today, I was honored. But when he wanted me to be one of the Roxbury guys, I -- Sorry, that's Microsoft. I'm sorry about that. Star Trek Convention. No. NRA. NAACP. Dow Chemical. No. But that is a good one. That is a good speech. The University of Michigan Law. Johns Hopkins Medical School. I'm sorry. Are you sure this is not the boat show? No, I have it. I do have it on me. I do. It's here. Thank you.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Faculty, Administrators, Friends and Family and, of course, the graduating Class of 2003, I wish to say hello and thank you for bestowing this honor upon me as your Class Day speaker. After months of secret negotiations, several hundred secret ballots, and a weekend retreat with Vice President Dick Cheney in his secret mountain bunker, a Class Day speaker was chosen, and it was me. You obviously have made a grave error. But it's too late now. So let's just go with it.

Today's speech is going to be a little different, a little unorthodox. Some of you may find it to be shocking. I'm not going to stand up here and try to be funny. Because even though I am a professional comedian of the highest caliber, I've decided to do one thing that a lot of people are probably afraid to do, and that's give it to you straight.

As most of you are probably aware, I didn't graduate from Harvard. In fact, I never even got a call back from Admissions. Damn you, Harvard! Damn you! I told myself I would not get emotional today. But damn it, I'm here, and sometimes it's just good to cry.

I'm not one of you. Okay? I can't relate to who you are and what you've been through. I graduated from the University of Life. All right? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby. I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. All right? I borrowed my class notes from Professor Knuckle Sandwich and his Teaching Assistant, Ms. Fat Lip Thon Nyun. That's the kind of school I went to for real, okay?

So my gift to you, Class of 2003, is to tell you about the real world through my eyes, through my experiences. And I'm sorry, but I refuse to sugarcoat it. I ain't gonna do it. And I probably shouldn't use the word "ain't" during this day in which we celebrate education. But that's just the way I play it, Homes.

Graduates, if you will indulge me for a moment, let me paint a picture of what it's like out there. The last four or, for some of you, five years you've been living in a fantasyland, running around, talking about Hemingway, or Clancy, or, I don't know, I mean whatever you read here at Harvard. The Novelization of the Matrix, I don't know. I don't know what you do here.

But I do know this. You're about to enter into a world filled with hypocrisy and doublespeak, a world in which your limo to the airport is often a half-hour late. In addition to not even being a limo at all; often times it's a Lincoln Towncar. You're about to enter a world where you ask your new assistant, Jamie, to bring you a tall, non-fat latte. And he comes back with a short soy cappuccino. Guess what, Jamie? You're fired. Not too hard to get right, my friend.

A world where your acting coach, Bob Leslie-Duncan -- yes, the Bob Leslie-Duncan -- tells you time and time again that you will never, ever be considered as a dramatic actor because you don't play things real, and are too over the top. Amazing! Simply amazing!

I'm sorry, graduates. But this is a world where you aren't allowed to use your cell phone in airplanes, during live theater, at the movies, at funerals, or even during your own elective surgery. Apparently, the Berlin Wall went back up because we now live in Russia. I mean just try lighting up a cigar in a movie theater or paying for a dinner for 20 friends with an autograph. It ain't that easy. Strong words, I know. Tough talk. But more like tough love. Because this is where my faith in you guys comes into play, Harvard University's graduating Class of 2003, without a doubt, the finest, most talented group of sexual beings this great land has to offer.

Now I know I blew some of your minds with my depiction of what it's really like out there. But if anyone can handle the ups and downs of this crazy blue marble we call Planet Earth, it's you guys. As I stare out into this vast sea of shining faces, I see the best and brightest. Some of you will be captains of industry and business. Others of you will go on to great careers in medicine, law and public service. Four of you -- and I'm not at liberty to say which four -- will go on to magnificent careers in the porno industry. I'm not trying to be funny. That's just a statistical fact.

One of you, specifically John Lee, will spend most of your time just hanging out in your car eating nachos. You will all come back from time to time to this beautiful campus for reunions, and ask the question, "Does anyone ever know what happened to John Lee?" At that point, he will invariably pop out from the bushes and yell, "Nachos anyone?!" At first, it will scare the crap out of you. But then you'll share a laugh with your classmates and ultimately look forward to John jumping out of the bushes as a yearly event.

I'd like to change gears here, if I could. Talk a little bit about "Saturday Night Live." Now, during my 18-year stint on the show, I had the chance to play or impersonate some very interesting people, none more interesting than our current President, Mr. George W. Bush. Now in some cases, you actually have contact with some of the people you play. As a byproduct of this former situation, the President and myself have become quite good friends. In fact, I might even call him a father figure of sorts, granted a dim-witted father figure who likes to take a lot of naps and start wars, but a father figure nonetheless.

When I told the President that I'd be speaking here today, he wondered if I would express some sentiments to you. And I said I'd do my best. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to read this message from the President of the United States.

Students, Faculty, Families and Distinguished Guests, I just want to take time to congratulate you on your outstanding achievement as graduates of the Class of 2002. The great thing about being the Class of 2002 is that you can always remember what year you graduated because 2002 is a palindrome which, of course, is a word or number that is the same read backwards or forwards. I'll bet you're surprised I know that word, but I do. So you can suck on it.

Make no mistake, Harvard University is one of the finest in the land. And its graduates are that fine as well. You're young men and women whose exuberance exude a confident confidence of a bygone era. I believe it was Shakespeare who said it best when he said, "Look yonder into the darkness for knowledge onto which I say go onto that which thou possess into thy night for thee have come with only a single sword and vanquished thee into darkness."

I'm going to be honest with you, I just made that up. But I don't know how to delete it from the computer. Tomorrow's graduation day speaker is former President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo. Ernie's a good man, a deeply religious man, and one of the original members of the Latino boy band Menudo. So listen up to Ernie. He was at the beginning of the whole boy band explosion.

As you set off into the world, don't be afraid to question your leaders. But don't ask too many questions at one time or that are too hard because your leaders get tired and/or cranky. All of you sitting here have the brightest of futures ahead. Many of you will go on to stellar careers and various pursuits. And four of you -- and I'm not at liberty to say which four -- will go on to star in the porno industry.

One of the challenges you will be faced with is finding a job in our depressed economy. In fact, the chances of landing a decent job are about as good as finding weapons of mass destruction in the Iraqi desert. Slim and none. And Slim just left the building. In fact, the closest thing I found to looking like a weapon of mass destruction is the turd that Dick Cheney left in the Oval Office toilet about an hour ago. Man, that thing is a WMD if I've ever seen one. On that note, God bless and happy graduation.

You know, I sincerely hope you enjoy this next chapter of your life because it's really going to be great, as long as you pay your taxes. And don't just take a year off because you think Uncle Sam is snoozing at the wheel because he will descend upon you like a hawk from hell. Let's just put it this way. After some past indiscretions with the IRS, my take-home pay last year was $9,000.

I figured I'd leave you today with a song, if you will. So, Jeff, if you could come up here. Jeff Heck, everyone. Please welcome one of your fellow graduates. Jeff is, of course, from Eliot House. You know what you guys? You guys at Eliot House, give yourselves a nice round of applause because you had the head lice scare this year, and it shut you down for most of last semester. But you didn't mind the tents they set up for you, and you were just troopers. You really were.

Anyway, here's a song that I think really captures the essence of the Harvard experience. It goes a little like this.

[SINGING]
I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone,
All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity.
Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind.
Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea,
All we do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see.
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind.

Okay, you know what? I'm just realizing that this is a terrible graduation song. Once again, I'm sorry. This is the first time I've actually listened to the lyrics. Man, it's a downer. It's bleak.

Boy, I want to finish this. Just give me a minute, and let me figure out how to fix this thing. Okay. I think I got it.

[SINGING]
Now don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the Harvard alumni endowment fund.
It adds up, has performed at 22 percent growth over the last six years.
Dust in the wind, you're so much more than dust in the wind.
Dust in the wind, you're shiny little very smart pieces of dust in the wind.

Thank you. Good luck. And have a great day tomorrow.

2003-06-24T15:52:00.000-04:00
HELP!

During a team building class, I used the term, "Loyal Opposition" to describe how folks miss understand me. I explained the term, but I forgot the original source of the term. I want to say Gordon MacKenzie or Tom Peters, but I can't be sure. Can anyone help me?
Peace.
Dave Dec (dave@davedec.com)

2003-06-24T08:29:00.000-04:00
Training by Playing Games

I ran into a cool company on-line. games2train uses games to do some serious training like Sexual Harrasment Prevention and more. A great example of the importance of Play at work.
Peace.
Dave Dec

2003-06-24T00:20:00.000-04:00
Just because it's not brand new or trendy, doesn't mean it's old or useless...

So today I was pondering once again how the media and current American cultural trends are trying to brainwash me into thinking that if I wanted to post something useful, creative and (still, I think) groundbreaking to a blog, that I may have to worry about my reputation if it weren't "now", "new", and whatever word today is equivalent to yesterday's "uber"-something. That if it weren't old enough to be "retro", and not cutting edge enough to be "encultured"(anyone find out yet if that's a word?), that it would be disregarded by today's educated, hip, socially aware online community. Good God, I thought, they've succeeded in making the web pretentious after all. Even if the majority of online bloggers were salt-of-the-earth folk, without airs and ego, it's too late- the media has successfully turned the entire web into a status symbol by creating a stereotype through slick visual design and many a sound bite, that tells us that web users are more informed, educated, and downright "classy". They may have strong opinions and you may be defenseless without a carefully constructed argument. But that's ok. I know that behind the browser awaits an army of geeks, nerds, techies, creatives, gamers, and others who generally are eager to explore, learn, create, and bare their vulnerabilities to thousands. I know that whatever I say will resonate with at least one soul somewhere. I'm not afraid.
So anyway, the root of all this can be found below.
It is STILL an awesome tool for as long as someone finds it useful.

Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus

Joy Hunsberger

2003-06-23T08:59:00.000-04:00
A slow leak...

The leaky tire on my SUV (that I noticed last week but have chosen to ignore) is now becoming a problem. I ask myself: 1) when did it start to leak and why didn't I notice? 2) what has caused the leak? and 3) why, when I did see that it was leaking, did I choose to ignore it? Hmmm... such a metaphor for so many things in our lives (business, friendships, relationships, etc...). I will be taking the car to be repaired tonight (hopefully).. update to come.

-Sarah Eppink

2003-06-20T21:29:00.000-04:00
the task

"Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees."
— Schopenhauer

2003-06-20T17:52:00.000-04:00
training, in two thousand words (more or less)

Here are a few photos from our most recent Creativity Training session.

Sorry they're so dark. That's Courtney and me, leading the session. If you're interested in future training sessions, get in touch ... charlie@lookatmorestuff.com.

2003-06-19T09:57:00.000-04:00
From one of our clients, via Jennifer, in the New York office.

Simon & Garfunkel - Red Rubber Ball
From the album "Old Friends"

I should have known you'd bid me farewell.
There's a lesson to be learned from this
and I learned it very well

Now I know you're not
the only starfish in the sea.
If I never hear your name again
it's all the same to me.

And I think it's gonna be all right.
Yeah, the worst is over,
Now the morning sun is shining like a Red Rubber Ball.

You never cared for secrets I'd confide.
For you I'm just an ornament,
Something for your pride.

Always running, never caring,
That's the life you live.
Stolen minutes of your time
were all you had to give.

And I think it's gonna be all right.
Yeah, the worst is over,
Now the morning sun is shining like a Red Rubber Ball.

The story's in the past with nothing to recall.
I've got my life to live and I
don't need you at all.
The roller coaster ride we took is
nearly at an end.
I bought my ticket with my tears,
that's all I'm gonna spend.

And I think it's gonna be all right.
Yeah, the worst is over,
Now the morning sun is shining like a Red Rubber Ball.

2003-06-19T06:54:00.000-04:00
apb

Grace Esteban, please report to the principal's office. Grace Esteban. Thank you.

2003-06-18T14:35:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the day

"The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the invention of the method of invention."

Alfred North Whitehead

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister
The Quotemeister is going on vacation so
there will be no more quotes for a little while.

2003-06-18T11:22:00.000-04:00
creativty (and / or / vs. / ?) innovation

Ideaflow has a neat dialogue about the differences between creativity and innovation. My personal definition for innovation has been "sustained creativity." And creativity, of course, is "Look at more stuff. Think about it harder."

Joyce and Renee go back and forth, with some interesting outcomes. Take, for example, this: "One person likened "innovation vs creativity" to "marketing vs sales." She said, a lot of people thinking marketing and sales are the same thing, and they’re not. Sales is marketing, but marketing encompasses and surpasses sales. Creativity is innovation, but innovation encompasses and surpasses creativity." Not a bad definition, in my mind.

But here's another element of their conversation, and I think it's a little off: "Consider creativity as an individual enterprise and innovation as a group enterprise." I think that's mistaken. Groups can create. In fact, one of the things we talk about most is the myth of the Lone Ranger, where nobody creates in a vacuum. Regardless, their thoughts are engaging. If you haven't been to IdeaFlow in a while, now's a good time to check it out.

2003-06-18T09:56:00.000-04:00
"Busting the Box" on Architecture. Time magazine recently published an article on an architect with virgin status in the U.S. Until recently, Zaha Hadid had never done a project in the U.S., according to Time. Now she has the Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati as her first project in the U.S. to add to her resume. "The world thre it's hat in the air for Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain, it said yes to Daniel Libeskind's angular plans for the World Trade Center site, so it is good and ready for her."
http://www.zaha-hadid.com/works.html
http://www.arcspace.com/architects/hadid/cac/

Also check out the wild Bergisel Ski Jump.
http://www.architectureweek.com/2003/0528/design_1-3.html

- Dan Myers

2003-06-17T18:25:00.000-04:00
If you check out the offline version of the newest Wired magazine, you'll see a letter to the editor penned by yours truly. As Geof would say, this just ratchets me up on the Geek Scale, seeing as my name is now in Wired magazine, in direct relation to the Matrix: Reloaded movie.

2003-06-17T14:18:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

"The ability to create and to connect, sometimes in an odd and yet striking fashion, lies at the heart of any creative use of the mind."

George J. Seidel

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister
Who just got back from the dentist. So fresh and so clean. Oh yeah!

2003-06-17T08:36:00.000-04:00
Sending out a Happy Birthday to one Mister M.C. Escher.
"Happy Birthday to you, Mr. President" ~ Marilyn Monroe
www.google.com with the transformation of their logo for the day.

- Dan Myers

2003-06-16T21:12:00.000-04:00
Creativity with a cause...check it out here.

Summer Extern

2003-06-16T08:30:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

"To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle."

George Orwell

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-06-13T09:48:00.000-04:00
After a night on the town with a new friend at the Cajan Rastafarian place where they have great burgers... the next thing I knew I was waking up from the comfort of my couch. Didn't remember much from the night at hand except for a few life lessons learned after 4 days of Play and 3 days of Dale. The lesson as taught by Dale was "The 100 point rule." You can judge for yourself where you fall, but if you're going to be any use to me you have to be above 100. Judge yourself... are you 70/30 ...looks/personality. 50/50? The other rule I already knew: don't show your best moves untill money is put down on the pool table. But for the adventurous pool player, here's a link: http://www.davew.orcon.net.nz/index.html Check out the elliptical pool.

- Dan Myers

2003-06-13T09:14:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

Our creations are not separate from us. We create as the expression of who we are, and as a way to discover who we are and what we think we know.
Carol S. Pearson 1991

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-06-12T10:35:00.000-04:00
In the eyes of a child

Brief insight a la Charlie Park. I participated in the Play creativity training the past two days (had a great time!) and in the midst of getting caught up in consultant speak (using jargon, etc.) to describe something, Charlie asked, "ok. If you were to say what you just said to a kindergarten class, what would you say?" Suddenly, I was blank!

How many times do we get caught up in mumbo jumbo to sound impressive or up-to-date on the lingo, that it becomes part of our vocabulary?! What if we spoke about business the way we would speak to a kindergartener? How trivial would some of our "problems" seem, and what would be the kindergartener's answer or solution to your problem? Interesting way to think about business differently.

Sarah Eppink :o)

2003-06-12T09:59:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

The supreme paradox of all thought is the attempt to discover something that thought cannot think.
Soren Kierkegaard 1992

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister

2003-06-12T09:55:00.000-04:00
No. 10
Golfer: "Think I'm going to drown myself in the lake."
Caddy: "Think you can keep your head down that long?"

No. 9
Golfer: "I'd move heaven and earth to break 100 on this course."
Caddy: "Try heaven, you've already moved most of the earth."

No. 8
Golfer: "Do you think my game is improving?"
Caddy: "Yes sir, you miss the ball much closer now."

No. 7
Golfer: "Do you think I can get there with a 5 iron?"
Caddy: "Eventually."

No. 6
Golfer: "You've got to be the worst caddy in the world."
Caddy: "I don't think so sir. That would be too much of a coincidence."

No. 5
Golfer: "Please stop checking your watch all the time. It's too much of a distraction."
Caddy: "It's not a watch—it's a compass."

No. 4
Golfer: "How do you like my game?"
Caddy: "Very good, sir, but personally, I prefer golf."

No. 3
Golfer: "Do you think it's a sin to play on Sunday?"
Caddy: "The way you play, sir, it's a sin on any day."

No. 2
Golfer: "This is the worst course I've ever played on."
Caddy: "This isn't the golf course. We left that an hour ago."

… and the No.1 best caddy comment:

Golfer: "That can't be my ball, it's too old."
Caddy: "It's been a long time since we teed off, sir."

- Dan Myers

2003-06-12T09:48:00.000-04:00
Creativity Quote of the Day

Excellence is doing conventional things in unconventional ways.
Booker T. Washington 1994

Nathan Skreslet aka The Quotemeister
Who has been sick recently, hence no quotes

2003-06-11T17:02:00.000-04:00

Creativity Quote of the Day

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way."
Booker T. Washington 1994

Nathan A. Skreslet aka The Quotemeister
who was sick yesterday, hence no quote

2003-06-09T18:11:00.000-04:00
how to work with a designer

Good piece, via Signal vs. Noise: How to (and not to) work with a designer. It outlines 12 core points, including:
1) Choose your designer carefully.
2) Leave your preconceived notions at the door.
3) Tell your designer what you want to say rather than how you want it to look.
4) Be clear about specific features you need.
5) Do your research and be specific about your needs.
6) Make sure your message and content are clear.
7) Design for your customer ...
8) Have good reasons for your preferences.
9) Don’t design by committee.
10) Don’t tell your designer how to design.
11) You can’t please all the people all the time.
12) Trust your designer.

We have a great relationship with CuriousAnt. If you're looking for solid design skills and dynamite strategic thinking, give 'em a call.

2003-06-09T11:16:00.000-04:00
library hotel

Most library users know the general structure of Melvil Dewey's decimal classification. First published in 1876, the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) divides knowledge into ten main classes, with further subdivisions. More than 200,000 libraries in 135 countries use the DDC to organize their book collections. Its simple and logical framework is based on the principle of decimal fractions as class marks, which are expandable to make further subdivisions.

The Library Hotel in New York City is the first hotel ever to offer its guest over 6,000 volumes organized throughout the hotel by the DDC. Each of the 10 guestrooms floors honors one of the 10 categories of the DDC and each of the 60 rooms is uniquely adorned with a collection of books and art exploring a distinctive topic within the category or floor it belongs to.

Technically, I think that should be "to which it belongs," but I like the concept of the hotel so much, I'll let it slide.

What a great idea, though. I bet I could assign bloggers with their appointed rooms. For example, look at the sidebar. We've got Ben Domenech, who would probably like room 300.002, Social Sciences, Political Science. Steve from Creative Generalist would be in 1000.003, General Knowledge, Encyclopedias. Heath Row would be down the hall from Steve, in 1000.006, General Knowledge, New Media.

It's a cool concept. And they have an "Erotica Package," but you'll have to explore that one on your own. Here's the Library Hotel's website.

2003-06-09T11:01:00.000-04:00
how do you define yourself?

Two artists (well ... a photographer and a stylist) based in Rotterdam, Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, have created a series of photographs of members of various subcultures. From their site: "By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people's attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity."

For example:

To see the full collection, click here: exactitudes.com

2003-06-09T10:54:00.000-04:00
"Throughout the ages, man has pondered the question, 'How much is inside?'"
So claims a web site called, logically enough, How Much Is Inside.
http://www.cockeyed.com/inside/howmuchinside.html

- Dan Myers

2003-06-09T10:20:00.000-04:00

Creativity Quote of the Day

"Don't associate the ability to create new solutions only with persons of great genius. Creative and inventive abilities are present in all people, to varying degrees ... All normal human beings by sheer virtue of being human, have the inborn skill to be creative and inventive."

Derm Barrett 1998

Nathan A. Skreslet

2003-06-03T16:59:00.000-04:00
coloring outside the lines

Great stuff from boxes and arrows:
Once upon a time, we were curious and everything we encountered was new. We were excited about discovering new things and the world offered unlimited possibilities.
Then we went to school and were taught to color inside the lines, that everything had its place and the world was ordered. But, outside of school, there was still the chaos of life to revel in, the unexplored woods at the end of the street where nothing was ordered and we could be cowboys or astronauts or presidents. We learned to balance the structure of school with the infinite possibilities of playtime.
Now we are grown and the ordered world of work weighs us down. The deadlines line up one after the other, and everything is and must be in its place. We create order and structure so others can find their way in the chaos. And we wonder if we are really, truly, happy. ... Many of us have forgotten how to work to live and instead live for work.
So, go—play in the woods, color outside the lines. If you let the passion you have for your work seep back into the rest of your life, the rewards will come full circle.

Good thoughts, and there's more to it. Go here to read it.

2003-06-02T12:08:00.000-04:00
riddle me this

Every once in a while, we stuble upon something that aches to be shared. We often can't explain them. We can't even try. Sarah the grad student intern found this over the weekend. For the full effect, walk through the following steps:

go to Linens and Things

go to Bedding > Comforters > Print (which is here)

click on the third page of comforters (which is here)

click on Lotus Blossom, by Nicole Miller (here)

click on the photo, to enlarge it (here)

enlarge it one more time by clicking on the photo (here)

What you end up with is this:

Who knows? I've stopped trying to explain the Internet.

update: I tried looking up "bag of plagues" at PriceGrabber.com, and it came up with this: Your search for "bag of plagues" was unsuccessful, try a more specific search term. Did you mean Office 2000 Pro (Full Product)?

update 2: I think it's no longer at Linens and Things' site ... guess the flood of traffic from Pure Content tipped off their referral logs. Luckily I saved the image before they took it down.

2003-05-29T16:19:00.000-04:00
who's fast?

The most recent issue of Fast Company listed out 25 companies who "get it." In it, there are a number of points about companies that are ahead of the curve, based on points like ...

Do you have an emotional bond with your customers?

Does your strategy stand out from the crowd?

Are you a fun place to work -- and a fun organization to do business with?

Are you built to change?

Do you embrace the value of values?

Are you as disciplined as you are creative?

Are you winning the battle for talent?

Do you use technology to change expectations and reshape your business?

Are you built for speed?

Have you built a company of leaders?

The companies listed include Amazon, Cemex, Cisco, Dell, eBay, FedEx, Harley Davidson, Krispy Kreme, Pixar, Royal Dutch/Shell, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and Whole Foods Market. That's all well and good, but the reason I'm posting this here is to note that 7 of the 25 on the list ... that's 28% ... are clients of Play. Sweet.

To see the article, click here.

2003-05-29T15:28:00.000-04:00
an impactful internship

Sarah, graduate student and intern extraordinaire, informed me recently that impactful is not, in fact, a word. I doubted her, as I had heard it so much. Note: "impactful" on Google yields roughly 30,000 counts, while "impactful" and "not a word" yielded around 36. Nevertheless, I pushed through the clutter, and discovered that she is right. So far.

Merriam-Webster corroborates.

The jury's still out on "enculturated."

2003-05-28T18:47:00.000-04:00
This is so very cool - open blogging. I ask myself - or do I say to myself ? - the same thing I think about when I go skiing, cycling, etc.

Thank goodness for information technology...and the "Save" button. I believe it has made possible all sorts of innovation - both incremental and disruptive. In above-mentioned sports, I always wish I was 19 or 29 instead of 49 - 'cause my first ski boots were lace-up leather, not hi-tech plastic. Back then, no parabolic, shaped skis...no mountain bikes...etc.

Even more importantly, no Internet, no Web Sites, very little opportunity (for example) for making a living doing graphic design, copywriting, facilitation, etc. No "Burning Man" events, no "Simpsons". It was a life made up of standard, relatively rigid aspirations, roles and structure. Hierarchy....ever see the movie Pleasantville? Well, we're all shape-shifting and coming to life, in one way or another, even tho' the status-quo power elite is doing its best to keep the whole thing reined in (think Mayor and Police Chief in Pleasantville).

Imagine trying to do this in an organization setting of the '70's or '80's ... that is, bypass directly the big cheese at the head of this outfit, and make your point of view known. Unfortunately, it still happens all tooo often in bigger companies, and with the governments.

The promise of interconnected emergent democracy, and self-organizing systems enabled by the Internet is still out there. There are no construction crews scheduled to take the Internet down (although the FCC and the big corp's, through DigID, may try to do some form of that).

I've been working on a concept I call "wirearchy", which argues that new forms of governance are emerging - less rigid, more fluid, by definition self-organizing. "Archy" is the Greek root for "organizing prionciple", and guess what - there's no commonly-accepted "archy" word for this new set of conditions, where silicon chips, "Save" buttons, brains, imagination, and smart software are all linked together. Hierarchy was great when a few white middle-aged men got all the strategic information, kept it close, and made all the decisions (sound familiar, Dubya ?), and it fit the needs of the flowering of the Industrial Age. It is proving less and less effective these days, except as a means of creating fear and a false sense of comfort and security.

Wirearchy - a dynamic two-way flow of knowledge, trust, credibility, and value, enabled by interconnected people and technology. I think it can't help but keep on emerging, particularly as the Digital generations come of age.

This is so very cool - by all for all. Group and individual imagination and heart at work - wish I was 25 again, and...glad to be alive

2003-05-25T15:20:00.000-04:00
do they do birthday punches in Canada?

Happy "one year" anniversary to Steve and Creative Generalist, which is (in my mind) one of the best blogs out there, hampered only by the fact that its operator is a busy guy, and can't post as much as I'd like him to. Of course, that's true for me, too, so I can't really complain about it. From the beginning, I've been impressed with Steve's selections of posts, as well as his commentary. Here's a directly lifted post from Thursday:

I came across this great quote from professor and author Neil Postman: "Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods." It's true, and it makes one (ok, maybe just me) wonder about the shortage of creative generalists in business...

When was the last time you saw a business job posting for a generalist position? Common, no, but not unheard of. Let me rephrase that. When was the last time you saw a business job posting for a junior generalist position? Now we’re in rare air.

There is an underlying myth that general knowledge and true synthesis skills can only come from experience. This basically means that a junior generalist can only be an oxymoron, and that the best thing a company can do is eventually give one of its younger specialists broader duties and “wean” him or her into a more generalist mindset. I would argue that this is a faulty way of approaching this, that generalist thinking is now a specialty unto itself and that a naïve perspective is no less valuable and illuminating than an experienced perspective – and, if anything, the two need to cross paths much more often than they do.

The reality is though that the business world does little to support these important divergent-thinking minds. Further to that, North American schooling makes it extremely difficult for any young mind to adopt a generalist mindset, especially with post-secondary education programs so in line with highly focused career tracks (heck, even high school students now have immense pressure on them to already be pursuing a specific career well before they graduate). Specialization is being institutionalized. There is little in the way of financial career incentive for students of everything. As a result, those with either the fortitude to avoid overspecializing in any one area or those who have the aptitude to be serial specialists will be in short supply and, increasingly, in high demand.

Thanks, Steve, for your contributions to the blogging community. This junior generalist, at least, is grateful for what you've done.

2003-05-21T11:42:00.000-04:00
what can green do for you?

UPS is in the process of rolling out a new zero-emissions fuel cell fleet of delivery trucks. Kudos to the world's largest package delivery company for taking the lead on this, and for raising the bar. I know there have been some setbacks in the personal market for fuel cell and hybrid cars, but I think market-driven companies will be playing on a different field, and I think this could have some good long-lasting effects.

The deployment of the zero-emission vehicles, in two different sizes, will begin late this year and continue in 2004 and will be the first use of fuel cell technology in a commercial delivery fleet in North America. ... “It’s time to deploy this technology in a commercial fleet and learn exactly what’s needed to make it broadly available,” said Tom Weidemeyer, chief operating officer of UPS and president of UPS Airlines. “These vehicles are going to be rolling laboratories. Environmental improvements like this and the needs of business are not incompatible.”

Click here to see their press release

Thanks to Justin for the heads up.

2003-05-20T17:03:00.000-04:00
Invention at Play

The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation has developed an exhibit (housed at the Smithsonian) that illustrates the similarities between a child and an adult's creative processes, particularly those characteristics linked to innovators in science and technology. "The Invention Playhouse" component of this interactive exhibit engages visitors in a way that helps them realize their own creative ability.

According to the Lemelson Center, "Social play teaches us how to share and take turns, how to communicate, and how to behave in groups or on teams. Testing and discussing ideas with others can enhance individual creative abilities and provide more options when solving a problem." Hmmm.. sharing, taking turns, communicating, and behavior... all these are derivatives of playing?! It's unfortunate that some of us, as adults, forget how to play, or take the act of playing for granted.

So, the next time you need a good idea or two, or just need to escape, throw around a red rubber ball. :o)

Check out the exhibit information at http://www.si.edu/lemelson/centerpieces/iap/iapexhibit.pdf

And check out the Lemelson Center at http://www.inventionatplay.org/

By the way, my name is Sarah, and I'll be interning here at Play for the summer... let's play!

2003-05-20T07:57:00.000-04:00
Your Authentic Swing

Steven Pressfield, author of Last of the Amazons, Tides of War, and my favorite The Legend of Bagger Vance, wrote a great book titled, "War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle" (quite a play on words from the SunTzu Art of War). This is one of the greatest creativity books I've ever read. Right up there with Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. Mr. Pressfield talks about creativity and its worst enemy: Resistance. Please get this book. I have read it many times and refer to it whenever I can't get my ass into the chair to write.
Peace.
Dave Dec

2003-05-17T23:21:00.000-04:00
Why Be Creative If There's No Where to Sell It

Unfocused points to a NY Times article on the influence of Wal-Mart and other big boxes on American culture through their limited offerings and not-so-subtle censorship. The unfocused comment is that the internet might be seen as a high-tech response to the "high-touch" (or is that heavy-handed groping) impact of the fingers of Wal-Mart, Clear Channel, and others on our culture.