Inspiration
There are as many amazing ideas floating around, as people in the Universe. Here is our current Top 10…
Match your interest with passion…
‘Ever wish you had the choice to get up off the couch and spend the afternoon learning to rock climb, cook, or maybe juggle? Well, we have and that’s why we came up with (un)classes. (un)classes are premised on the belief that everyone has *something* to teach and learning doesn’t always have to be a formal experience requiring big up-front commitments.’
Aiming to provide a more casual and ad hoc way for people to learn something new during their limited free time, the (un)classes website serves as a sort of marketplace through which people interested in learning about a topic can find someone in their area with the passion to teach it. Anyone can create a new class listing on (un)classes, and anyone can sign up to be a student or a teacher. Topics tend to be lightweight and fun, offering a way to learn about things not traditionally taught elsewhere. Examples so far have included How to Create The Greatest Rock Song of All Time and How to Be a Digital Nomad—the only guidelines are that they shouldn’t be offensive or illegal.
Go ahead, learn something new… www.unclasses.org
Jeff Han strikes again, the future of computing…
Microsoft has developed a coffee-table-like “surface computer” codenamed Milan, where you can interact by touch and transfer data without wires. Take a photo, place the camera on the table surface, the photo appears in the table top. Move your PDA near the photo and it is instantly uploaded onto your device. Check out this amazing video here…
Customer-Led Invention
Interview with Patricia Seybold, Author of “Outside Innovation”
By Vern Burkhardt
Innovation is game changing. “You create or invent a new product or a new way of doing things. You commercialize it. Customers value it. Your firm benefits through increased sales and/or usage, improved brand reputation, and better results delivered.”
A clean sheet of paper
The wonderful Seth Godin provides us with daily inspiration, here is his latest blog and one that is close to our hearts, thanks Seth!
The range and availability of freelance talent is greater than it has ever been before. World class designers, artists, illustrators, photographers, strategists, potters, copywriters, programmers–they’re all one click away.
There are two ways to work with talent.
The first is to give someone as clean a sheet of paper as possible. “We have these assets, we have this opportunity, here is our budget, go!” That’s a great way to build a house if you have a ton of money and brilliant architects.
The second is to give someone as strategic and defined a mission as possible. “Here are three logos from companies in other industries, together with the statement we want to make, the size it needs to be, the formats we need to use it and our budget, go!” If you do this, you’re almost certain to get something you can use, and almost certain not to be blown away with surprise. Which is the entire point.
Confusing these two approaches is the #1 cause of client dissatisfaction when working with talent.
The strategic mission takes more preparation, more discipline and more difficult meetings internally. It involves thinking hard without knowing it when you see it. It’s also the act of a mature individual, earning his salary.
The clean sheet of paper is amazing when it works, but involves so much waste, anxiety and pain that I have a hard time recommending it to most people. If you’re going to do this, you have an obligation to use what you get, because your choice was hiring this person, not in judging the work you got when you didn’t have the insight to give them clear direction in the first place.
Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s way”
Thinking time = Better innovation: I can only agree with this statement, and also in a different way than one hour a week with a certain objective. The last 2½ months I have been recovering from a slipped disc where I have been forced to do absolutely nothing. At first my brain slowed down, since it had to get used to the lack of a hectic work week and an even more hectic spare time. But after a short period of time I found that my thought pattern evolved towards a much more creative direction, where the thought of concepts and ideas I got reached a transparency and complexity a lot higher than during “normal” hectic times. Now I can simply wake up at night with completely new ideas and solutions to otherwise too complex problems. Something that would never have happened otherwise.
An addition to a way of creating “thinking time” is to use one of the concepts from Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s way” – Morning pages.
I found that this method works very well, since all it takes is to write 3 pages of text each and every morning as the very first activity you do. These 3 pages of text has to be written without any stops or breaks at all – just one constant string of writing. This practices a fluent thought flow and therefore a direct approach to creative and innovative thoughts.
Ignore Everybody, Hugh MacLeod’s new book
When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter, living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog – gapingvoid.com – and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures.
MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person?
Now his first book, Ignore Everyone, expands on his sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. A sample:
* Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less.
* If your plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.
* Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There’s no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.
* The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.
After learning MacLeod’s 40 keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world. Buy it here…
