[This post is part of a series on creativity. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] I knew about Jacob’s research and what he consulted. Now I’m reading about the research that led to his — that of Genrich Altshuller, who researched creativity in post-war Russia until he was imprisoned[…] Keep reading →

I haven’t forgotten about finishing up the creativity series. I got Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius out from the library again and am researching about the research before Jacob‘s. In the meantime, and continuing yesterday’s topic of friends doing awesome things, check out what my friend from graduate school days, when she was a post-bac pre-med, is doing: a micro-farm in Nyack, 24 miles from Manhattan. Here’s a recent[…] Keep reading →

I just found out another friend published a debut novel getting great reviews. Alex Kudera published Fight For Your Long Day, with four-and-a-half Amazon stars last I checked. Alex and I went to Central High School a year apart, in college competed against each other in Ultimate Frisbee (I think his team, Wesleyan, beat mine, Columbia, more often), and shared a room in Paris for a summer. Eventually we played[…] Keep reading →

A friend posted on another forum about “feeling weighted” about a few recent relationships in which women felt hurt afterward. Since he had asked for advice, I gave him some, copied below. Sorry it’s out of context, but that forum is private. Some background: this response came after a couple posts stating and clarifying the issues. Not everything resonated with him, but he said he found the two paragraphs preceding[…] Keep reading →

I’ll get back to my series on creativity soon. A post I put on one of my online communities seemed relevant here. If anyone here has comments, I’d value them. I just finished reading Making It All Work, David Allen‘s book after Getting Things Done. Then cleaned almost a meter of old books off my shelf that were dead weight. Feels great! I remember this community having some GTD aficionados.[…] Keep reading →

Class at Parsons today was awesome and inspiring. The project due today — a linear zoetrope for each group, internally lit — was a big challenge. At the beginning of class a couple groups appeared to be having trouble — missed communications, etc. They grouped together, rallied, figured out what they could do during class, and, by the end, nearly every group was nearly finished. I expect each will be[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on creativity. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] When you have a problem to solve, the problem defines the solution. When the solution solves the problem we say the form followed the function. Such solutions can appear elegant, creative, obvious, or other[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on creativity. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Yesterday I wrote some points of how the concept of genius is counterproductive and inaccurate. So what are the alternatives? My alternative to calling them geniuses is calling them accomplished, dedicated, in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time (which, if[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on creativity. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] The term genius sounds like a compliment. Virtually everyone values intelligence and genius implies extreme intelligence. Say the word genius and names like Einstein, Da Vinci, Mozart, and Shakespeare come to mind. Who wouldn’t[…] Keep reading →