I’m speaking on creativity at the next Fred Talk, April 10. Please come! A longtime friend emailed me after she went to the last one (I was out of town) telling me my talk was announced.

Fred talks are do-it-yourself Ted talks with the slogan “Your friends’ ideas worth spreading.” Who says you need some huge conference for thousands of people that costs lots of money? You probably learned more from your grandmother than most of your teachers, let alone famous people you don’t know. Let’s do it ourselves! Sharing locally can do things pristine, beautifully-produced things can’t.

Who isn’t a fan of do-it-yourself community building? A big part of why I’m doing it is that the people behind it give me the feeling they may make Fred talks huge. Maybe huger than Ted talks. Hopefully different. Both the incredibly successful Slideluck Potshow, which shows the best photography I see (not to mention the great food and community; I helped it set a world record for largest potluck dinner), or French Tuesdays, which is one of my favorite regular parties, started with a few individuals and now operate globally. I’d love to have helped something like that start.

The series of posts on creativity and entrepreneurship myths were exploring and researching topics for the talk. Yesterday’s post on mindmaps and Freemind came from creating the outline/mindmap of the presentation — the process was fun and I was in a great mood afterward, all the more so for thinking of how much similar processes used to be tedious. I’m thinking about posting the mindmap after I finish a few edits.

I’m modeling my talk on a structure I see in Ted Talks

1. start with an anecdote that highlights an apparent contradiction between mainstream views and how something happened
2. describe new theories that resolve the contradiction
3. describe how the theory can help you improve your life

• ← Awesome software to help you think
• Another way to decrease stress, part II →