Creative Insight

Jonah Lehrer spoke for under 10 minutes at Poptech 2009, but listening to the podcast I was reminded of the value of being outside. Of not being entrenched. Of being aware of more than what is just to hand. Of being an outcast.

"Sometimes, the most impossible problems - the most intractable problems - they seem difficult and intractable, not because they actually are, but simply because we haven't look at them from the outside."

At work, we've undertaken the Clifton Strenthsfinder *thing* to understand more about our personality. Our make up. My top five strength themes were:

Belief, Strategic, Connectedness, Responsibility and Relator.

I see these play out a lot in how I have developed as a worker over the past 15 years, but one thing that I value more and more these days is stepping out of the situation to try and see it more clearly. To perhaps remove emotion (positive or negative) from it and see what might be taking place. Perhaps rationalising it a little more. That can be tricky and I'll be honest that there's a few things on the go that I'm finding it hard to be objective about!
Taking time to be outside of the bubble/fishbowl/activity gives a perspective so easily lost from the frenzy of activities. That frenzy is all well and good - and often essential. I guess this is where teamwork - and varying skill-sets - is vital.
And it's the opportunity for creativity that flows from this position of observation - and segregation? - that I find refreshing too.
But there's more.
One of the themes I took from Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" was that very few of those notable discoveries in science were made by someone at the centre of attention. Einstein was marginalised, yet his impact on scientific thought was astounding. Darwin too (like him or not) was seen as a bit of a whack-job for years.
And for me, far more importantly, Jesus lived on the margins, yet his influence was across the culture of the time. And through the cross an eternal influence.
So that wee podcast is worth a listen/watch. Really. What does it make you think about?

everything changes and it's all the same

If you are a fan of TED (a series of events where clever, interesting and generally wise people talk to people) then you might be aware of the Sarah Silverman thing that happened at this years event.

To summarise (via Michael Arrington):

"TED invites Sarah Silverman, a shock and insult comedian, to the event to give a talk. She turns up and shocks and insults, but for a good reason. The crowd doesn’t get it even though it plays right into their politics, and the event organizer trashes her publicly. Silverman hits back on Twitter, and there’s a quick cameo by Steve Case in the whole drama. Then it turns out Silverman is already donating her time to help fight the very issue she brought up in the talk."

So some of the noise about this event is about the use of words and you can find out more by having a look here - but I'm not so fussed about all the politics and the jibes being banded about. I'm left thinking that the next move is going to be crucial.

What can often happen when offence it taken (yes, taken) by either or both sides, is that walls are built, "they're all like that" becomes the voice in our heads we believe and there's an impass. No-one wants to change, to admit they were wrong (even a little).

TED (owned by The Sapling Fund) has impacted many people by publishing their content online, "free to the world". It's all about "Ideas worth spreading". I love that. However, will the response to this situation be that TED pulls down the blinds, to limit the people who they invite - even just a little? That would be a loss for the those who want to learn, to hear voices that they wouldn't normally have access too. And perhaps to be challenged by those who they might not always agree with. Surely this is the way that mature people handle things?! ;-p

I hope that the organisers are strong, that both sides admit that we're all still learning how to interact online and move on. I think they might get it, but only time will tell.

More than one currency

When catching up with some podcasts a couple of weeks ago, Mitch Joel spoke with Tara Hunt on Six Pixels of Separation (podcast) spoke about there being more currencies than Money (capital). She mentioned Information (learning), Relationships (social).

It's about making friends, finding your place and sense of significance in the world. Money used to deliver this.

• Autonomy (make your own decision),
• Confidence (love it for the challenge),
• Sociality (feeling of belonging),
• Set points (always happy/cynical/grumpy etc).

You can adjust the first three to impact your sense of happiness.

It's an interesting, thought-provoking and at least partially accurate observation. I wonder if we can invest in all four of these currencies?

Have a listen to the conversation here and see what you think.

What about faith. How does it impact (or underpin) these things?

twenty years

Listening to Digital Planet on the way to work this morning (podcast available here) I was thinking about 20 years of the World Wide Web.

In just twenty years the way we catalogue and find data has been radically changed - and the way that people communicate is completely different.

So, here's my earliest memories of computing and communication.

An Olivetti 386SX, 33mHz desktop computer bought for Christmas one year (1993, maybe?) by my Dad as a *family* tool.  I got to use it to play games, create documents for school and all that jazz.

I remember when Dad got Compuserve  - dial-up internet, email and the internet.  I had NO IDEA how it worked, what it could do or what the point was, but hey, it was there.  If I'd paid more attention, maybe I'd be more of a geek than I am now.

I remember trying to use webpages that were full of text (bad layout, crummy images and generally hard to interact with) and simply not really getting the point.  Was only 15 or so... I guess others are more entrepreneurial and I think I can see potential better now than I could then. 

Anyway, I do remember using his email to send messages to people (his email address was a collection of numbers @compuserve.com - and I think he paid a fee every month to have access as well as paying for the dial-up call time.  I remember making up flyers for my band using the PC and putting the email address on the contact details and then wondering if that was too geek-like?!

And how times have changed, and some things haven't.  Sure, Moore's Law has brought us the equivalent of 90's supercomputers in our pockets and we can buy most PC hardware for a fraction of the prices of the mid-90s (thank you, China), but we still pay for access.  Not sure that's a bad thing, but it does have limits.

I wonder what things might be like twenty years from now.  Will connectivity be included in the price of the device - pay £200 for an iPhone 10.0 and do as much as you like?  Will technology fail us and we get back to writing on dead trees?  Will we think that this text-based interface is so old-skool now that we use video to interact and do everything (ordering your shopping by leaving a voice mail?).

I quoted Heraclitus when editing content for David Thomson the other day: Change is the only constant.

What are your earliest memories of the World Wide Web? How has this technology changed your life? What do you think the future might lead to?