Thoraiya DyerRULES? WHAT RULES? Paul Maccabee's take on Creativity Part 2
November 24th 2006 12:25
filed under THE VIRTUAL INK
6. Be curious. Nothing escapes the view of creative people.
Louis Pasteur used to drive his friends crazy because when he'd eat dinner, he'd examine their hands and the tablecloth, and if there was a crumb of bread, he'd study it to see its shape.
7. Pay attention. Over and over you'll hear creative people say, "I see things other people can see but I think things other people don't think."
Consider Bob Chesebrough, a traveling inventor who noticed how Texas oilmen would wipe the gooey 'rod wax' off their oil pumps into wounds as salve. This rod wax as a throw away by-product of the oil. Chesebrough packaged the odorless substance, and now it's sold across the world as Vaseline.
8. Go to sleep. Sleep has creative properties. Edison would literally doze off for hours at a time while inventing.
Elias Howe, the inventor of sewing machine, was trying to solve the problem of how the machine could be threaded properly. He thought and thought about it and, exhausted, finally fell asleep. While asleep he begun to have a nightmare. He was being chased by cannibals who had spears shaped like sewing needles. He tripped and fell; the cannibals were upon him. They lifted their spears and were about to plunge them into him when he looked up and noticed that there, at the tip of the spear, was the exact kind of eye necessary for his sewing machine . He woke up grabbed a pen and sketched it out, and his problem was solved.
9. Stop trying so hard.
King Gillette was a frustrated inventor who obsessively went through the alphabet looking to jog his mind to find a product he could produce to make him rich. When he finally gave up and went to his bathroom to shave, he thought of the idea of the disposable safety razor.
courtesy: Steve Kaplan
6. Be curious. Nothing escapes the view of creative people.
Louis Pasteur used to drive his friends crazy because when he'd eat dinner, he'd examine their hands and the tablecloth, and if there was a crumb of bread, he'd study it to see its shape.
7. Pay attention. Over and over you'll hear creative people say, "I see things other people can see but I think things other people don't think."
Consider Bob Chesebrough, a traveling inventor who noticed how Texas oilmen would wipe the gooey 'rod wax' off their oil pumps into wounds as salve. This rod wax as a throw away by-product of the oil. Chesebrough packaged the odorless substance, and now it's sold across the world as Vaseline.
8. Go to sleep. Sleep has creative properties. Edison would literally doze off for hours at a time while inventing.
Elias Howe, the inventor of sewing machine, was trying to solve the problem of how the machine could be threaded properly. He thought and thought about it and, exhausted, finally fell asleep. While asleep he begun to have a nightmare. He was being chased by cannibals who had spears shaped like sewing needles. He tripped and fell; the cannibals were upon him. They lifted their spears and were about to plunge them into him when he looked up and noticed that there, at the tip of the spear, was the exact kind of eye necessary for his sewing machine . He woke up grabbed a pen and sketched it out, and his problem was solved.
9. Stop trying so hard.
King Gillette was a frustrated inventor who obsessively went through the alphabet looking to jog his mind to find a product he could produce to make him rich. When he finally gave up and went to his bathroom to shave, he thought of the idea of the disposable safety razor.
courtesy: Steve Kaplan
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Comment by Deorre
Stress Alive
Man Lessons
Comment by Marie
You're right, trying hard is what a starving mouse does when he's put inside a maze to find cheese. He becomes overmotivated that he keeps on bumping on all the walls. If he would just mosey around and let go of the pressure, he'd find the cheese in no time.
That's how our brain acts when it's trying too hard to think up of ideas.