Creative Think

What's Your Creativity Style?

2009-11-21T13:13:53-08:00

It's time again for some inspiration from Heraclitus, the world's first creativity teacher (he lived around 500 BC). Today's insight is: “I searched into myself.”

Heraclitus felt that consulting our own knowledge and intuition is a wonderful way to gain insight. Unfortunately, some of us never learned this lesson. Much of our educational system is an elaborate game of "guess what the teacher is thinking," and we come to believe that the best ideas are in someone else's head rather than our own. Heraclitus reminds us that there are good ideas within ourselves if we are willing to dig deeply enough.

I believe there's a creative strategy in Heraclitus' insight, and it is:

Discover your own creative style.

We can emulate Heraclitus by searching for own creative tendencies. Here are six of mine:

1. I get my ideas either when I'm under a lot of pressure — "the ultimate inspiration is the deadline" — or when I'm away from the problem altogether. I rarely get them when I'm doing routine tasks that require some attention.

2. If I'm mentally blocked in trying to solve a problem, it's usually because I'm in love with a particular idea — so much so that it prevents me from looking for alternatives. Only when I force myself to become detached from it and "kiss it goodbye" do I find new answers. Letting go of a previously cherished idea can be one of life's great pleasures.

3. I try to pay attention to small things: how much frowning takes place in beer commercials, what sorts of patterns dead leaves make around a storm drain, and so on. I do this partly because I've trained myself to do it, but also because I've been forced to. I'm left-handed, but the world is designed for right-handed people — something most "righties" don't even think about. I'm constantly being made conscious of how things are put together. For example, telephone booths are designed to make right-handed people feel comfortable and at ease, but lefties can feel clumsy using them.

4. My own ego can get in the way of discovering new things. However, if I allow myself to lower my resistance to those ideas that I typically dismiss as irrelevant or unattractive, I find that they can become doorways to solutions I've been overlooking.

5. I don't know what I don't know. I've got a big blind spot, and the only way to get access to what's lurking out there is to put myself in a humble, receptive frame of mind (not always easy to do) and ask others to point out what I'm not seeing.

6. Rejection of my work in the early phases of the creative process doesn't bother me. I'm not afraid of taking one of my less than stellar ideas and asking complete strangers what they think of it. I find their responses frank and refreshing.

Questions: What's your creative style? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

10,000,000 Yards Swimming This Decade!

2009-11-20T15:53:36-08:00

If you asked me how this decade went for me, I'd say: "Swimmingly!"

Why? I'll share a personal swimming milestone with you.

This week, I passed the 10,000,000 yard mark for yards swum this decade (2000-2009). (9,144 kilometers, or approx. 5,700 miles.)

This started with an innocent remark that a teammate (Jim Merchant) made to me in January, 2000. He said: "I've had a couple of million-plus yard years." I thought, "That would be a fun goal." I ended 2000 with 1,177,000 yards.

All-told, I've had six million-plus yards years this decade: 2000-2003, and 2008-2009. The most yards was 2008 with 1.2 million. The biggest month was 142,000 yards (as part of a Max-Yards February).

The competitive highpoint was participating at the 2006 FINA World Swimming Championships.

Keeping track of yards has its upside and downside. The positive is that it kept me in the water a "little bit longer" per workout. For example, if I had done 3,300, I'd probably keep going until I got to 3,500 because it's easier to keep track of units of "500" and "000."

The negative, as many of you are probably thinking, is that it gets to be a little obsessive (but it's healthier than a lot of obsessions). I plan to stop keeping track after December (next month).

Swimming: what a great life-long sport!

Kenneth Clark's Series, Civilisation

2009-11-17T20:50:07-08:00

For the past two weeks, I've watched the 1969 thirteen-part BBC series, "Civilisation" which was written and narrated by Kenneth Clark. This series --which focused on western art over the past thousand years -- was quite popular when it first appeared four decades ago. I greatly enjoyed it then, and I feel that it holds up pretty well now!

The Best Thing About "2010"

2009-11-15T11:12:49-08:00

I think the best thing about about the year "2010" is that most people will call it Twenty-Ten.

Nice and simple. Only three syllables! [Not, God forbid, two thousand and ten. Ugh!]

This means a return to calling the first two digits of the year one number, and the last two digits another number. For example: 1948 is nineteen forty-eight.

I think that most of the years of this decade have been ponderous to pronounce, e.g., 2007 was two thousand and seven — and that's too many syllables. Twenty oh seven would have been just fine by me.

Hello Twenty Ten! Happy to see you!

Carbon Credit Humor

2009-10-15T09:28:44-07:00

The Internet makes many new enterprises possible.

For example, I recently ran across this example.

Hooray for human ingenuity! The guy in the bed has used the Internet to combine his sloth (sleeping in) with environmental concern (people wishing to offset their carbon use) and clever marketing ("having an environmentally friendly day"). Made me laugh!

Tomato and Asparagus Synergy

2009-09-12T12:30:26-07:00

Here's some amazing synergy!
Gardeners know that when tomatoes and asparagus are planted together, they have a beneficial effect on one another.
• Asparagus roots exude a chemical that kills many of the nematodes that either feed of tomato roots or carry diseases to the plant.
• Tomatoes repel the asparagus beetle.
Both plants do better when planted together!
What other examples can you think of?

Nice X-Ball Video

2009-08-11T14:57:47-07:00

Fun video of the X-Ball from TD Monthly. One minute long.
Watch TDmonthly Video

Good Old Wittgenstein

2009-07-11T09:37:07-07:00

Meeting a friend in the corridor, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) said: "Tell me, why do people always say that it was natural for men to assume that the sun went around the earth rather than the earth was rotating?"
His friend said: "Well, obviously, because it just looks as if the sun is going around the earth."
To which the philosopher replied: "Well, what would it look like if it had looked as if the earth were rotating?"

Video of the Amazing X-Ball®

2009-07-01T17:48:48-07:00

Here's a fun 1-minute video of my newest product: the X-Ball®, a set of 30 X-shaped magnetic design pieces (available from Creative Whack Company). The X-Ball is a companion product to the award-winning Ball of Whacks. The X-Ball gets your creative juices flowing!

Lessons Learned Selling on the iPhone App Store

2009-06-04T09:47:53-07:00

[The following interview was conducted by David Armano of Logic + Emotion and originally published in his blog on June 3, 2009.]
David Armano: With Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference coming up on June 8-9, it's time to check in with L+E's favorite iPhone App developer, Roger von Oech.
Earlier this year, Roger turned his Creative Whack Pack card deck into an iPhone App called the Creative Whack Pack. Roger refers to it as "the App's store's premier creative thinking/innovation tool." I did several posts on it the week it launched in March.
So what's happened with the Creative Whack Pack app since you launched it in mid-March?
Roger von Oech: I've learned that visibility is everything at the App Store — there are 30,000+ apps all competing for attention but only a few get noticed; the rest get buried. Selling an app is like having a booth at a huge bazaar. You probably won't get noticed unless you're near one of the entrances or on a corner.
David Armano: How did you get visibility for the Creative Whack Pack?
Roger von Oech: The blogging community was vital in my launch. I've been blogging since 2006, and I was able to turn to a number of fellow bloggers for help in promoting the Whack Pack and get the word out.
You were kind enough to post about it. Chuck Frey of Innovation Tools did an in-depth review. Guy Kawasaki tweeted about on Twitter. Robert Scoble had me on his TV show for forty-five minutes. Mark McGuiness and Paul Williams did interviews with me.
These posts led to about twenty-five other posts about the product and generated a lot of good word of mouth. I worked hard at this, but I felt that this was a better strategy than buying ads or relying on iPhone review sites. I'm really grateful to the bloggers who supported my marketing efforts.
David Armano: What did that do for product sales?
Roger von Oech: It helped enormously. Within several weeks, the Creative Whack Pack rose to the Top Ten of the Business category. This was crucial. Far and away the best exposure you can get for your app is on the App Store itself. There are a limited number of places where apps are high-lighted on the store: "New and Noteworthy," "What's Hot," and "Staff Favorites." Each of these has room for only 32 Apps.
The only other place for visibility is the Top 100 of your category, e.g., Games, Lifestyle, Sports, Utilities, etc. One media firm has said that there's "an order of magnitude" difference between being on the Top 100 and being buried further down. And obviously being higher up, i.e., in the top 20 or top 10, is better.

David Armano: What happened then?
Roger von Oech: At this point I get very, very lucky. I was ranked #6 in Business. This got me enough attention for Apple to place the Creative Whack Pack on the front page of their "What's Hot" listing. Most of their selections are games, but the Creative Whack Pack is different enough that I guess they wanted to add some variety.
Basically, the "What's Hot" section is four pages of 8 App icons each. If you're selected, you spend one week on page one, one week on page two, and so on. The impact was immediate: sales jumped to a thousand units a day for the first days and then slowly declined over the four weeks I was there.
The best part was that the Creative Whack Pack was ranked #1 in the Business category for two weeks.
David Armano: What happened after your app went off the "What's Hot" list?

Roger von Oech: This is when I learned some important lessons about price sensitivity on the App Store. "How much should I charge for my app?" is one of the biggest questions developers have, and I'm not sure there's any one right answer. I will, though, share my experience.
For the first two months, I charged $4.99. I thought this was a fair price because I had a similar product in the real world — the Creative Whack Pack card deck — that sold for $16. I was able to get away with this price because my early traffic consisted mainly of blog referrals, and these people were positively predisposed to the Whack Pack and thus prepared to pay a premium.
When I was on "What's Hot," I was able to keep my price at $4.99, again because Apple said this was a good product.
But after I went off "What's Hot," sales dropped significantly, and the Whack Pack fell to #10 in Business. I quickly realized that without a lot of blog referrals (these were all a month in the past and we all know how ephemeral the blogosphere is), I could no longer command a premium price.
At this point I cut the price to $2.99 (which is where it is now), and my unit sales immediately went back up. I decided that it was better to have more units sales (although with a smaller margin). I was getting an instant lesson in pricing!
David Armano: What does this tell you about price sensitivity on the App Store.
Roger von Oech: I think the App Store is quite price sensitive. I think that's why so many apps are free or $0.99. A lot of people just want to play with an app for five minutes or so a few times and then move on. You've got to have a pretty compelling reason to get them to spend more money.

I'd be curious to see what your readers think about pricing on the App Store.

David Armano: What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about creating an App for the iPhone App Store?
Roger von Oech: I've had a number of people ask me for my advice to help them turn their "winning ideas" into an iPhone App.
The most important thing (from my point of view) is: Don't do it for the money. I think you need to be clear on what your motives are for creating your app. If getting rich is at the top of your list, then you're setting yourself up for a big disappointment.
A lot of people are jumping in because creating an App Store for the iPhone is the "Gold Rush of 2009." I don't have any Apple inside information, but my gut tells me that over 90% of apps that go on sale in the App Store don't make back the money it cost to produce them. I see a lot of Apps "newly released" each day, but few of them show up in the "Top 100" of their category.
These were my motives for creating my App (in descending order):

I wanted to learn something.

I wanted to put my creativity ideas in a new medium.

I wanted to have fun.

I wanted to make some money (if possible).

All of these happened for me, but I'm not so sure this would have been the case if I had these motives in the reverse order initially.
David Armano: What's next for the Creative Whack Pack?

Roger von Oech: I've just released Version 2.0 this past weekend. The big new feature is "Note-Taking Creative Workshops." In my years as a creativity consultant, I've found that when attendees write down their ideas and answers to prompts and questions, their inspiration increases an order of magnitude. The result: note-taking leads to more productive creative sessions!
I hope to keep listening to my customers, and add some of their suggestions to future releases.
David Armano: Thanks for your time Roger. Good luck with the product!
Roger von Oech: Thank you, David. Let me just add that selling on the App Store has been quite an interesting experience. I recommend it to anyone willing to pursue it!

Creative Whack Pack 2.0 with Note-Taking Now Available!

2009-05-31T11:13:41-07:00

Release 2.0 of my Creative Whack Pack iPhone App has just been made available at the iTunes App Store.
The big new feature is note-taking creative workshops! This release is FREE for current owners of the App. For more info, go HERE.

In my years as a creativity consultant, I've found that when attendees write down their ideas and answers to prompts and questions, their inspiration increases an order of magnitude. A switch goes off in their heads when they're required to commit their thoughts to writing.
Thus, note-taking leads to a deeper engagement with this product's creative strategies. It's all too easy to look at a "Whack Card" and think, "Hmmm . . . I do that."
But if you have a specific issue that you're focusing on, and you write down your ideas as you reflect on the Whack Pack strategies, you'll have a significantly more production session.

Here are a few notes from one of the workshops. They show a few responses from some of the "Whack" cards. These can then be shared.

Fun Test: Switch the Frogs

2009-05-30T17:37:40-07:00

Have a go at this: Switch the frogs to the opposite side within two minutes. (Supposedly a second grade computer test in China.) Click the picture for link.

Innovation Tools Creativity Survey

2009-05-29T18:06:32-07:00

Chuck Frey at Innovation Tools is asking for participants in a study surveying their creativity abilities, how their being utilized in the work place, and what the organizational climate for creativity looks like today.
Based on answers from early respondents, Chuck thinks the results will be quite interesting.
Click HERE for more info and to participate (it only takes 2 minutes). Did I mention there's a prize?

The Wrong Way to Pee

2009-05-19T19:13:13-07:00

Beware of urinating on electrical power lines. Illustration from the 1931 electric safety book Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern (hat-tip: Tim Siedel).

Umbrella Metaphor o' the Day

2009-05-19T09:46:10-07:00

Metaphors are great for giving us a fresh picture of a complex situation. Today's metaphor o' the day comes from Wall Street Journal reader Henry Ahrens who wrote the following letter (May 19):
"California's Proposition 1A seeking to increase the size of the state's rainy-day fund is like ordering umbrellas to be stockpiled in a warehouse while one stands in the middle of a thunderstorm. California, look up. The rain is falling."

Best Falling Domino Video of 2009

2009-05-12T08:21:44-07:00

One thing can lead to another . . . and another!
I've always had a soft spot for falling domino videos. Here's the best one I've seen in 2009 (hat tip to Alexander Gartley). Two minutes in length.

Dominoes Everywhere from Jared Lyon on Vimeo.

Quick Preview of Creative Whack Pack App

2009-04-28T21:24:33-07:00

Here is a short preview of the Creative Whack Pack app for iPhone.

Wally Learns the Stairs

2009-04-25T09:54:47-07:00

Here's a short video (35 seconds) of Wally, one of our Corgis, when he was ten weeks old and learning how to go down the stairs from my office.

Moral: Be persistent, and practice makes perfect.

The Amazing X-Ball®: My Newest Product

2009-04-17T09:14:48-07:00

I'm pleased to announce my latest invention and newest product: the X-Ball®, a set of 30 X-shaped magnetic design pieces (available from Creative Whack Company). The X-Ball is a companion product to the award-winning Ball of Whacks.

The inspiration for the X-Ball is the "skeletal" icosidodecahedron, an orb-like geometric figure long admired for its beauty (it was one of Leonardo da Vinci's favorite shapes).
The X-Ball comes with a 96-page page creativity guide that's filled with exercises and brainstorming tips. It's lots of fun to play with!
Use the X-Ball in a creativity workshop.

Use it to design and create new shapes.

Use it as a relaxation aid to free your mind from other concerns.

The X-Ball: it'll put "white caps on your gray matter."

Postcard from Patagonia

2009-04-12T17:44:50-07:00

Several weeks ago, Wendy and I were in Argentina. I did a seminar for Pepsico (South American Foods) at the Andean town of Bariloche.
The highlight of trip was the time we spent much farther south at the Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate.

El Calafate is located on Lago Argentina in the very south of Patagonia (see map, above left). On the right is a Google satellite photo showing the Perito Moreno Glacier heading into Lago Argentina.

We drove for 75 minutes from El Calafate to an embarkation point in Glacier Nat'l Park. Then we took a 30 minute boat ride.

And then — wow! The Perito Moreno Glacier.

It's one of the few glaciers that's actually growing each year. It is 3 miles wide. It rises 200 feet out of the water (and is 400 feet underwater for total thickness of 600 feet). It advances about 6 feet a day and loses mass at almost the same rate.
We saw the glacier "calve" four or five times while we were there. Huge chunks would break off into the water and send big ripples far out into the lake. The sound was loud.

We spent 2.5 hours climbing on the glacier (wearing crampons, of course). What a thrilling experience!

The water was quite tasty. And the blues — well, they were glacier blue! Here's Wendy drinking some very fresh glacier water.

Late afternoon return from the glacier. One of my top twenty days ever.