Always Leave Room For Accidents

Posted on August 14, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | Leave a Comment

Whenever I go to a party where I don’t know anybody, I try to find the old guy in the room. Why? Because he has the best stories. He’s been around the block. He’s experienced exactly what you’re going through, but in a different age. And there is a great opportunity to learn from the [...]

Dreaming of the Open Seas

Posted on July 24, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | 2 Comments

Some days I dream of being a pirate. That’s because pirates are awesome. And not just because they talk with a swarly accent. They get to sail the open seas and live in a world of possibility. They are the masters of their own destiny. In my day dream, I realized that there’s a couple [...]

What Idea Drunk Learned from “The Dark Knight”

Posted on July 21, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | 1 Comment

*Warning: Possible Spoilers Below
1. Any idea is possible.
If you can think it, it can be built. It’s just a matter of time and money. In watching Batman, you realize that he is just a normal human being with an abundance of resources. For those of us who aren’t billionaires with secret R&D departments, try to [...]

Pretty Graphs

Posted on June 25, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | Leave a Comment

First of all, I apologize to you, my faithful readers, for the reduced frequency of posting. I am currently trying to achieve a balance between my professional and non-professional life and a little thing called ultimate frisbee has skewed things a bit.
I have written before about how a visual representation of a situation can make [...]

Benefits of a Creative Partner

Posted on June 4, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I was hanging out with one of my friends and we started to talk about life goals. One of her goals was to write a movie script. Of course, when you have lofty creative goals and no plan of attack, they tend to get lost. I’m too busy. I’m too [...]

A Grain of Sand (Or Salt?)

Posted on May 29, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | Leave a Comment

The internet. Apparently, it’s available on computers. I read a recent interview from Wired Magazine with Brian Eno, where he discussed the impact that the interweb has on creativity.

Let me tell you who Brian Eno is. He’s a creative genius. First off, he’s a music producer. He’s produced/written for David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2, and [...]

Why It’s Okay That I Can’t Draw

Posted on May 22, 2008 - Filed Under Inspiration, On Ideation | 2 Comments

I had a revelation. You don’t have to be good at drawing to be an artist. All you need is creativity. Hugh Macleod has made a career as a cartoonist, but his visual art could be described as doodles at best. He doesn’t need elaborate artistic depictions to tell his stories.
From “Gaping Void” by Hugh [...]

David Usher, I Have An Answer

Posted on May 7, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | Leave a Comment

I began reading David Usher’s non-music blog, after stumbling on a link from Mitch Joel’s site. It’s different from a typical “I’m a real person who wants to connect with my fans and sell you shit” blog because it talks about art, creativity and technology. And it’s actually written by him (no offense Kanye).
In this [...]

Mining For Insights

Posted on April 2, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | 1 Comment

The most successful ideas are born out of brilliant insights. This is because the insight allows you to uncover a universal truth about people. You can then leverage that truth to help them improve their lives.

One of the most striking insights over the past couple of years was one about the myth of “real beauty”. [...]

The Wisdom of Crowds (Part 2)

Posted on March 24, 2008 - Filed Under On Ideation | Leave a Comment

Last week , we debunked the myth of the wisdom of crowds. Simple organisms, like ants, can benefit from flocking - individuals follow simple rules, but a complex behavior emerges. Kind of like how you get your McChicken meal at McDonald’s. Or the assembly line that Henry Ford put together.
Unfortunately, when we apply the theory [...]