The Benefits of Creative Hacking

What’s a hack? It’s a simpler way of doing things. It’s a shortcut. It’s being creative with the tools that you have in order to give them a new function. Basically, it’s what Maguyver did.

The thing that I like best about a good hack is that it requires you to look at the tools you are given in a creative way. You don’t see them for what they are supposed to do, but what their potential is. It’s the ultimate creative problem solving.

For example, geeks the world over agreed that the Wii was indeed very cool. But then they started to look at the technology in parts and not as a whole gaming device. Johnny Lee noticed that the Wii remost has a sophisticated infrared camera inside. So he took the Wii remote and wrote some software, mixed in a homemade IR pen and for about $40 bucks created an interactive white board.

A typical interactive white board can cost upwards of $3,000. In fact, one of my best friends is part of a pilot project trying to use them in teaching elementary schools. Now dropping a couple thousand dollars on each classroom across the entire educational system is ridiculous. But at $40 a pop, that makes it much more realistic.

Check out his talk at TED here:

Click here if you can’t view the video.

The next time you’re stuck, take a look at your resources. What are the core components? By looking at your tools differently, you’ll come up with new ways of using them.

- Christian