John's Ideas And Creativity

Spotting assumptions

2011-11-16T16:40:00.003Z

On my How To Write Jokes blog I've made a number of posts that highlight how the spotting of assumptions can lead to ideas for punchlines.

Creating punchlines by spotting assumptions.

How to write jokes

2011-05-10T15:32:00.003+01:00

This blog is still alive (amazed I haven't posted for two years!) but I've started another one:

How to write jokes

where I share techniques I've used to write thousands of jokes.

Another passion of mine is lucid dreaming; Soon I'll be posting up some lucid dreaming techniques I've devised.

Reverse Blinking Technique

2009-10-22T10:28:00.009+01:00

A friend alerted me to this Reverse Blinking technique. I was sceptical at first, but I was so amazed by the results I felt compelled to share.

What Reverse Blinking may do for you:

Nothing (it doesn't work for everyone.)
Put you to sleep quickly.
Make you so tired you feel you have to sleep.
Put you into a trance so that you can use autosuggestion.
Initiate hypnagogic hallucinations (that is, the kind of hallucinations we experience pre-sleep).

How you do it:

1) Lie down comfortably, as if you're going to sleep.
2) Relax. Close your eyes.
3) Count to five in your head.
4) On the count of five reverse blink: that is, open your eyes quickly (but in a relaxed manner) and close them again. (NB: I estimate that the reverse blinks are about twice the duration of a normal blink - with the eye-opening the duration of one normal blink, and the eye-closing the duration of one normal blink.)
5) Repeat stages three and four.

Experimenting with hypnagogic hallucinations

I wanted to see if I could combine Reverse Blinking with autosuggestion to control the images I would see in hypnagogic hallucinations. I achieved this simply: In my count to four (before the reverse-blink) I would insert the suggestion: "I will see an image of London". Then, after a while - once my eyelids were feeling very tired - I stopped reverse-blinking but continued with the counting to five and the London suggestion. On the count of five I was finding that random images of London places were popping into my head, without any attempt to visualise on my part.

Experiments

There are some experiments I want to try with this technique.

1) I want to see if I can make the hallucinations creative: I'd make a suggestion like, "I'll see a good idea about a place in London" etc.

2) I want to use the suggestion, "I'll see a memory from my childhood my conscious mind has forgotten".

3) On some occasions I've actually stopped blinking and dreamed that I was continuing to blink. I would be interesting in finding out what happens if I create a trigger to ensure I keep blinking and don't fall asleep. Maybe this would be a metronome in 5/4 time. The sound of the metronome click would remind me not to fall asleep. What will I experience when I continue Reverse Blinking beyond the stage where I'd normally fall asleep?

Trying it

Would love to know how others get on with this. I expect that some people will find that it doesn't work at all, while others will, like me, be amazed. When I used the technique two days ago I was reverse-blinking and thinking to myself, "It isn't going to work this time" but within two reverse-blinks I was hallucinating.

A word of warning though: hypnagogic hallucinations can be frightening.

100 Tips for Improving Your Creativity

2009-05-10T13:34:00.003+01:00

My BrainReactions challenge 100 Tips for Improving Your Creativity has reached 100 ideas! I've memorised my favourite ones and I'm thinking of ways to categorise the suggestions. Maybe the two main categories would be: techniques you can use to create ideas now, and attitudes/behaviours you can adopt to develop your creativity in the long term?

I've got another one to add: at the moment I'm into an intensive exercise regime. Immediately after I've finished exercising I start brainstorming for ideas. The ideas are flowing at the moment using this approach. It's also worth keeping a pen and paper handy because I think of ideas during exercise too.

Looking at this approach from a broader perspective I reckon there must be many benefits to be had from generating ideas in different mind states. For example, I like to write jokes, and I've found that I come up with more ideas after I've faced a fear or have been concentrating intensely for a long period of time.

Listing Facts About A Subject

2009-04-19T16:41:00.006+01:00

Suppose I want to improve my blog. To kick off my thinking -- and before I get creative -- it's a good idea to list as much information as I can about blogs and blogging. My aim is to make a list of 100 facts about blogs and blogging. Here's a way to quickly list such information.

I'll start out with a title: blogs.

I need to start listing information and I can do this by using the letters within the title word - blogs - to create words. Using the "b" and the "l" I list a couple of one-syllable words that start with those letters. Say, be and like. So the first item on my list reads:

1) Be like...

All I do now is complete a sentence about blogs that starts with those words:

Blogs

1) Be like...a kind of journal you write online.

Now I've started out it gets easier; I can pick one of the words from that sentence and use it as the start of my next item on the list. I choose "Online":

2) Online...

and I can then use that word as a trigger for more information:

2) Online...blogs are very popular.

Then I continue the process, selecting a word from each sentence and using it to help me list more information. (I've highlighted the chosen word in blue.)

3) Very...many blogs are listed on Technorati.

4) Technorati... tells you the latest about what's being talked about in the blogging world.

5) Blogging...can be addictive.

6) Can blogs replace books?

7) Books have been written based on blogs.

8) On a blog, you can talk about any subject you want.

9) You can blog twenty-four hours a day.

10) Hours can fly past when you're blogging.

11) Hours can be spent reading blogs.

12) Reading blogs is easier if the layout is nice and the font easy to read.

13) Fonts can be difficult to choose.

14) To start blogging requires a site like Blogger.com

15) Like a blog and you'll visit again.

As you can see, this is quite a nifty way to list information. It's important to write down the information (not just do it in your head) and set a quota of 100 items -- to take you beyond the obvious. To sum up, there are two ways to use information to trigger further items:

1: Use the letters from a previous word to list words, then use those words to trigger the listing of information.

2: Select a word from a previous item and use that as the first word in a sentence that triggers the listing of more information.

These are the first two techniques that I'm adding to my brainstorming template that will be specifically used for the listing of information.

Example: 100 List, "Information about blogging"

Current creativity projects...

2009-04-19T13:28:00.007+01:00

I've become both a keen student of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and a prolific writer of jokes. Inspired by the lessons I've learned in the Medici Effect, I've been thinking about ways to fuse CBT techniques, joke-writing techniques, and creativity tips (especially those generated in the BrainReactions challenge: 100 Tips for Improving your Creativity.)

I'm thinking this will be a kind of brainstorming template where the idea is to create 100 ideas, with each entry on the list being guided by prompters within the template (Such as "Name something that won't work", or "How would you achieve the opposite?"

I'm thinking there could be different templates for different tasks -- such as: problem solving (and definition), creating ideas, and the listing of information and facts. I will start blogging about some of the techniques I've used so far and see how it works out.

Thinking about thinking...a great blog

2009-04-19T13:07:00.005+01:00

If you're like me and enjoy thinking about thinking - and thinking of ways to improve your thinking - then I highly recommend Luciano Passuello's Litemind site.

The site has a simple mission:

To explore ways to use our minds efficiently.

The site is full of information on creativity skills, memory skills (including such methods as the Major system and Roman Room system), self improvement strategies, and Mind Maps on well-known books (such as The Medici Effect). There are also some wise words on overcoming "the dreaded P" - procrastination!

I can't recommend this blog highly enough.

Word Games To Help With Spelling

2009-04-05T09:00:00.013+01:00

I've been creating these word games to help with the spelling of difficult words. The idea is, you generate a sentence that provides clues for the correct spelling of the word. It's also a fun creativity exercise.

Example

Word = exaggerate. They key thing is to create a sentence that highlights the hardest part of the word to spell. In this case it's the double G. So the clue-sentence I've created is:

I'm not exaggerating when I say I must have lost a million pounds on the GGs!

More examples
(the words to spell are in bold, and the spelling reminders are in red):

Definite is hard to spell, init?

Dissection separates a rat.

I can crash over my mum's for accommodation.

I walked past the cemetery: eeek! (or Eeek! Eeek! Eeek!)

Super spelling's always necessary.

Misspelling: (Ji) m is spelling words incorrectly. (Or (the) m is spelling.)

Let me know what you think and if you can think of others.

Improving Vocabulary, Wordcount

2009-03-24T20:24:00.003Z

I wanted to improve my reading vocabulary, so I went through a small dictionary and underlined all the words I didn't know the meaning of. I then marked all these words in my larger "breeze block" dictionary and memorized the definitions using various memory systems. There were about 1500 words and I'm continuing to learn more.

I think there would be an easier way to do this exercise using Wordcount. Wordcount presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. With this listing of words in order of commonness, it is thus easier to decide which words you need to learn as a priority.

To aid this process, Wordcount could introduce a feature where a brief definition of a word is given whenever you hover the cursor over a word. To get a more in-depth definition (or perhaps a link to an online dictionary definition) there could also be an option to click on the word.

How to generate names for new businesses?

2009-03-22T12:52:00.009Z

Challenges asking for names for new businesses are very popular on BrainReactions and I'd like to create a systematic way to approach such a problem. If a person is trying to create a name for a new business, what are the best, creative ways to go about it? What strategies - new or existing - can be used? What sources online may provide inspiration? How can they be systematic in their search and the generation of names?

BrainReactions challenge: How to generate names for new businesses

brainstorming
business names
business

Google Idea For The Lazy, Reclining Surfer

2009-03-09T14:57:00.005Z

I like to get comfortable in my big chair, sit back, and do lots of reading online. Occasionally I'll see something I'd like to search for on Google. I copy and paste the search item, but the oh-so-annoying problem is I have to lean forward to the keyboard to add quotation marks to my search. So, in addition to the to the "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" searches I'd like to see a "Add Quotation Marks" option on the Google search page. You may well already be able to do this in some way, but I'm too lazy to find out ;)

Measuring "dumbing down"

2009-03-09T14:49:00.001Z

What does "dumbing down" mean to you? How could it be measured

Brainstorming Competition

2008-07-25T19:50:00.005+01:00

I was top-rated brainstormer on BrainReactions' recent Moonjee brainstorming competition and I won first prize - $150. Darin of BrainReactions tells me that there will be more brainstorming competitions in the future on BrainReactions. I'll be blogging about them when they are announced.

An Idea For YouTube - "Key Ten Seconds"

2008-07-12T11:58:00.003+01:00

Problem: You're having a general meander around YouTube looking for things to watch. Some videos are longer than others but a few minutes is a long time to watch a dud and you can't rely on ratings - everything being subjective.

Idea: When people upload videos to YouTube they could select a "key ten seconds" of their video. Here's how it works: When you're searching for videos you would have the option to watch just that key ten seconds (in addition to having the option to watch the video in its entirety). This key-ten-seconds option would be available for all videos on YouTube, wherever they are displayed - be it on the front page, in your favourites, in the "related videos" area etc.

Compilations: Compilations could be created featuring featuring just key-ten-seconds of different videos. So, if you're searching for Elvis you can see various ten-second segments of different videos and choose the ones you want to watch in entirety.

Can you think of creative ways to introduce handicapping systems to sports?

2008-07-05T13:02:00.005+01:00

I added this challenge to BrainReactions today:

Can you think of ways to introduce handicapping systems to sports?

For example - tennis. I'm playing against a much better player. How can I change the situation so that the better player is handicapped in some way so as to make the players equal thus resulting in a more competitive and enjoyable game?

The tennis one is just an example. Would like to hear thoughts on any sport.

I would like suggestions to look beyond the golf-type of handicapping where one player has a score penalty

Please add your own ideas and thoughts!

Lateral Thinking And Home Security

2008-06-21T11:42:00.002+01:00

In their home some people attach a key to a string and hang the key behind their letter box for when they forget their key and are locked out. Obviously this is a big security "no no" but donning lateral-thinking hat, how can this be utilised as a security measure? My idea is that the string could be attached to a device that triggers an alarm - when the string is pulled the alarm sounds or alternatively, the device could contact you on your mobile. It goes without saying that no key would be attached the string. It's a safe bet that the string would only be pulled when someone is thinking of burgling your home.

Brainstorm With Cash Prizes

2008-06-21T11:34:00.002+01:00

BrainReactions has launched a brainstorm with a chance to win cash prizes.

IDEA CONTEST: How can Moonjee be launched to thousands of users as an engaging web application that transforms photos in fun and useful ways?

There are already 166 ideas suggested. It's fairly unusual for a brainstorm to have that many suggestions in such a short space of time and I hope that the contributors there will also add ideas to other brainstorms that don't have any cash incentive.

New Innovation Social Network

2008-06-01T18:20:00.006+01:00

Kes Sampanthar, Director of Innovation at Metamemes and inventor of the ThinkCube, has started a new innovation social network. Kes has outlined some of his goals for the site:

ThinkCube Users Group - a place to come and ask questions about ThinkCube and how to use it.

Innovation and Creativity Tools/Techniques - a place to describe other innovations tools and techniques.

Brainstorm area - an area to host brainstorm topics that people can join in a group brainstorm.

Collect and Share ideas between members - a place where people can share great ideas that they have seen

Training area - a place to put hints and tips on creativity, with some creativity exercises and some training videos etc.

I signed up to the network this week and it looks like it's going to be a very exciting project!

innovation social network

Strategy For Writing Melodies

2008-03-15T10:55:00.003Z

On my music blog I posted about a melody-writing strategy I've used with good results.

There's also a number method I find quite handy when I'm feeling tuneful.

Ideas For Promoting Music On MySpace

2008-03-10T11:03:00.000Z

New Ideas For MySpace (Relating To Music)

Ideas For Promoting Music On MySpace

Chorus Line: A New Way to Find Music and Promote Unsigned Bands And Performers

2008-01-05T13:30:00.000Z

I've been thinking recently about the problems and the sheer work involved in finding new music online from new bands, and how solving these problems would also help bands and performers to promote their work. So I've devised this idea and submitted it to the Global Ideas Bank:

Chorus Line: A New Way to Find Music and Promote Unsigned Bands And Performers

The Problem

The problem exists for two groups: music lovers (or music seekers) and unsigned bands/performers.

The music seeker: The problem for the music seeker is a simple one: you want to quickly find lots of new music from new bands/performers but it takes so long to navigate around the different websites and pages.

Bands/Performers: Thus this obviously creates a big problem for bands! -- their music is much less likely to be heard if people cannot access lots of new music quickly and easily.

What’s needed is a quick way for people to hear lots of new music from different bands/performers, and to be able to pick out the music they want to hear more of – to sort the wheat from the chaff, if you like.

The Solution

“The Chorus Line”

In A Nutshell: The Chorus Line is a compilation of many choruses from different songs, and each of these songs is by a different unsigned band/performer.

When a listener plays the Chorus Line they hear ten seconds of a song (the chorus) before the Chorus Line proceeds to the next song and then the song after that etc.

Selecting Favourites: If the listener likes the chorus currently playing and wants to hear the whole song they have the option to either:

Listen to the entire song now

Or

If they wish to continue listening to the current Chorus Line, they can save the song to their favourites to be listened to at a later time.

Chart: Charts would be compiled showing the most saved songs, and the most listened to songs.

A Rough Idea Of How Chorus-Line Could Look:

Note: The "Play" marker can be dragged either backwards (as rewind) or forwards (as fast-forward).

The Winners’ Hierarchy

If there are say, one hundred songs on one day’s Chorus Line and a “winner” is picked (the song with the most entire listens) then that song could be included in a monthly Chorus Line compiled to find “The Song Of The Month”. Thus there could also be a "Song Of The Year" feature.

Where?

Chorus Line could be created on a new website, or an existing site linked with music (such as MySpace or YouTube) could introduce the feature.

Further Options and Possibilities

1) The Band/performer could have options on what part of a song is added to the Chorus Line: they may opt to add just a chorus, or alternatively they could add a verse and the chorus, or the introduction and the chorus, or the chorus and the instrumental etc.

2) The listener could decide how much of each song is heard – for example, they may decide that they’d like to hear ten seconds of a verse of each song, and twenty seconds of the chorus. Or maybe they want to hear more songs in a short time and feel that they could pick out the good songs on hearing just five seconds of each chorus.

3) There could be a comprehensive library featuring all songs that featured on the Chorus Line and all past winners.

4) Statistics (and another chart) could be created about how many people decide to visit a band/performer’s webpage after hearing their song through Chorus Line.

5) Each day’s Chorus Line could be sponsored. Perhaps each day’s Chorus Line could be sponsored by an established band/performer, and a Chorus Line could be created featuring that band’s entire output, to help promote their music.

Different Types Of Chorus Line Possible

1) Individual bands and performers would be able to download the Chorus Line software so that they could make their own Chorus Line but featuring just their own songs. This Chorus Line could be added to their own MySpace page to enable visitors to be able to form a quick impression of the band and, if they decide to hear more, they can choose which songs they like the most to hear in their entirety.

2) A Chorus Line could be created to help choose the shortlist for the Eurovision Song Contest. The public could thus be involved in all stages of the Eurovision selection process.

3) Chorus Lines featuring vocalists could be created so that songwriters can quickly find suitable vocalists for their songs.

4) “A Capella” Chorus Line for songwriters: If someone writes songs and does not have the musical ability or the resources to pay for professional demos, they could sing their songs A Capella to be included in a Chorus Line. Visitors (and statistics) would inform the songwriter which are the best songs to pursue, and also listeners – if they like the song – could opt to assist in making demos.

5) A Chorus Line could be made for the purpose of displaying the talents of musicians. For example, a guitarist could add their work to a Chorus Line and people looking for a guitarist would be able to listen to that Chorus Line to speed their search.

6) Different Chorus Lines could be created for different music genres: eg. one for dance music, one for country music etc.

7) When a number of different artists have covered a song (particularly on YouTube) there could be a “Battle of the covers” – a Chorus Line featuring the chorus of each cover.

8) A Chorus Line could be created for people who have written music but are looking for someone to write the lyrics. Thus lyricists would be able to quickly find songs that inspire them.

9) If someone has created a YouTube video, is looking for suitable backing music and wants to encourage unsigned bands/performers, a Chorus Line could be created with music that video-makers can choose as backing.

I would really like to see this idea up and running. What are your thoughts? What don't you like about the idea? What can be improved? Please let me know either by leaving a comment or emailing me.

songwriting
music
music promotion

2007-12-17T18:50:00.000Z

92 Tips for Improving Your Creativity!

Harvesting the "Hidden" Ideas in Society

2007-10-29T19:33:00.000Z

I started the following challenge on Imagination Club:

There is a saying "There is a book in everyone". It's also often true that there is "A good idea in everyone". I often speak to people and they tell me that they have a good idea -- often an idea that won't make money for them or anyone else -- but could change the world for the better. Often they add that they don't know what to do about it to get it "out there".

Here's the challenge:

How can we harvest and organise these "hidden" ideas?

and then perhaps...

How could we get some actualised?

It's worth bearing in mind that I'm thinking of an ordinary "person in the street" -- by that I mean someone who probably doesn't think about actively using their creativity or joining imagination clubs! :)

You can join Imagination Club here

and read the club archives here

I've toyed with idea of attempting to find a way to harvest these "hidden" ideas through some kind of project involving the Global Ideas Bank but it will be interesting to see what ideas the Imagination Club members come up with!

imagination
creativity

Flip-flop Technique for Creating Ideas and Fresh, Relevant Brainstorming Challenges

2007-10-27T18:00:00.000+01:00

This flip-flop technique can quickly generate a list of ideas and fresh, relevant brainstorm challenges. There are three key stages:

1) I create (or find an existing) brainstorm challenge
2) I create an idea for that challenge
3) (The most important stage) I create a hindsight-brainstorm: that is, I look at the idea created at stage 2 and ask "If a brainstorm challenge had created this idea, what could that brainstorm challenge have been? How would it have been worded?"

Example

Say, for example, I am the boss of a pizza shop and I want to improve my business. I can set the brainstorm challenge:

How can I improve my pizza shop?

It's not too difficult to create an idea for this. Maybe:

Have a varied menu

Now for the hindsight-brainstorm: I ask myself: What brainstorm challenge could've created that idea? Maybe:

How can I attract customers?

The cycle continues and for this I create the idea:

Provide small samples of pizzas

Hindsight-brainstorm: What brainstorm could have created this idea? Maybe:

How can I get people to try my pizzas?

Idea: Go to local sporting events and open a stall with samples

Hindsight-brainstorm: How can I use local sporting events to attract customers?

Idea: Put advertising posters at local sports grounds

Hindsight-brainstorm: How can I use local sports grounds to promote my pizzas?

Idea: Offer a catering service for events/functions held at the sports ground

Problems and possibilities

Problem: Can't think of any ideas?

If my brainstorm challenge is:

How can I make my pizza menu interesting?

and I can't think of any ideas, I can simply ask the question: In what ways is the pizza menu already interesting? One possibility could be:

It has lots of striking colours

which expressed as an idea reads:

Add lots of colour to make the menu more appealing

From this point I can either build on that idea and increase the degree (add yet more colours (maybe to appeal to children?) to the menu) or create a hindsight-brainstorm such as:

What would make my menus more appealing?

Problem: Can't create a hindsight-brainstorm?

If I'm struggling to think of a hindsight-brainstorm for any idea, I can choose one of Kipling's six honest serving men -- what, who, when, where, why, how (here's a mnemonic) -- and pick one random word from the idea to see if I can combine the two to construct a hindsight-brainstorm challenge.

For example, if my idea is:

Provide small samples of pizzas

My hindsight-brainstorms could be (among many options)

(What & pizza) = what can I do with pizzas to attract new customers?
(Who can't create a hindsight-brainstorm for this idea)
(When doesn't work)
(Where doesn't work)
(Why & pizza) = why would I cut a pizza into small pieces?
(How & small) = how can I give customers a sample or "small taste" of my products?

Possibility: Keeping one challenge or idea

Of course, at any stage I can decide to keep using one hindsight-brainstorm challenge and continue creating ideas. If the brainstorm is: How can I use local sporting events to attract customers? My ideas could include:

Sponsor a local sporting event
Start a new sports event -- the "pizza shop cup"!
Put advertising at local sports events
Offer discounts to sports fans who can provide a ticket from the sports event

And I can create multiple hindsight-brainstorms from one idea. If my idea is: attract passers-by by putting special offers in the window, my hindsight-brainstorms could include:

Where can I advertise special offers?
Who would be attracted by special offers in the window?
How can I target passers-by?
Why would I be putting something in the window?

Game/Exercise

I started this game/exercise in BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool :

Flip-Flop Brainstorming Challenges/Ideas: How Can I Improve My Creativity?

Will be interesting to see how it pans out!

brainstorming
ideas
creativity

More Story-Writing for Brainstorming Ideas and a Possible Method

2007-10-22T19:59:00.000+01:00

I've been posting lately about my thoughts on creating ideas for brainstorms by writing stories (and dialogue). One approach I'd like to pursue involves writing a fictional brainstorm, with dialogue created for each of the brainstorm participants.

One technique I've developed has led to an interesting idea that could, perhaps, increase the output of group brainstorms. With this story-writing technique I choose a character from the fictional brainstorm and imagine that the character is reflecting on the brainstorm at some date in the future. (There are some specific methods I've developed to create the dialogue but I'll describe them in another post in the future). So, for example, a character - say, Dan - reflects:

The first ten minutes of that brainstorm had a lot of stopping!

This functions as a thought experiment, and it led to two ideas:

1) (An obvious idea) Brainstorms have frequent breaks

2) An individual calls "Stop!" at random intervals.

My thoughts on the second idea are: what if...the "stopper" called for a stop when a participant was half way through calling out an idea? What if...the other participants tried to complete the idea? What if...a separate team of brainstormers could read the output of a brainstorm but could only see obscured versions of each of the ideas -- some words would be omitted from either the beginning or the end of the ideas, and the second team of brainstormers would have to complete the ideas? Would they generate new ideas by doing this?

Something like this could be done for a brainstorming tool like BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool: Instead of accessing a brainstorm normally, you could also have the option to view an obscured version, where words would be omitted from the existing ideas.

Here are some examples of "creative omissions" using some ideas from last week's live brainstorm about plastic bag recycling:

With words omitted from the end of ideas

Use them as...

Grind them up and use them...

Have special lectures or sessions in...

lower the quality of plastic bags to...

Devise machines that...

With words omitted from the beginning of ideas

...that were stuffed with old bags?

...using plastic bags of different colors.

...to raise awareness about the waste.

...use it when you go grocery shopping next time

...in any outdoor park area

brainstorming
ideas
creativity

ThinkCube Competition

2007-10-22T18:08:00.000+01:00

Kes Sampanthar of MetaMemes started a competition on BrainReactions' BrainStorming Tool:

Innovation Competition: How can you promote / market a new innovative product?

Generate ideas to promote and market a new innovation product, ThinkCube. More information - www.metamemes.com - Ideas are specific and actionable - Ideas require minimal budget End Date: 10/19/2007

Glitter and I were awarded joint first place. My idea was:

Become a facilitator for live brainstorms on BrainReactions - or in a chat room or a facility on your own site - and, if possible, use the ThinkCube as a guide to aid you in prompting participants. Have a different challenge each week. Log all the best ideas on your website.

and Glitter's was:

Donate ThinkCube to non-profit organizations to help them develop innovative ideas.

In this post on the MetaMemes blog, Kes posts his final shortlist and the two ideas that Sue Sampanthar selected as the winners. Kes goes on to say that he'll be starting the brainstorm I suggested in the next couple of weeks and also starting a brainstorm to select a problem for the brainstorm to address. I'll post news about these events on this blog when I get it.

Can you think of different "angles of attack" for this brainstorm?

2007-10-21T10:25:00.000+01:00

I started the following Brainstorm on BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool:

Can you think of different "angles of attack" for this brainstorm?

based on the brainstorm:

What would be a unique name for a new carwash business?

Obviously the initial approach is to directly make a suggestion for a name. But there are other approaches such as "consult a marketing expert" or "look at existing names for carwash businesses in Yellow Pages for inspiration".

Eventually I'm hoping that somehow I will be able to devise a system/strategy to generate many different ways to approach and solve any problem. Please let me know if you have any thoughts on how this could be done.

brainstorming
ideas
creativity

Story-Writing Used in a Brainstorm and Generating Fresh Brainstorm Topics

2007-10-20T13:45:00.000+01:00

In this post I showed how "going into story" can help create ideas for a brainstorm. Here I use that approach again and introduce a new technique that can suggest fresh brainstorm topics. For this post I'll use the following brainstorm:

What would be a unique name for a new carwash business?
Initially this will be a "touchless" carwash, but future plans will include detailing, car care products and other high end features that will make this business the destination for car enthusiasts that really care for their investment.

To "go into story" I set up a simple scenario around the challenge. I'll use this: a man drives his car into the carwash business and the carwash owner starts a conversation.

Again I use a random word and add either an exclamation mark or question mark to suggest a little flavour for my dialogue. The random word is ten

Owner: The sign with the name of my garage is ten metres long!

This may or may not be a good idea, but here's where the new technique comes in: I ask myself : if that idea had been a product of a brainstorm, what could the title of that brainstorm be? Here's a possibility

How can I make the name (or logo) of my business attract attention?

This creates a different direction in addition to the original challenge. I call this technique the hindsight-brainstorm.

Here's another example. The scenario is the same and the random word for my dialogue is mark:

Owner: Can you give the name of my business a mark out of ten?
Driver: Zero!
Owner: I'll change it!

So the idea created here is: ask customers to rate my company name. I can create a hindsight-brainstorm that could have originated such an idea. Maybe:

How can I get constructive feedback on my business from customers?

brainstorming
ideas
creativity

100 Tips for Improving Your Creativity

2007-10-17T16:51:00.000+01:00

I posted the following challenge on BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool:

100 Tips For Improving Your Creativity

I thought it would be interesting to ask BR Tool users for their creativity tips. Any input is welcome - be it favourite techniques, authors, websites, attitudes you think are essential for creative thinking, etc.

We're currently up to 31 so please jump in and let us know your favourites!

Live Brainstorm on BrainReactions today

2007-10-10T17:19:00.000+01:00

A live brainstorm will be taking place today on BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool at 4pm CST (21.00 GMT) today. Here's the challenge:

How can plastic grocery bags be creatively reduced, reused, or recycled?

These littering bags waste petroleum and aren't very biodegradable. How can they be minimized or utilized better? What are creative ways to reuse them? ALL CAN JOIN US HERE AT 4pm CST (21:00 GMT) ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10 TO BRAINSTORM THIS LIVE!

Bloggers Unite to Find Missing Persons

2007-10-08T17:28:00.000+01:00

I've just had the following idea published on the Global Ideas Bank:

Bloggers Unite To Find Missing Persons

I'd like to pursue the idea and see if I can get it up and running; I'll make some preliminary enquiries. I also started a brainstorm about it on BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool:

What do you think of this idea? Is it doable? Is it worth doing?

Jump in if you have any thoughts. Here's the text of the idea:

The Problem:

Making the public aware of missing persons. Keeping level of awareness high.

The Social Invention:

Blogs could be used to display photographs of missing children and people.

A website could be started that makes a code available that all bloggers can post into their blogger code. This code would result in the blog displaying a photograph of the missing person (probably next to the list of links), plus a phone number or email address to contact if the blog's visitors recognise the person. A different missing person could feature each week, and every blog participating in the scheme would display the same photograph.

A different code could be produced for each country, so that, for example, a UK blog would display a photograph of a person missing in the UK, etc. Bloggers could also have the option to post the code within a post on their own blog so that the blog’s visitors can use the code to create a display for their their own blogs. For those who would like to be more involved in the scheme, ready-made blog posts could be made available that can be copy and pasted to quickly create a new blog post. The aim of this post would be to provide more information about the missing person.

In the States there is a well-known scheme where photographs of missing children appear on milk cartons. However, this "blog for missing people" scheme would allow people to take a more active role by posting missing person information on their blogs.

A Brainstorming Challenge aided by a Switch to Story-writing

2007-10-06T19:19:00.000+01:00

I've found that some techniques I've developed for my fiction project are proving useful for creating ideas for brainstorming/creative challenges.

My approach -- once I've found a challenge -- involves creating a simple scenario of a story (that involves the challenge) and then adding some simple dialogue created with some dialogue techniques I've devised.

I'll use the following challenge (from BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool) :

Describe the "eco" parking lot (Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. (Joni Mitchell) What can we do to turn the parking lot back into paradise?)

Into a Story

Stepping "into story" helps me to attack a brainstorming challenge from a different angle. My first step is to set up a simple scenario. In this case, I opt to imagine that a driver has just driven his car into the car park and is approached by the car park attendant.

Simple Dialogue

I'll create some simple dialogue. To do this I use a random word -- usually of one syllable -- and then add either a question mark (obviously to indicate a question) or an exclamation mark (to indicate either an exclamation or an order). So, with the parking attendant initiating the dialogue, with the random word "not" and an exclamation mark added I get:

Parking Attendant: Not!

The aim at this point is to ask myself what meaning I would infer from this utterance if I was in the position of the driver. Maybe:

Attendant: You're not parking here!

To carry on with the story, I can add more dialogue and -- bearing in mind that this is a challenge about the eco car park -- see if any ideas can be generated.

Attendant: You're not parking here!

Driver: Why not?

Attendant: Wrong car!

Why would this be the wrong car? This thought lead to the idea that maybe the eco car park could ban any "gas guzzling" vehicles or vehicles over a certain size. Or, maybe the eco car park could offer lower charges for smaller vehicles?

Another example

With the same situation, the random word "mouse" and an added question mark, I get:

Attendant: Mouse?

What meaning would I infer if I was in the position of the driver? Maybe:

Attendant: Have you got a mouse in your car?

As this is (perhaps) a little strange I can make it more general:

Attendant: Have you got any extra passengers?

Without any further dialogue created, this gave me the idea that discounts could be offered for drivers who carpool.

So, three new ideas have been generated there. Nothing world changing, but it's three new ideas I didn't have ten minutes ago! I'll add them to the challenge on the Brainstorming Tool.

Summary

The key points are that I "step into story" -- a simple story scenario is generated about a brainstorm challenge -- and the simplest of dialogue is created with an added "!" or "?" to add a little flavour to the dialogue. I then see if the developments suggest any new ideas.

Hopefully this is just a first look into how creating stories (and developing techniques for writing the stories) can suggest ideas for brainstorming/creative challenges.

brainstorming
ideas
creativity

Drive-hire schemes taking off

2007-09-04T20:16:00.000+01:00

An idea I had published on the Global Ideas Bank some years ago:

Drive-hire scheme for parking

seems to be taking off in a big way in London and the UK:

Keep the house, how much for the drive?

Interesting to see how the voting on the GIB rates the idea at "5 % feasibility". Somebody obviously thought otherwise!

Park let: The Marketplace for Parking Spaces & Garages for rent

I would not be at all surprised if the next innovation is a double-decker arrangement, where a driveway's capacity is doubled by some kind of stacking device that lifts one car above another. Don't forget where you read it first ;)

Brainstorming Tool

2007-08-14T19:12:00.000+01:00

There are some new features over at BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool. You can now set up an account and add your details, there is a new look, a search tool, and the option to sort ideas by most recent, most ideas, and recent activity. If you can think of any possible improvements to the tool there is a brainstorm for that purpose:

How can we improve this online brainstorming service?

I've recently started a brainstorm about the Olympics:

What are great, fun ideas for the opening ceremony of the Olympics?

and I've used some new techniques I've developed recently for my systematic fiction project (which I'll post about soon) to devise some ideas for blogs at:

My Blog: Just a few ideas for the topic of my new blog.

brainstorming
ideas

Fiction Project: More Idea-Hooks

2007-08-05T18:54:00.000+01:00

I've been working on techniques to develop idea-hooks. I think the foundation tools are there but I haven't found a way to make them consistently work as a whole.

A television broadcasts TV from the past and the future

A family turn on their TV and see that the programmes featured are from ten years ago. They switch their TV off and on again and find that this time the programmes on are from forty years ago. They keep changing channels but all the programmes are forty years old. Once again they turn the TV off and on again, but this time find a news programme is on, but the news programme is from a year into the future.

Future criminals punished with "Groundhog Day" from hell

In the future, the punishment for offences involves the guilty experiencing bad events from their own life repeatedly. So, if they accidentally ran over their Gran's cat they experience that event (and the emotions) many times (the amount of repetition depending on the severity of the crime).

Perfect recall aids retrospective crime investigation.

In a kind of Minority Report in reverse, scientists find a way to stimulate the brain so that a person can visualise events from their past in 20/20 vision. Used as a crime prevention measure, the procedure can be carried out on any individual to make them visualise any crime they have witnessed in the past -- be it a minor crime such as speeding, or a more serious crime such as murder. Eventually, technology finds a way to project the image on a screen. With an image featuring a crime such as speeding, the police can even calculate the speed of the vehicle.

Foolproof disposal of corpses

A device is created that can compress a corpse into a small, disposable cube. A group of police come into possession of the device and decide to act as judge, jury and executioner in crime prevention.

fiction
creative writing

Systematic Fiction: The Gods of the Story

2007-07-28T19:17:00.000+01:00

The Gods of the Story (GOTS) are a group of all-powerful beings who can do anything. Absolutely anything. But instead of using their powers to amass a great fortune or have great worldly power, they use their powers to play with reality and set up interesting situations. The GOTS apply their power using six supertools: supersee, action on all, supermove, possess, possess all-but-one, and ER (degree change).

Supersee

Using supersee, the GOTS can see anything they choose, in any location around the world. If they want to supersee a person they can do so, and the GOTS see that person as though they were viewing the person from two metres away. Supersee can also be used to see groups of items: for example if the GOTS wanted to see all the world leaders then they could apply supersee to see all the leaders at once and, if they decided to do so, they could "zoom in" on any individual of the group. Supersee can also be used to see actions and events. For example, the GOTS may wish to supersee all the violent crimes occurring now.

The GOTS can use superlatives to refine their subject. For example, they could supersee: the ten cleverest people in the world.

Action on all

With action-on-all, the GOTS can choose something to receive an action and then they carry out an action that is received by every example of that thing. For example, they could choose "car headlights" as a subject and decide that they want to break all car headlights. They apply action-on-all and as a result all the car headlights in the world would be broken. As they are omnipotent, the GOTS could refine the subject -- they could break all the headlights on only extremely valuable cars, for example.

Supermove

With supermove, the GOTS pick a subject or subjects (perhaps using supersee) and they can then move it to any place they choose, instantly or gradually.

Possess

The GOTS can possess any individual or any number of people at once. That is, they occupy a chosen person's body and can then carry out actions as if they were that person at the scene.

Possess all-but-one

With posses-all-but-one the GOTS can possess all-but-one persons at a scene.

ER

With ER the GOTS can change the degree of any characteristic of any subject they choose. For example, they could choose a subject such as a dog, choose a characteristic - fierceness, for example - and then make the dog either more fierce or less fierce. The degree can be changed by extreme amounts: the dog could be made so fierce that it immediately attacks everything in sight, or so docile that it wouldn't respond to any amount of provocation.

Normal people and supertools

The GOTS can bestow the ability to use supertools on any individual. For example, if "bad guy" is attacking "good guy" and good-guy suddenly receives the ability to use supertools, then good- guy could simply supermove bad-guy to another place. Or goodie could "play with power" and perhaps supermove bad-guy to a horrible place. Or he could use ER to make bad guy ten centimetres tall and then effect his revenge using his new range of options that become available with the supertools.

See also: Supertools in use: The GOTS and middling.

fiction
creative writing

Systematic Fiction Project: An Introduction

2007-07-28T15:08:00.001+01:00

I've added an introduction to my systematic fiction project:

Introduction

This sums up my intentions and my progress so far. Feel free to add any comments, feedback or (yikes!) criticism.

fiction
creative writing

New blog name: John's Systematic Fiction and Creativity

2007-07-24T18:54:00.001+01:00

I've changed the name of the blog to reflect the fact that most of my creative efforts (currently) are focused on my systematic fiction project.

I'm still interested in real-world creativity and ideas, but I'm hoping that my fiction project will also yield ideas for the "real world". I'm toying with the idea of creating a kind of "fictional brainstorming" where a brainstorm is treated as a fictional concept, with the tangents and directions of thought within the brainstorm created by the techniques and tools I've created for the fiction project.

fiction
creative writing

Fiction Project: Some Idea Hooks

2007-07-21T10:29:00.000+01:00

Here's some idea-hooks I've made up recently. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how these could develop or how they could be improved.

A man finds out how clones of himself would have fared in other times throughout history:

A psychology student believes that, by nature, he is a decent person with an innate sense of right and wrong. However, he meets a powerful being (an alien, a god, a time traveller, or whatever) who points out that nurturing (early environment, upbringing etc) has made him the person he is. The student argues that he would not be evil under any circumstances. To prove his point, the being surprises the student by telling him that he has cloned him several times and distributed the clones at several points in history. The student is mortified to find out that many of the clones have grown to be very evil indeed (perhaps one could be a prominent Nazi, etc.) However, there is a twist at the end: the being reveals that the student was not the original; the Nazi was the original and the student is a clone created by the being to prove to the Nazi that he could have matured to be a kind human being. The student is therefore terminated! (I think this could be made into a good short story.)

The Parallel Rush: alternative dimensions find a way to use "empty" dimensions to provide an unlimited energy source:

The people/beings of an alternative dimension find that they can create tiny portals to other dimensions. With infinite dimensions available, they opt to form portals to "empty" dimensions. The matter from their own dimension "rushes" into the empty dimension and this surge is used to power turbines to provide unlimited power.

(Some good What-If questions can be generated from this. What if they have found a way to make gravity "rush" into the empty dimension instead of matter? What if they accidentally open a portal to our dimension and endless amounts of their matter (perhaps a different form of matter) rushes into our dimension? What if humans access the technology somehow but accidentally make the portal too big and an unstoppable rush of our gravity or matter into the empty-dimension occurs? What if an individual from our dimension finds a way to create a Parallel Rush and uses it for something mundane such as rubbish disposal?)

A man wakes in the morning to "just another normal day" but has in fact been in cryonic suspension for a thousand years.

A man wakes and approaches his day in the normal manner: gets dressed, goes to work, sees the usual faces. Everything seems normal at first but gradually the man realises that things are a little strange and are getting stranger. In fact, the man died in his sleep and, unbeknown to him, his family had previously arranged for him to go into cryonic suspension with a view to his being revived in the future. When the man is revived in the future - a thousand years - the beings in the future have access to technology to ensure the man perceives everything as normal.

(Perhaps the future beings could "toy" with the man's life as a form of entertainment. You can see this is veering into a Truman Show kind of idea. This is what I meant in the previous post when I said that an idea-hook can be developed to generate a completely fresh idea for a new story.)

A stranger knocks on a man's door and tells him how his past actions have lead to misfortune and death for other people:

A man is relaxing on an ordinary day when he hears a knock on the door. When he opens the door he is greeted by a stranger who tells him that an insignificant action in the past - his falling from his bike - created a chain reaction of events that ultimately led to the death of ten people. Each week, the stranger calls and tells the man how a seemingly insignificant action or event in his past led to deaths and misfortune for others. Eventually the stranger comes to the man in dreams; the man fears sleep and cannot sleep properly, but however short the duration of sleep, he still experiences dreams that show him how his actions led to deaths. Eventually the stranger enters the man's conscious mind, and for every action the man is about to undertake he experiences a "premonition" showing how his action will lead to deaths - maybe even deaths tens or hundreds of years into the future. Eventually the man has to constantly apply careful consideration to decide which course of action will lead to the least psychological hardship for him and his "victims".

Scientists create the "movement box": a box that can control every movement of the person inside:

Having seen how magnetic technology can be used to make a frog "float", scientists (possibly malevolent ones) develop this technology and experience a quantum leap that leads them to create a two metre by two metre box/room that can control every movement of a person inside the box.

(This can generate some interesting What-If questions. What if the scientists (or another party) use the box to achieve contract-killings that look like suicide? They could put someone in the box with slipping pills and make the person take a lethal dose. What if the families of drug addicts could pay for an enforced spell of "cold turkey" for their relative in the box? What if someone without the will-power to diet could "take the plunge" and pay for an enforced spell in the box?)

The "time neutrals": beings in an independent dimension who can observe earth people and play with earth time:

The time-neutrals are beings in an independent dimension from where they can observe earth and its people. If they wish, they can rewind time to any point in the past and simply observe. The earth's occupants do not experience the rewinding of time because their memories are also rewound. The time neutrals can also fast-forward time by any amount and to any point in the future. As time "rushes" forwards for the time neutrals, the earth people perceive time to pass at a normal rate. One day, the time neutrals decide to interact with one person and invite them into their dimension...

(This is pretty much just a different spin on the concept of time travel.)

Nanobots infiltrate a man's brain:

At Christmas time in London, an office worker buys some chestnuts from a chestnut-vendor. The man immediately cuts his lip on a chestnut and spits it out. The chestnut-vendor declares ominously "It's too late now - the nanobots are already in your brain". For every brain cell in the man's head, the nanobots have created a clone. When the man sleeps, the clones take over and the man is "awake" for twenty four hours. The clones work to make an "evil antithesis" of the man. (Perhaps this could be worked into a modern form of Jekyll and Hyde.)

A failed musician finds out that he's bigger than Elvis in a parallel dimension:

A depressed failed musician finds out that all his mediocre musical output is perceived as brilliant in another dimension and that his music is more popular than Elvis's music. The dimension has, for years, had ways to view this dimension. The musician has a chance to visit the dimension where - with the dimension being very similar to this one - all his dreams can come true in an instant.

An artist asks a relaxing man if he can draw a picture of him. The man is shocked when the final picture shows a depiction of him in the form of a corpse:

A man relaxes in the park at lunchtime and a passing artist politely asks the man if he can draw a picture of him. The artist takes some time to draw the man and when the picture is finally shown the man is shocked to see the picture is a good likeness, but in the form of a corpse. The artist says "This is how you are now perceived by other people - others perceive you to be dead. To yourself you feel normal. Everything that happens to the corpse you will perceive as happening to you. You have many things to look forward to: one of them is the experiencing of a post mortem in a woken state".

A scientist attracts time travellers to the present so that they can apply future justice to the present world:

A scientist, disillusioned by the iniquities of the modern world, attracts time travellers to the present with a view to asking them to apply future crime-solving technology and justice to the current world. However, in the future there is virtually no serious crime and even the slightest, most insignificant aberration is viewed as a serious crime. The scientist commits the most minor of misdemeanours (perhaps something such as forgetting to thank the time traveller for opening a door) and is subjected to a future form of justice.

A tired commuter is approached by a mysterious stranger who asks for a large sum of money to arrange the "perfect date":

A tired commuter, tired of work and tired of commuting, is waiting for a tube at the underground. A stranger approaches, sits next to the man and declares "Give me £10,000 and I'll make you instantly happy. Ask any questions and I walk away. Refuse and I will walk away and you'll never see me again". The stranger has created an ingenious monitor that can tell when two people are attracted to each other. When strangers pass each other on the tube (perhaps on the escalator) the monitor zooms-in on the eyes of both parties to see if pupil dilation signals that there is physical attraction. When the monitor indicates mutual attraction, the man "goes in for the kill" and subsequently connects the parties if they pay the money.

(The idea of being approached by a stranger who asks for a significant amount of money for "instant happiness" could obviously develop in many other ways.)

A scientist finds a way to elicit future dreams:

A scientist discovers that every dream a person experiences throughout their lifetime is actually created in the brain before birth. Thus, a person's fate is decided before birth. The scientist develops a technique to trick the brain into revealing the dreams stored for the future. The scientist aims to use these dreams to predict the future.

fiction
ideas
creative writing

Fiction Project: Idea Hooks

2007-07-20T21:00:00.000+01:00

I've had some extra time recently to work on my fiction project. Here's where I am at the moment:

I think there will be two key stages to the development of a story. The first stage is the development of an idea-hook. The second stage is to make the idea-hook "malleable" so that it can be twisted, evolved, and - hopefully - developed to suggest fresh directions for the current story. I'm also hoping that each idea-hook can be developed to create completely new idea-hooks for new stories. Here's an example of what I mean by an idea-hook:

A couple of guys create a special chamber that time travellers can use to travel to the present:

A couple of young guys try to get time travellers (from the future) to travel to the present. They are aware of the problems of the time-travel paradox: that is, a time traveller could travel to the present and kill his grandmother thus posing the problem of how he could exist in the future to travel back to the present. They believe that even the slightest interaction with the present (even the disturbance of a few air molecules) could affect the future in such a way that the time traveller could not exist in the future, or problems could be caused for the people in the future. So they aim to create a chamber where a time traveller can arrive and then travel back to the future without interacting with any matter in any way. The chamber contains a vacuum and the guys vow not to tell anyone if their experiment is a success - they simply want to achieve the objective of meeting a time traveller for its own sake. They publish their intentions on the internet so that any future time traveller will - once the technology is established - be able to find out about the two guys and their vacuum chamber and then use the chamber as a destination.

I think this is a strong idea-hook. It can lead to some interesting "What - iffing":

What if a time traveller from the past arrives?
What if a time traveller arrives but a paradox, somehow, occurs anyway?
What if an alien lifeform from the present arrives in the chamber?
What if two time travellers arrive, but it's the two guys, and from the future?
What if a totally ordinary person from the future accidentally uses time-travel technology and is transported to the chamber?
What if the two guys have had a family member murdered? The two guys believe that no present punishment is fitting for the crime so they wish to bring someone from the future to dish out a punishment that fits the crime.

and with a view to developing a completely new story:

What if the time traveller arrives, escapes the chamber, murders the two guys and goes out in public to wreak havoc in some way? The story could start with ordinary people meeting someone who seems slightly strange and seemingly has special powers (achieved through the use of the future's technology).

I developed a system/strategy for the creating of idea-hooks, but, frustratingly, it stopped working after a while, so now I am looking into new ways to create idea-hooks. This could possible involve dialogue of some kind that explores a subject fully.

More idea-hooks

fiction
ideas
creative writing

Memory technique

2007-03-31T18:03:00.000+01:00

I've been using many memory systems lately. I've devised this technique (well, it kind of evolved, really) that injects a little creativity into the use of any memory system. It's working well for me.

The basics of a memory technique

With most of the existing memory techniques, a ridiculous and exaggerated association is created that features the two items that need to be remembered. So, if a shopping list has two items:

1) Coffee
2) Ladder

I can imagine a ridiculous association between the items. Such as:

I see myself climbing a ladder to pour coffee into my cup from a great height
I open a coffee jar and a massive ladder falls out
I see someone standing on an enormous coffee jar to reach a window
etc.

Adding a little creativity

To add a little creativity and make my image more memorable I use an adjective to modify the image. So if I label one of the associations - perhaps: I see myself climbing a ladder to pour coffee into my cup - as the event, I can ask the question:

How X is the event?

and find a random adjective for the "X". If my adjective is sloppy, I can set about finding ways to make my ridiculous image sloppier. Maybe:

It takes several attempts to climb the ladder - I keep falling off - and when I do finally get to the top and pour the coffee it misses the cup and pours all over the floor.

(If you're familiar with memory systems you'll recognise the need to keep the image ridiculous and exaggerated.)

If the next two items on my shopping list are:

3) Dog food
4) Pizza

I can form my ridiculous image: I imagine the dog joining us at the table to eat pizza. With the adjective low I set about making this surreal event lower. Maybe:

Everyone huddles beneath the table with the dogs to eat the pizza

Odd. Pretty surreal. But a lot more memorable than the image of us just sitting at the table with the dogs.

Uses

With a short list of items to remember there's usually no need to modify the images with this technique. However, lately I've been memorising lists of two hundred items plus, and I find that intensifying the image with the adjective helps to keep my associations ridiculous and creative when my brain is suffering from "association fatigue".

memory

Memory systems

2007-03-31T17:53:00.000+01:00

Here's a post about a useful embellishment I've used to improve my use of memory systems. For those who are not familiar with basic memory-improving systems, and on reading the post think that I must be taking drugs, I recommend the books of Tony Buzan and Harry Lorrayne to learn about such memory systems.

Is there anyone reading this who has tried memory systems? Such systems were a godsend to me at school and I've enjoyed using them ever since. Are they suited to everyone though? I tried to teach someone at work how to form exaggerated associations and I'm sure they thought that I was mad.

Use Your Memory. Tony Buzan.
The Memory Book. Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas

memory

Unusual Businesses Ideas That Work

2006-09-24T11:39:00.000+01:00

Just subscribed to this blog:

Unusual Businesses Ideas That Work

The blog lists existing businesses only, but here's a couple of rather wacky business ideas that spring to mind:

1) Sell the contents of the discarded vacuum cleaner bags from the vacuum cleaners used to clean Buckingham Palace. (I heard that house dust consists of ninety per cent dead skin -- so if you're buying the contents of the cleaner bags you're buying a piece of the Queen!)

2) (For the Tower Bridge souvenir shop): Make transparent plastic models of Tower Bridge and fill the models with genuine Thames water.

I'm sure I've got some more ideas for unusual businesses in 'ye olde files'. Must dig them out some time...

creativity ideas

Challenge: Can you invent a new sport?

2006-09-17T12:56:00.000+01:00

From BrainReactions' Brainstorming tool:

Can you make up some new sports? (even if they are a bit silly)

I quite like this one:

Long distance races (such as 10000m) where the person in last place is eliminated every 500 metres. So, the resulting event tests both sprinting and stamina.

creativity ideas

A website with ten seconds of every song

2006-09-17T09:07:00.000+01:00

A website with ten seconds of every song

Most surely doable in some form on YouTube? Here's some ideas for video medleys that could be available:

A medley with ten seconds of every Beatles song (or any other group).
A medley with ten seconds of every song in the top 40 now.
A medley with ten seconds of every number one hit of the 60s (or other era).
A medley with ten seconds of every song from an album.

(Where no footage is available the screen would just show the name of the song.)

And a slightly different tangent:

A medley with ten seconds of all the music featuring in current TV commercials.
(The medley would also display the name of the track and the artist.)

Any ideas out there for other possibilities?

creativity ideas

Optician Project: Inserting actions into actions

2006-09-10T09:18:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

With this technique I select an action from the information pool and consider how a randomly chosen action could be inserted into that action.

Example

From the information pool I choose the action of: the leaflet distribution. I can make a guesstimate on the duration of this action:

Inserting an action

I can choose a random verb/action (see how to create a list of verbs) and consider how I would insert that action into the action of distributing leaflets. So, with the chosen action finding I consider how I can insert finding into the action of leaflet distribution:

So my creative challenge would read:

How can I insert finding into the action of the leaflet distribution?

Some possibilities:

1) During distribution, find new places that could distribute leaflets (shops etc)
2) Wait for a car owner to find their car and get feedback
3) Find a street with many cars parked
4) Go back later and find out if any leaflets are in the bin!
5) Find anyone I know and give them a leaflet

Variations

There are other variations to this approach: I can specify the duration of the inserted action before I choose a random action:

Or, I can make the inserted action longer than the main action:

Or, before I insert an action, I can name an action that occurs within the main action. In this example, an action that occurs within the leaflet distribution is: putting the leaflet on the car. Then I can insert an action into that action.

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

The Optician Project: The Grid Technique

2006-09-09T20:19:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

The grid technique is a simple technique for creating ideas for objects (and also for places and people). To use this technique I mentally superimpose a grid onto an object (or place or person) and create ideas for:

A specific square on the grid
Any square
or
All the squares

The creative directive

I set a creative directive in the format:

Create X square/area

and choose a random word for my X.

A leaflet from the Optician Project

Here's a leaflet from the leaflet distribution with a grid superimposed:

I want to create ideas for a specific square (but remain mindful of the option to create for any other square, or all squares). With the random word "exit", my directive reads:

Create exit square/area for the leaflet

At this point I want to create ideas quickly; they don't have to be great -- the important point is to guarantee newness. As discussed in the modified creating post I can either try to create an idea in five to ten seconds, or set a quota -- say, five ideas in a minute.

Exit square/area:

Idea 1) The leaflet has a square with details on how the customer can exit the shop
Idea 2) The leaflet has a square with details on how long an eye test takes: how long till the customers exits
Idea 3) The leaflet has a square that can "exit" the rest of the leaflet: it's detachable
Idea 4) One square says "This is the last part of the leaflet you should read"
Idea 5) One square says "We won't let you exit the shop until you are satisfied"

Developing an idea into a useful idea

I created an interesting idea from idea 1. I wanted to make exit the focus-word, so I restructured the sentence so that exit was the last word:

The leaflet has a square/area with details on how the shop's customers can exit

I decided to seek an alternative to exit (as discussed here) but immediately thought of an idea before I'd begun searching: the leaflet -- in addition to address details -- could provide other information to help customers find the shop:

Also, I can use the sentence:

The leaflet has a square/area with details on how the shop's customers can exit

to generate more ideas. I can list alternatives to exit:

The leaflet has a square/area with details on how the shop's customers can exit
__________ANDOR
pay, choose glasses, recycle or dispose of old glasses, switch from glasses to contact lenses, use contact lenses for a trial period, bring their children for testing, find the right product, contact us, park their car, book appointments,
etc.

More ideas

Create cut square/area.
Put key information on one part of the leaflet that can be cut out and kept.

Create Pluto square/area
Reclassify my job title. Instead of calling myself "optician" call myself "optical technician".

Create difference square/area.
Provide statistics on how long it takes an eye to become different -- how long it takes for a lenses prescription to become out of date. In fact, why not use the back of the leaflet to provide many unusual (but useful) facts about the human eye and the need for glasses and lenses?

Create decision square/area
Provide a means for the leaflet recipient to test their own sight to decide if they need glasses. Perhaps a link to a website that provides a simple preliminary test?

Create danger square/area
Use a section of the leaflet to explain that a sight test can discover health problems such as diabetes.

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

Optician Project: Modified Creating

2006-09-09T12:35:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

If I consider any piece of information from the information pool (designing the leaflet, for example) I can set a creative directive such as:

Create an idea for the designing of the leaflet.

However, I can set a creative directive in the format:

Create X idea (for the designing of the leaflet)

and choose a random word for the X, to modify the creating.

Creating an idea

In answering the modified creative directive I like to create an idea as quickly as I can. I can imagine that I have been set a deadline to create an idea (any idea) in ten seconds. The important point is to guarantee newness. I can also set a quota: say, five ideas in a minute.

An example

Focusing on designing the leaflet I create my modified creative directive with the random word "accident":

Create an accident idea (for the designing of the leaflet)

So applying a quota (five ideas in a minute) here are the ideas:

1) We rely on chance to create the leaflet: we pick a leaflet at random and make an identical design to that leaflet
2) We make the leaflet blood red
3) We include statistics on the leaflet about road accidents caused by defective vision
4) We deliberately include spelling errors on the leaflet
5) We list mistakes that can be made during a design project (for future reference)

More examples

Subject (from information pool) = The front counter (of the shop)

Random word = prison

Directive = Create a prison idea for the front desk

(A slight tangent from considering the leaflet distribution project.)

Ideas:

1) All the information about customers is retained at the front desk
2) There is always someone at the front desk, 24/7 (person "imprisoned" at desk)
3) There are always leaflets kept at the front desk
4) We cater for unusual customers (prisoners etc.)
5) We publish a mission statement like "We don't let customers go until they are satisfied with our service and our products"

Example two:

Subject = Briefing the temp on my requirements

Random word = armageddon

Directive = Create an armageddon idea for the briefing of the temp

Ideas:

1) I set a deadline for the completion of the task
2) We make a list of things that could go wrong (or a worst case scenario)
3) We decide to make this the last time we will do the project
4) We destroy the leaflets and publicize the business another way
5) I offer an incentive -- such as a trip to the cinema

Example three:

Subject = Reflecting on the project at the end of the day

Random word = Individual

Directive = Create an individual idea for the reflections on the distribution

Ideas:

1) I ask the temp to write feedback alone
2) I ask the temp if any individual received a leaflet and seemed positive
3) I ask the temp to keep one leaflet on display in his own car
4) I ask the temp if he knows any individual who can promote the business in future
5) We decide that the first individual who arrives (as a result of the leafleting) will receive freebies

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

Optician Project: Increasing and decreasing the degree of a characteristic

2006-09-09T12:01:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

This approach can be used to create goals or "What if?" thought experiments. There are five stages to this approach:

1) Choose a piece of information from the information pool.
2) Ask: How X is it?
3) Generate a characteristic for the X
4) Consider an increase or decrease of the degree of the characteristic
5) Use the increase or decrease to either create a goal or formulate a "What if?" thought experiment

1) Choose a piece of information from the information pool

I can choose any piece of information from the information pool -- whether it be a noun, activity, object etc. For this example I'll choose: the leaflet

2) Ask: How X is it?

The X will be a characteristic -- the word(s) chosen will either be an adjective or will function as an adjective.

3) Generate a characteristic for the X

I can generate a list of adjectives as described in the Listing adjectives and adjectival phrases

For my characteristic I will use the word blatant (from the Listing adjectives and adjectival phrases post). So this generates the question:

How blatant is the leaflet?

4) Consider an increase or decrease of the degree of the characteristic

At this stage I can either slightly increase/decrease the degree of the characteristic, or dramatically increase/decrease the degree to outrageous proportions. For a slight change of degree I can consider how blatant the leaflet is. I can imagine that the leaflet is made slightly less blatant -- thus it would attract less attention. Or, I can imagine it is more blatant -- more likely to catch the eye. Taking the degree change to ridiculous proportions I can imagine that the leaflet is so blatant that everyone passing by the leaflet can't help but stop to look, or I can imagine that I decrease the blatantness so much that not even the recipient of the leaflet notices it.

5) Use the degree change to create goals or "What if?" thought experiments

While increasing or decreasing the degree at point 4, I can be mindful of the option to either create goals or "What if?" thought experiments.

So at the point I was considering increasing the blatantness of the leaflet I can set a challenge in the format:

How can I make the leaflet more blatant (eye-catching)?

Where I increased the blatantness to ridiculous proportions I can create a "What if?" question in the form:

What if the leaflet was so blatant that passers-by stopped to look and felt compelled to read?

Another example

Info = the leaflet
Characteristic = inspecting
How can I make the leaflet more inspecting?

Increasing the degree of the inspecting to create a goal, this leads to the idea that the leaflet could in some way inspect the recipient's eyes. How about putting the leaflet some distance away from the windscreen so that the driver is tested in some way? Or putting the leaflet on the back window in reverse-type so that it is read when the driver looks in the mirror?

See also: "What if?" questions

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

The Optician Project: Creating straight alternatives for the focus-word

2006-09-03T17:45:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

In the Creative ANDOR post I used the following layout to show my intention to create alternatives:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets ANDOR(operations)
________________________ANDOR
______________________(alternatives)

In this post I will be looking at the four approaches that can be used to create straight alternatives to the focus-word (leaflets). These approaches are: Random word, Information from information pool, New information, and Free/unguided choice. The information shown with all four alternative approaches looks thus:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets
________________________ANDOR
(Random word) (Information from information pool) (New information) (Free/unguided choice)

Random Word

With this approach I use Edward de Bono' s random word technique (see: sources of random words). The random word "valentines" added to my idea format looks thus:

The optician is advertised by the leaflets
_______________________ANDOR
______________________valentines

I can generate several ideas from this:

Make thematic cards (with advertising) for special times of the year.
Have a theme at the premises.
Put advertising leaflets in the cards (or newspapers) on sale at local newsagents.

Information from information pool

With this approach I randomly choose some information from the information pool. For example, Finding the right product for each customer added to my idea format looks thus:

The optician is advertised by the leaflets
_______________________ANDOR
___________Finding the right product for each customer

Which suggests the possibilities:

I (as optician) find a novel way to find the right product for each customer.
The leaflets show my USP: I can quickly and efficiently find the right style of glasses for the customer

The information (also from the information pool): my diary in the idea format would look thus:

The optician is advertised by the leaflets
_______________________ANDOR
_______________________My diary

Which could suggest:

I blog about the project (to advertise my business) and use the blog to publicize my business.
I provide diaries for customers (with my business name emblazoned on the front).

New information

With this approach I focus on the information the leaflets and apply one of the information-listing methods:

Quota listing
Listing key information with category-triggers
Inger profiling
Using random words to list information

in order to to list some new information that pertains to the leaflets. I can remain mindful of my challenge -- to create a means to advertise the business -- while I do this.

For example, if I use Using random words to list information and my random word is "complexity" then my focus will be on the complexity of the leaflet. My idea format looks thus:

The optician is advertised by the leaflets
_______________________ANDOR
___________________the leaflet's complexity

which could suggest that the leaflets are made with an unusual design that attracts attention.

Free/unguided choice

This is the easiest approach of all. I merely write my idea format:

The optician is advertised by the leaflets
_______________________ANDOR
__________________________?

and see if the consideration of alternatives alone is enough to trigger an idea.

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

The Optician Project: Carrying out operations on the focus-word

2006-09-03T17:27:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

In the previous post I used the following layout to show my intention to create alternatives:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets ANDOR (operations)
________________________ANDOR
______________________(alternatives)

In this post I will be looking at the three operations that can be carried out on the focus-word (leaflets). These three operations are: upping the concept level, naming, and modified naming.

Upping the concept level

The three techniques for stepping up the concept level are explained in the post Selecting information and stepping up the concept level. The three techniques there are:

1) Stepping up to dictionary level
2) Stepping up to category-triggers
3) Stepping up to the level created by hindsight-questions

Naming and Modified Naming

The naming and modified naming techniques are explained in the Naming and Modified Naming post.

An example of the operations in use

My information shown with all the five operations available to me looks as follows:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets ANDOR: (Step up to dictionary level) (Step up to category-triggers) (Hindsight-question level) (Naming) (Modified naming)

I can now consider my focus-word -- leaflets -- and apply an operation. For this example I choose to step up the concept level with a hindsight-question. To give the answer "leaflets" my hindsight-question could be "Name a paper advertisement". Thus my new concept level is: paper advertisement. I can add this as my first alternative to leaflets. This is the first idea:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets ANDOR paper advertisement(s)

A sequence of operations

I can use a sequence of operations. For example, with my information:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets ANDOR a paper advertisement(s)

I can now carry out an operation on paper advertisement(s). Using the naming operation I set a directive:

Name a paper advertisement

Possible answers:

Yellow Pages
Newspaper advertisements
A billboard
A business card

I can then select any (or all) of these answers to complete my information and thus create ideas:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets ANDOR paper advertisement(s) ANDOR newspaper advertisements

At this point I can continue to apply operations to newspaper advertisements or apply operations to the information listed previously: leaflets or paper advertisements.

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

The Optician Project. Creative Phase: The creative ANDOR

2006-09-03T17:24:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

The first step I take when using the creative-ANDOR is to write some information; I can find my information by randomly picking an item from the information pool. For this example I choose:

The leaflets advertise the opticians

In this sentence, opticians is the focus-word -- that is, if I am looking to create ideas my search for ideas will be based on that word.

Changing the focus-word by restructuring the sentence

I can opt to make any word in the sentence the focus-word. I do this by simply choosing a word and rearranging the sentence to make that word the last word of the sentence. So with:

The leaflets advertise the opticians

I want to make leaflets the focus-word, so I rearrange the sentence to give:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets

The creative ANDOR

With leaflets my new focus-word, I want to make changes with a view to creating new ideas. There are two main changes I can make: I can either select straight alternatives to the leaflets, or create alternatives by carrying out some operations on the leaflets. I show my intention to do this by adding two ANDORs to the sentence:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets ANDOR
________________________ANDOR

To the right of the ANDOR next to leaflets I will be carrying out operations on the leaflets. Beneath the ANDOR under leaflets I will be listing alternatives to the leaflets:

The opticians is advertised by the leaflets ANDOR (operations)
________________________ANDOR
______________________(alternatives)

Carrying out operations on the focus-word
Creating straight alternatives for the focus-word

See also: Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas by Edward de Bono. (Chapter : Alternatives)

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

The Optician Project: The Creative Phase

2006-09-03T14:32:00.000+01:00

My posts to date of the Optician Project have focused on one activity alone: the listing of information. My posts henceforth will discuss the creative phase: the idea generation, brainstorming etc.

The techniques listed so far I would consider to be my core techniques for the listing of information:

Starting out (with a handle on the situation)

Listing key information with category-triggers

Switching the focus

Inger profiling for the listing of information

Using random words to list information

Listing information with hindsight-focus

Selecting information and stepping up the concept level

Listing information with action-units

Naming and Modified Naming

and of course, a quota-listing mentality can be applied at any stage of listing.

However, I am currently considering more techniques that can be used for listing information. These are at the thought-experiment stage, but I will outline the details on my shadow blog:

Listing multiple starts (link to come)
Listing "utterances" (link to come)
Watered-down challenges (link to come)

and then add these techniques to this blog if I find that they serve as useful information-listing tools.

There are other information-listing techniques on this blog that are worth a look and that I may also add at a later date:

Finding key facts with the suffix and stem methods

Possession-string for listing information

Ing-est for listing information

Using adverbs to list information

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

Optician Project: Naming and Modified Naming

2006-09-03T14:17:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

Introduction

With the naming and modified naming techniques I choose some information (from the information pool) and name many different examples of that thing (person, activity, object etc).

Naming Technique

The naming technique is simple. I choose some information from the information pool -- say, optician (the person) -- and create a naming directive:

Name an optician

Then I name as many different opticians as I choose:

Opticians in this town. London opticians. Trainee opticians. Retired opticians. Good opticians. Reputable opticians. etc.

Modified Naming Technique

With modified naming again I choose some information, but this time I set a naming directive:

Name X optician(s)

where X will be replaced by a word (or phrase etc) with a modifying function. For example:

Name a new optician(s)

This could suggest: opticians looking for premises for a business. Opticians that have just qualified. Opticians that have just opened a new shop. Opticians that use the latest technology. etc.

One syllable words as modifiers

At the start of the naming exercise I create a number of one syllable words. To do this I randomly choose a letter (or two letters) and create one syllable words using the letters as triggers. For example:

Be = beast, beat, best, bell, bear, bed etc.

Then I use any (or all) of these words as a modifier in my naming directive, thus:

Name best optician(s)

This could suggest: the best optician(s), highly rated opticians, opticians who were most successful in their studies, opticians who are successful with customers, opticians who show the highest profits. etc.

Using random words

I can use Edwards de Bono's random word technique to provide a word to be my modifier. For example: expectation completes the naming directive:

Name an expectation optician

Which could suggest: opticians who expect an increase in customers, opticians awaiting a delivery of stock, someone who is training to be (and expects to be) an optician etc.

Forming new concepts

Sometimes the information in the naming directive is worth using as a new concept in itself. For example, if my modifier is old my naming directive reads:

Name an old optician(s)

I can decide that "old optician" is worth forming into a concept: old-optician(s). This new concept can be used itself in a naming directive. With the modifier done my naming directive reads:

Name done old-opticians

Which could suggest: old opticians who are tired and ready to retire. Opticians who have retired. Old opticians who have introduced new innovations etc.

See also: Five sources of random words

Tag:

creativity

The Optician Project: The Information Pool

2006-09-02T09:19:00.000+01:00

Here's the information pool showing information listed regarding the Optician Project. I must stress that this information is only the information generated within each of the previous posts; ideally I would like to carry out an extensive (and potentially exhaustive) listing of information (something I will do when time is being kinder).

Optician Project: information pool

The category-triggers:

Time(s) Duration(s) Place(s) Project(s) People(s) Thing(s) Object(s) Activity(ies)

From Quota listing:

Me (as optician). Receptionist. My wife. The temp. Most regular customer. The manager of the restaurant next door. The future boss of this opticians. The editor of the local newspaper. Tony Blair. My first ever customer. Location: 22 New Cambridge Road. East end of the street. Next to barber's shop. South England. My home. My car. The map/sign at the end of the street. The local newsagents. The local park. My advertisement in Yellow Pages. The homes of my regular customers. The pair of glasses that Mr Rogers bought five months ago. The local swimming baths.

From Starting out:

The project. Putting leaflets on cars. This afternoon. Promoting awareness of my business. Bringing in more customers.

From Listing key information:

Briefing the temp on my requirements. Leaving the shop. Putting the first leaflet on the first car. The end of the project. The first customer comes in with a leaflet. The afternoon of the leaflet distribution. Today. Ten seconds (the time to put a leaflet on a car). Five minutes (the time it takes me to explain my requirements to the temp). Six weeks (the time over which I expect new customers to arrive with leaflets). The optician's premises. The street with cars. The location of the first car to receive a leaflet. The location of the last car. The delivery area allocated to the temp. Designing the leaflet. Printing the leaflet. Putting the leaflet on one car. Greeting and helping the customers that result from the leaflet distribution. Our returning to the premises after the leaflet distribution. Any individual that receives a leaflet. The first impression a leaflet gives. The way a leaflet is left on a car. The "feelgood factor" that will occur when the distribution is complete. The receptionist's thoughts on the project. The leaflet's colour. The first leaflet. The windscreen wipers under which the leaflets will be placed. Any car that receives a leaflet. The hand that puts a leaflet on a car. Choosing a car to receive a leaflet. Allocating fifty leaflets to the temp. Reflecting on the project at the end of the day. Putting a leaflet under a windscreen wiper. Ending the distribution when we run out of leaflets.

From Switching the Focus:

Opening time. First customer of day arrives. New stock arrives. Closing time. Anniversary of first opening. The Christmas period. The half hour it takes for an eye test. Weekends. The business year. Purchase made. The front counter. The display area (for glasses). The front window. The eye-test room. The forecourt. Arranging the displays. General maintenance. Utilizing latest technology. Finding the right product for each customer. All customers. Rival opticians. Dissatisfied customers. Ambience of premises. Winter/summer temperature. The risk of vandalism/shoplifting. Demand. Size of premises. Any glasses on display. Contact lenses. The telephone. Eye-test equipment. Furniture. Receiving a phone call. Cleaning. Maintaining records. Greeting customers. Arranging stock layout.

From Inger profiling:

Customers who get a good deal. Lack of customers coming to shop. Reading about an optician who did a similar project. The local car park won't let us put leaflets on the cars there. My diary. The printers -- who printed the leaflets. My home -- where I wrote the first draft of the leaflet. My desk -- where I store the leaflets ready for distribution. The printing of leaflets. The first draft. The storage of leaflets. Preparing for distribution. My PC -- where I designed and amended the text. The printer's PC -- used for cosmetic amendments to the leaflets. A local business proprietor could be influenced to do a similar project. A youngster passing a leafleted car could steal the leaflet. Our leaving the premises with a handful of leaflets. The printer reviewing his accounts sees a record of my investment in his services.

From random word information:

The movement that a leaflet makes when a car owner moves a leaflet from under their windscreen wiper. The distribution area that produces the most customers. The individual who distributes the most leaflets in the shortest amount of time. Some of the leaflets will still be on the cars at night. I'll be reflecting on the project tonight. Any lady whose car receives a leaflet. Success = when a leaflet produces a customer. Success = when the leaflet distribution is completed. Cars outside the cinema will be leafleted by us. The number of leaflets distributed by us gradually increases. The second car to receive a leaflet. The temp is second in command. This is a pioneering project for this opticians.

From Listing information with hindsight-focus:

I scribbled my first draft on a piece of paper. I'll be paying the temp with cash. I'm keeping a record of the number of customers generated by the distribution. The job advert that made the temp apply for the job. The advert for the printer in Yellow Pages. Leaflet recipient's reading of a leaflet. Recipients becoming customers. The distribution route. The leaflet's layout on my PC. Potential customers. 100 distributions. 100 placings of the leaflets onto cars. The print run. The original draft. The cars' owners. Passers-by. The wording on the leaflets. Who to employ to help me distribute leaflets. Where to distribute the leaflets. The number of leaflets to distribute. The plastic bags we are carrying to cover the leaflets (in case of rain). The back of the leaflets. My rivals. Our presence is seen in the high street. The copy of the leaflet I display at my premises in the window. The printer and the printer's staff will see the leaflet. The presence of something on cars will no doubt make some motorists think they have a parking ticket. Our approaching cars and putting leaflets under the windscreen wipers. Our absence at the optician's premises will no doubt be noticed by some (existing) customers.

From Stepping up the concept level:

Leaflet (dictionary level concept). Leaflet = A printed sheet of paper with information, to be distributed for advertising purposes. Leaflet distribution (at dictionary level concept). Things that took hours to prepare. Paper advertisements. Something that people read that tells them about a business.

From Action-unit listing:

Optician distributes leaflets. Optician designs leaflets. Optician prints leaflets. Optician carries leaflets. Optician amends leaflets. Optician alters leaflets. Optician benefits from leaflets. Optician believes in leaflets. Optician creates leaflets. Optician carries leaflets. Optician distributes leaflets. Optician designs leaflets. Optician edits leaflets. Optician favours leaflets. Optician gathers leaflets. Optician handles leaflets. Optician holds leaflets. Optician initiates leaflets. Optician inspects leaflets. Optician joins leaflets (together). Optician keeps leaflets. Optician likes leaflets. Optician makes leaflets. Optician manages leaflets. Optician needs leaflets. Optician notes leaflets. Optician orders leaflets. Optician proof-reads leaflets. Optician quantifies leaflets. Optician reads leaflets. Optician relishes leaflets. Optician shares leaflets. Optician transports leaflets. Optician understands leaflets. Optician values leaflets. Optician waits for leaflets. Optician walks with leaflets. Optician copies leaflets. Optician yields leaflets. Optician zones leaflets. Optician sings praises of leaflets. Optician deletes drafts of leaflets. Optician shows final draft to receptionist. Leaflets advertise optician. Leaflets bolster optician. Leaflets champion optician. Leaflets further optician. Leaflets grab (interest) of optician. Temp gathers leaflets. Car owners gather leaflets. Printer gathers leaflets. Receptionist gathers leaflets. Car owner's family gathers leaflets. Car owner's friends gather leaflets. Passers-by gather leaflets.

Tag:

creativity

The Optician Project: Listing information with action-units

2006-08-27T11:40:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

Introduction

The action-unit technique can be used to make a sizeable (exhaustive) list of information relating to a challenge. To use action-units I select two pieces of information from a challenge and list interactions (by actions) between the two.

Example of action-units applied to the Optician's Project

First of all I want to choose two pieces of information. I choose: me (as optician) and leaflets. My template for the action-unit looks thus:

(Optician____________(action)_____________Leaflets)

Listing actions

At the next stage I want to start listing some actions that the optician carries out on the leaflets. At first I go for obvious choices:

(Optician____________(action)_____________Leaflets)
__________________distributes
__________________designs
__________________prints
__________________carries

Prompting further responses

There are two strategies I can use to help me list further actions: A to Z, and listing verbs.

A to Z

With the A to Z strategy I simply write the alphabet in a column and try to think of an action or actions (between the optician and leaflets) for each letter:

(Optician____________(action)_____________Leaflets)
__________________A_______
__________________B_______
__________________C_______
__________________D_______
____________________etc.

Example:

(Optician____________(action)_____________Leaflets)
________________A: amends, alters
________________B: benefits (from), believes in
________________C: creates, carries
________________D: distributes, designs
________________E: edits
________________F: favours
________________G: gathers
________________H: handles, holds
________________I: initiates, inspects
________________J: joins (together)
________________K: keeps
________________L: likes
________________M: makes, manages
________________N: needs, notes
________________O: orders
________________P: proof-reads
________________Q: quantifies
________________R: reads, relishes
________________S: shares
________________T: transports
________________U: understands
________________V: values
________________W: waits (for), walks (with)
________________X: xeroxes (copies)
________________Y: yields
________________Z: zones

Listing verbs

With the listing verbs strategy I first make a list of verbs (See: How to quickly create a list of verbs). At that point I have two choices: I can either read through my list of verbs and select verbs that fit the challenge, or interpret the verbs to make them relevant.

Example of interpreted verbs:

(Optician____________(action)_____________Leaflets)
___________yodels = sings the praises of
___________destroys = deletes drafts (at planning stage)
___________models = shows final draft to receptionist for feedback
____________________etc.

Reversing the action-unit

I can also opt to reverse the action-unit; in this case, leaflet becomes the object and optician receives the action:

(Leaflets____________(action)_____________Optician)
__________________advertise
__________________bolster
__________________champion
__________________further
__________________grab (his interest)
___________________etc.

Switching focus

At any point of the action-unit listing I can switch focus: I do this by deleting one piece of information (in the action-unit) and considering information that could have been used as an alternative to that piece of information.

Example:

(Optician____________gathers_____________Leaflets)

I delete optician to give:

(__________ ___ _____gathers_____________Leaflets)

and then list possible alternatives:

(__________ ___ _____gathers_____________Leaflets)
__temp
__car owners
__printer
__receptionist
__car owner's family
__car owner's friends
__passer-by (may take from car)
__etc.

Tag:

creativity

The Optician Project: Selecting information and stepping up the concept level

2006-08-26T14:10:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

Introduction

Suppose I am (creative) thinking about the distribution project above and I turn my attention to: the leaflets (as listed in the Listing key information with category-triggers post). I will most probably (automatically, in fact) think of the 100 leaflets to be distributed. However, there can be benefits in stepping up the concept level (of the leaflets) to a more general concept level. This can lead to tangents/ideas such as:

Study other leaflets and ask myself "Why are these effective?"
Ask "In what other ways could a paper medium be used to publicize the business?"

Similarly, if I turn my attention to the advertising campaign I will automatically think of this campaign -- the campaign involving the leaflet distribution. Stepping up the concept level can lead to tangents/ideas such as:

Read a book on advertising
Consult an advertising professional for feedback

Three ways to step up the concept level

There are three ways to step-up the concept level:

1) Step up to dictionary level
2) Step up to category-triggers
3) Step up to the level created by hindsight-questions

Stepping up to dictionary level

Say, for example, I am directing my attention to the leaflets of the distribution project. To step up to dictionary concept level all I have to do recognise the fact that there is a dictionary entry for that word and that the dictionary definition represents a broader concept. So leaflet in the dictionary will be defined along these lines:

A printed sheet of paper with information, to be distributed for advertising purposes.

So now when I think of leaflets I have the option to consider both the leaflets of the distribution project and the leaflet at dictionary concept level.

When the information is two words or more:

If I am directing my attention to some information represented by more than one word (such as: leaflet distribution) I can do one of four things:

1) Be mindful of the definition for each of the words individually and consider how they would be combined to represent a broader concept level.

2) Imagine that "leaflet distribution" is listed in the dictionary, and consider how the dictionary would define the activity.

3) Imagine that a word has been invented to represent "leaflet distribution" and consider how the dictionary would define the new word. (The word could be something like "leafdishing" etc.)

4) Find an existing dictionary-listed word that is a close approximation of my information. For example, leaflet distribution could be represented by: promotion, publicizing, campaigning etc.

Step up to category-triggers

(See also Listing key information with category-triggers)

There are eight category-triggers:

Time(s) Duration(s) Place(s) Project(s) People(s) Thing(s) Object(s) Activity(ies)

Again, for this example I am focusing on the leaflets. The category-triggers represent (very) broad concepts and the leaflets (and any other information) will be a member of one (or more) of those concepts.

Examples:

Leaflets = Thing(s), Object(s)
Distribution = Time, Duration, Project, Activity
Car = Thing, Object

So when I am focusing on a piece of information I can also be mindful of the category-trigger concept of which the information is a member.

Step up to the level created by hindsight-questions

In the Listing information with hindsight-focus post I used hindsight-questions. To create a hindsight-question I consider some information (such as the leaflets) and imagine how various questions could've been created that would have prompted me to give that information (the leaflets) as an answer. One hindsight-question for the leaflets was:

Name something that took you hours to prepare

I can use this information to form a concept: things that took you hours to prepare. Another hindsight-question for the leaflets was:

What's needed the most consideration?

I can use that to form a concept: things that need(ed) the most consideration.

Repeating the upping of concept level

I have the option to follow the use of one concept-upping techniques with the use of another. This can continue indefinitely.

Example:

With a leaflet as my information, I can step up to the concept level created by a hindsight-question:

Leaflet = paper advertisement

Then use another hindsight-question to step up:

Paper advertisement = something people read that tells them about the business

Then step up to dictionary concept level (by imagining a word created to describe "something people read that tells them about a business"):

Info-data

Then use another hindsight-question to step up:

Info-data = useful information

See also: Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas by Edward de Bono. (Chapter : The Concept Fan)

Tag:
creativity

The Optician Project. Listing information with hindsight-focus

2006-08-25T12:37:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

Introduction

Hindsight-focus is a useful strategy for listing more information about a subject. With hindsight-focus I choose a listed piece of information and, in effect, I'm asking "Why didn't I focus on that information before?"; I form a hindsight-question: a question that could've made me give the information as an answer. Then I use that question to list yet more information.

Example

With the Optician Project, the leaflet has been listed. My hindsight-question could be (among other possibilities): "What part of the project uses paper?". I can then use that question to list more information:

What part of the project uses paper?:

I scribbled my first draft on a piece of paper. I'll be paying the temp with cash. I'll be keeping a record of the number of customers generated by the leaflet distribution.

Structuring the hindsight-questions

There are (currently) thirteen ways I use to structure hindsight-questions. An example for each is described here (applied to the information: the leaflets)

Name (1 word)

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: Name an advertisement.
Other answers to the hindsight-question: the job advert the temp saw that made him apply. I saw an advertisement in Yellow Pages for the printers who I chose to print my leaflets.

Name (2 word)

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: Name an essential component.
Other answers to hindsight-question: Us! The distribution. Leaflet recipient's reading of the leaflet. Recipients becoming customers.

Name (3 word or more)

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: Name something that took you hours to prepare.
Other answers to hindsight-question: The route. The leaflet's layout on my PC.

Quantity-spotting

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's in a quantity of 100?
Other answers to hindsight-question: Potential customers. 100 distributions. 100 placings of the leaflets onto cars. The print run.

What's (1 word)?

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's held?
Other answers to hindsight-question: The windscreen wipers on cars (as we place leaflets on cars). The temp's cash when he gets paid

What's (2 word)?

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's green paper?
Other answers to hindsight-question: The original draft.

What's (3 words or more)?

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What will appear at the distribution street?
Other answers to hindsight-question: Us. The cars' owners. New cars. Passers-by.

What's (superlative)

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's needed the most consideration?
Other answers: The wording on the leaflets. Who to employ to help me distribute leaflets. Where to distribute the leaflets. The number of leaflets to distribute.

What's (the size of)

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's the size of a paperback book?
Other answers: The plastic bags we are carrying to cover the leaflets (in case of rain). The original draft.

What's (the shape of?)

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's the shape of a rectangle?
Other answers: The plastic bags carried to cover the leaflets. The cash paid to the temp.

What's (coloured X)?

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's coloured green?
Other answers: The back of the leaflets. The draft. Some of the cars that will receive a leaflet. My rivals (!)

What's (action)ing?

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's advertising?
Other answers: Us -- as our presence is seen in the high street.The copy of the leaflet I display at my premises in the window. The project will have been advertised -- to a degree -- to the printer and its staff who saw the advert.

What's (Action...Subject)

Subject = leaflets
Hindsight-question: What's attracting attention?
Other answers: Us. The presence of something on cars will no doubt make some motorists think they have a parking ticket! Our approaching cars and putting leaflets under the windscreen wipers. Our absence at the optician's premises will no doubt be noticed by some (existing) customers.

Tag: creativity

Optician Project: Using random words to list information

2006-08-25T10:02:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

Edward de Bono's random word technique (a random stimulation method) can be used to create ideas. Random words (and phrases) can also be used to help list information. There are three ways that a random word/phrase can be used to list information:

1) Literal interpretation
2) Degree of interpretation
3) Couplet (find connections)

Literal Interpretation

Example:

I'm considering the Optician Project and my random word is "movement". To use this word to list information I create a directive:

Name a project movement.

There are many correct answers of course, and no wrong answers. But my first thought is: the movement that a leaflet makes when a car owner moves a leaflet from under their windscreen wiper.

Degree of interpretation

My random phrase is "record breaker". The directive reads:

Name a project record breaker.

Which poses a problem -- it's difficult to see how any records are broken by the distribution of leaflets. So I add quotation marks to "record breaker" to remind myself to interpret the random phrase to a degree:

Name a project "record breaker".

Which, for me, immediately triggers two responses: the distribution area that produces the most responses (of customers coming to the optician's premises), and the individual (either the temp or me) who distributes the most leaflets in the least amount of time.

Couplets

My random word is "night". However, I can't think of answer -- either a literal interpretation or a degree of interpretation. So I form a couplet in this format:

(Project & night)

and try to find connections between "the project" and "night". A good way to do this is to track backwards and forwards in time.

Possible answers: Some of the leaflets will still be on the cars at night.
I'll be reflecting on the project tonight.
etc.

More examples

Random word = "lady"
Name project lady
Easy: my receptionist or any lady whose car receives a leaflet.

Random phrase = "Star Wars"
Name project Star Wars.
Can't.
Name project "Star Wars"
Can't.
Couplet (Project & Star Wars)
Answer: Star Wars was the most successful film. What's the most successful part of the project? Answers: when a leaflet produces a customer. When the leaflet distribution is completed.
Also, Star Wars was shown at the local cinema -- the cars outside the cinema will be leafleted by us.

Random word = "grow"
Name a project grow
Answer: when the number of leaflets we've distributed gradually increases.

Random phrase = "Buzz Aldrin"
Name a project Buzz Aldrin
Can't.
Name a project "Buzz Aldrin"
Interpretation: the second car to receive a leaflet. The temp -- who is second in command.
Couplet (Project and Buzz Aldrin)
Answer: Buzz Aldrin was a pioneer, and this is a pioneering project (for this, opticians, anyway).

See also: sources for random words

Tag:
creativity

The Optician Project: Inger profiling for the listing of information

2006-08-23T14:07:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician and I'm about to do a project: I'll leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.
Introduction

Question: What future people will like the project?
Possible answers: Me (as optician) -- if custom improves. Customers who get a good deal.

Question: What past activities prompted the project?
Possible answers: Lack of customers coming to the shop. My reading about another optician who did a similar project.

Question: What present place hinders the project?
Possible answer: The local car park -- they won't let us put our leaflets on the cars.

Question: What future object will remember the project?
Possible answer: My diary

I call the above questions prompter-questions and the answers (me, customers, visiting, reading, local car park and diary) I call ingers. An inger is a time(s), duration(s), place(s), person(s), project(s), thing(s), object(s) or activity(ies) that did/does/will carry out an action on the subject in the past, present or future. Inger profiling helps with the listing of information about a subject. The other information listed in answering the prompter-question can also be gathered and the inger profiling can continue until an exhaustive list of information is generated. This information can range from the obvious and important to the obscure.

Applying inger profiling to the optician project

I can use the following table to create a prompter-question that I use to name an inger.

I choose a word from box one, a word from box two and then complete my prompter-question by specifying my subject (in this case, the optician's leaflet distribution project). So past (box one) and place(s) (box two) give:

What past place did (an action) on the leaflet distribution project?

Possible answers I can give to this are:

The printers -- who printed the leaflets.
My home -- where I wrote the first draft for the leaflet.
My desk -- where I stored the leaflets ready for distribution.

So my ingers are: the printers, my home and my desk. The useful information (or focuses) created in the answering of the prompter-question includes: the printing of the leaflets, the leaflets, the writing of the first draft, the first draft itself, the storage of leaflets, preparing for distribution, and the distribution itself.

Specifying the action in the prompter-question

I can continue -- as above -- forming the prompter-questions without a specific action or I can name a specific action -- a verb -- for the action part. (See: How to quickly create a list of verbs). Here are some verbs:

Open: Part: See: Cement: Secure: Pave: Paint: Tow: Towards: Change: Gather: Sweeten: Provoke: Ban: Hate: Display: Steal: Protect: Chase

So to form my prompter-question I choose a word from box one and a word from box two. Then I choose an action from the list above, and finally complete the question by naming my subject. Past, Object(s) and Change gives:

What past object(s) changed the leaflet distribution project?
Possible answers: My PC -- where I designed the leaflet and amended the text. The printer's PC -- where they made cosmetic amendments to the leaflets.

More examples

Future, people(s) and steal gives:
What future people(s) will steal the project?
Possible answers: A local business proprietor could be influenced to do a similar project (He will 'steal' the idea). A youngster passing by a leafleted car could steal the leaflet.

Present, activity(ies) and display gives:
What present activity displays the the project?
Possible answers: Our leaving the premises carrying a bundle of leaflets displays the leaflets. The printer reviewing his accounts will see a record of my investment in their services.

More examples (link to come...)

Tag:
creativity

The Optician Project: Switching the focus

2006-08-22T16:12:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician, I'm about to leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

In the previous post -- Listing key information with category-triggers -- I showed how the category-triggers can be used to list key information. However, when I am doing this listing (or have completed the listing) I can find that my attention is drawn to some information that seems as though it would be a good subject itself for the listing of information with the category-triggers.

For example, when listing places relevant to the leaflet project, one of the places listed was: the optician's premises. The premises would make a worthy subject for the listing of information and I can opt to make the premises my main focus; if I am Mind mapping "the optician's premises" becomes the centre of the Mind map.

Listing key information with category-triggers

As the optician's premises is now my main focus of attention I can apply the procedure described in the last post -- the listing of key information with the category-triggers. However, here's an important point: when I get to the stage of listing projects (of the optician's premises) the first project I should list is the optician's project -- the distribution of the leaflets to attract new customers. It's almost as though the premises and the project have swapped places in the Mind map -- the optician's premises becomes the centre of the Mind map and the project (leaflet distribution) becomes a branch of that Mind map (click to enlarge)

The optician's premises: information listed with category-triggers

Time(s)
Opening time. First customer of day arrives. New stock arrives. Closing time. Anniversary of first opening.

Duration(s)
The Christmas period. The half hour it takes for an eye-test. Weekends. The business year. Purchase made.

Place(s)
The front counter. The display area (for glasses). The front window. The eye-test room. The forecourt.

Project(s)
The leaflet distribution. Arranging the displays. General maintenance. Utilizing latest technology. Finding the right product for each customer.

People(s)
Me (as optician). The receptionist. All customers. Rival opticians. Dissatisfied customers.

Thing(s)
The ambience. The winter/summer temperature. The risk of vandalism/shoplifting. Demand. Size of premises.

Object(s)
Any glasses on display. Contact lenses. The telephone. Eye-test equipment. Furniture.

Activity(ies)
Receiving a phone call. Cleaning. Maintaining records. Greeting customers. Arranging stock layout.

The option to stay mindful of the original focus

It may well be that both the premises and the project (leaflet distribution) are worthy focuses in their own right and can thus be treated as separate entities. However, I may choose to remain mindful of the original focus (the leaflet distribution project) as I list information about the premises. Here is an example of how that can be a valuable strategy:

When I listed places relevant to the premises I listed the forecourt. Now if I turn my attention to the original focus -- the leaflet distribution project -- I see that the leaflets were listed as one of the leaflet distribution project's objects. Turning my thoughts to creativity I can "cross-pollinate" (the forecourt and the leaflets) to create an idea: the forecourt could have an advertising board that is similar in appearance to the leaflets -- same colouring, style and logo etc. Thus the "brand" of this opticians will be more recognisable, and any leaflet-recipient seeking the opticians will immediately recognise the optician's shop as the place they need to go.

Tag:
creativity

The Optician Project: Listing key information with category-triggers

2006-08-22T11:48:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician, I'm about to leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

The Category-triggers

The following category-triggers can be used in any project to help list information -- particularly information that is key to the project.

Time(s) Duration(s) Place(s) Project(s) People(s) Thing(s) Object(s) Activity(ies)

The Optician Project and category-triggers

My aim here is to use the category-triggers to make a preliminary list of key information about the optician project. I want to make a list of five facts for each category-trigger. If I were to create a template to guide my listing it would look as follows:

Using each category-trigger to list information about the optician project

Time(s)

I want to name five key/important times of the project. If I set myself a directive it reads:

Name five key time(s) of the project.

Here are the five I choose:

Time 1 = Briefing the temp on my requirements
Time 2 = Leaving the shop
Time 3 = Putting the first leaflet on the first car
Time 4 = The end of the project
Time 5 = The first customer comes in with a leaflet

Duration(s)

What's the difference between a time and a duration? A time is a specific time and a duration is period of time. There is some overlap, and I can also opt to specify the time a duration begins. My directive for duration(s) reads:

Name five key duration(s) of the project

Duration 1 = The afternoon of leaflet distribution
Duration 2 = Today -- the day of the project
Duration 3 = Ten seconds -- the time it takes to put one leaflet on a car
Duration 4 = Five minutes -- the time it takes me to explain my requirements to the temp
Duration 5 = Six weeks -- the time over which I expect new customers to arrive with leaflets

Place(s)

Again, with place(s) I am responding to a directive:

Name five key place(s) of the project.

Here are my five:

Place 1 = The optician's premises
Place 2 = The street with cars
Place 3 = The location of the first car to receive a leaflet
Place 4 = The location of the last car
Place(s) 5 = The delivery area allocated to the temp

Project(s)

If a project is a number of actions over a period of time working towards an outcome(s) then it's obvious that some sub-projects will occur within the main project. Here are my five:

Project 1 = Designing the leaflet
Project 2 = Printing the leaflet
Project 3 = Putting the leaflet on one car
Project 4 = Greeting and helping the new customers that result from the leaflet distribution
Project 5 = Our returning to the premises after the distribution

People(s)

People 1 = Me (as the optician)
People 2 = The temp
People(s) 3 = Anyone who receives a leaflet
People 4 = My receptionist
People(s) 5 = Anyone who uses the leaflet and visits the opticians

Thing(s)

It's obvious that any of the other category-triggers -- or the information they produce -- could be considered to be a "thing" but this category exists as an option to help me list any miscellaneous items or anything abstract or intangible. I don't worry if I name something that would be better suited to another category; the important thing is to list any relevant information.

Thing 1 = The first impression a leaflet gives
Thing 2 = The way a leaflet is left on a car
Thing 3 = The "feelgood factor" that will occur when the distribution is complete
Thing(s) 4 = The receptionist's thoughts on the project
Thing 5 = The leaflet's colour

Objects

Object(s) 1 = The leaflets
Object 2 = The first leaflet
Object(s) 3 = The windscreen wipers where the leaflets will be placed
Object(s) 4 = Any car that receives a leaflet
Object 5 = The hand that puts a leaflet onto a car

Activity(ies)

Activity 1 = Choosing a car to receive a leaflet
Activity 2 = Allocating fifty leaflets to the temp
Activity 3 = Reflecting on the project at the end of the day
Activity 4 = Putting a leaflet under a windscreen wiper
Activity 5 = Ending the distribution at the point we run out of leaflets

The pool of information

At the end of this exercise I am left with a useful pool of information. At this point I can choose to end the exercise, or complete the exercise again. If I do repeat then "cross-pollination" will occur -- the information/facts in my pool of information will help to trigger yet more information. For example, if I'm repeating the exercise and at the point where I'm listing place(s), then the receptionist (one of the people(s) listed) could trigger thoughts of the places where the leaflets are stored before distribution.

Mind Map

Here's a Mind map (Wikipedia: Mind maps) showing the information prompted by the category-triggers (click to enlarge):

Tag: creativity

The Optician Project: starting out

2006-08-21T15:25:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician, I'm about to leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

If I want to think about this project with a view to creating many focuses and ideas, I will want a starting point -- a handle on which to base my preliminary thoughts. I'll choose a single word to start with, and the word I choose is "project". I can define a project as:

A number of activities that occur over a period of time that work towards an outcome(s).

Applying this definition to my optician project gives:

Activities = putting leaflets on cars
Period of time = this afternoon
Outcome(s) = promoting awareness of my business. Bringing in more customers

So if I refer to "the project" then my staff -- a receptionist and the temp -- know exactly what I'm referring to:
this afternoon's putting of leaflets onto cars to promote the business and attract more customers.

If I were Mind mapping then "the project" would sit proudly at the centre of the Mind map.

Quota Listing

2006-08-17T18:22:00.000+01:00

I'm an optician, I'm about to leave my premises to put advertising leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

Okay, so I'm an optician and I'm sat here ready to distribute the leaflets. Now, suppose that someone walks into my optician's premises and asks "Who's the boss?" Of course, I would answer "I am!" Job done? Question answered satisfactorily? Not necessarily. I can set a quota for my answering of the question; I step into fuzzy-thinking territory and find out how many answers I can create to the question "Who's the boss?"

I call this listing technique quota-listing 25/100. At first I try to create twenty five possible answers to the question and then proceed to thoughts of the first hundred and then beyond. As I do this, I allow a high degree of 'fuzz' in my thinking: I consider how many people could -- even if it's by the smallest, slightest degree -- be labeled "the boss".

The first 25

Boss 1 = me

Boss 2 = my receptionist
Obviously my receptionist plays a pivotal role in the running of the business. So, to a degree, my receptionist is the boss

Boss 3 = my wife
My wife makes a contribution to the business by providing feedback and helping me maintain my well-being.

Boss 4 = the temp
Helping me to distribute the leaflets on this day. A valid contribution to the business

Boss 5 = my most regular customer
Providing regular custom and feedback, and telling their friends and colleagues how good my service is.

Etc to 25

Up to 100

I can opt to complete the listing up to 100, or I can merely acknowledge and entertain the possibility of completing the list to 100; I can ask myself "What sort of person would be numbered 89?" etc.

Boss 38 = the manager of the restaurant next door
How is he the boss? Well, if he provides good food then more customers will come to his shop/the area and thus more people will see my premises.

Boss 50 = the future boss of this opticians
I don't know who he/she is yet, but surely someone will take over the business in the future.

Boss 78 = the editor of the local newspaper who edits my advertisement in the paper
The editor has the power to help my business by printing my adverts.

etc to 100

Beyond 100

I can continue listing beyond 100, or, as discussed before, merely acknowledge the possibility of listing beyond 100. Again I can ask myself questions like "What sort of person would be numbered at 250 or 2400?".

Boss 312 = Tony Blair
Tony Blair? Yes, he's boss to a degree. His decisions will affect the economy and ultimately affect me and my business.

Boss 1045 = my first ever customer
Played a (very minor) role in shaping the business. Made me realise some mistakes I'd made. Put me in a good mood on my first day.

An example of quota-listing for the optician's location

So the question/directive is:

Name the business's location

Location 1 to 25

Location 1 = 22 New Cambridge Road, London
Obviously at number one is the address.

Location 2 = the east end of the street

Location 3 = next to the barber's shop

Location 4 = South England

etc to 25

Location 26 to 100

Location 26 = my home
I take some of my work home. Many important documents are at home. My home address is, in effect, an extension of my work premises.

Location 27 = my car
Contains documents and I spend much time in my car thinking about the business

Location 36 = the map/sign at the end of the road that shows the names of all the shops in this road

Location 57 = the local newsagents: there is an advert for my opticians in the window

Location 89 = the local park
Where I often walk and think about my business

100 plus

Location 101 = the advertisement for my business in Yellow Pages
Another way that my business extends beyond the four walls.

Location 140 = the home of one of my regular customers

Location 812 = the pair of glasses that Mr Rogers bought five months ago
These were once on my premises. There is a chance (and a very slim chance, seeing that this is number 812) that someone will see his glasses (just as they do the glasses on show at my premises) and ask where he bought them.

Location 3063 = the local swimming baths
Providing a great service for opticians: where many people lose contact lenses that need replacing!

etc

The switch to creative mode

There is also a creative mode for quota-listing. Here I make the switch from listing information to trying to generate new ideas. With the listing I was answering the directive:

List (25/100) the boss

but now I set the creative directive:

Create (25/100) bosses

(I colour this blue to differentiate it from the listing.)

The creative-mode is very different from the listing-mode. My first directive reads:

Create boss 1

and I consider what this could mean. The first possibility is this: that I get a partner in the business. I can continue with my creating up to 25:

Create boss 2 = promote my receptionist

Create boss 3 = train the temp in the business

Create boss 4 = start looking for a replacement for when I retire

Create boss(es) 5 = sell shares in the business

etc to 24

26 to 100

There comes a point when I can use the information listed at the listing stage to inspire ideas. For example, number 78 on the list of bosses was: the editor of the local newspaper that prints my advertisements. So although I'm not taking the extreme choice of stepping aside and installing him as boss, I can ask myself how he can play more of a role (a 'boss role', if you like) in the business and pay more of a contribution. The initial answer is obvious: I can proactively ask him if he thinks there is any way my advert in his paper can be improved or if the newspaper can play any role in promoting my business.

Create boss 26 = give the newspaper editor an opportunity to give input

Create boss 36 = (using Tony Blair, number 312 at the listing stage) give Tony Blair a one per cent share in the business. An unusual idea -- perhaps to make some kind of political statement. Sure to attract much publicity. Also, my business could be labeled as a 'typical example of a business' and, at budget time, be used to show how the changes in a budget will affect a typical business.

Create boss 78 = (using 1045 from the listing -- the first ever customer) give some randomly chosen customers the chance to give feedback. Maybe by some market research by phone or maybe by actually bringing them to the premises and asking them for feedback on my services and procedures.

100 plus

Create boss 101 = collaborate with the other shopkeepers in this street: create a "shopkeepers club" where the owners meet up regularly and discuss ways to promote the area and each business

Create boss 983 = utilize passers-by. Stop them and say "Ten seconds of your time. What's your first impression of this opticians as you pass?"

Create boss 4038 = Find the remotest opticians in the world and install it as a 'twin' opticians (like the twin-towning scheme).

Tags:
creativity ideas idea generation brainstorming

Starting-point for creative challenges. Thinking strategies

2006-08-16T21:18:00.000+01:00

I spotted this situation on Psychology Blog. In short, an optician has decided to publicise his business by printing flyers and putting them on vehicles in the area. I want to use this situation to demonstrate some thoughts on creativity.

I'll put myself into the position of the optician (at a specific time):

I'm an optician, I'm about to leave my premises to put leaflets on the windscreens of local cars. I have hired a temp to help me distribute the leaflets. We have fifty leaflets each to distribute.

A starting-point and initial thinking strategies

What I want to do is consider if there's a starting-point (initial focus) for considering this challenge (or any creative challenge) and investigate if there are some fundamental initial thinking strategies that can develop the starting-point in order to create different ideas, options, focuses, tangents and perspectives -- such as (with me as the optician):

I could do this leaflet distribution on a weekly basis.
I could have made these leaflets in the shape of glasses instead of rectangular -- that would grab more attention.
I could get the temp to dress up in a novelty costume.
I could've contacted an advertising professional or agency to get feedback on the effectiveness of such a scheme.
There is a man selling flowers at the side of the road. I could ask him to give a leaflet to anyone who buys his flowers.
If any passers-by seem curious about what we are doing I will give them a leaflet.
Tomorrow I will print another 100 leaflets and put them through local doors.
I will offer a service to all opticians in London where I'll print their leaflets and employ someone to distribute them.
I'll do some research about the wording of advertisements and see if my choice of words is effective (as discussed on Psychology Blog).
I can get really creative and create some fictional research. Such as: research shows that people are more likely to read a leaflet if it's square rather than rectangular.
Stuff this! I'm going down the pub!
I'm fed up with being an optician -- I want to be a taxi driver.

Care to add to my list of two-word ideas?

2006-08-16T17:17:00.000+01:00

See BrainReactions post

Posthumous knighthoods
Robot Olympics
Drunken speed-dating (hmmm, bit of a cheat)
Child honours
Octogenarian Olympics

Thoughts thoughts thoughts and things...

2006-08-15T21:00:00.000+01:00

Just throwing some ideas/thoughts into the blogosphere. I'm putting the ideas on my shadow blog

Creating ideas for the Global Ideas Bank

Compensatory Magic

In order to/which leads to

A quick method for creating ideas

2006-08-12T17:29:00.000+01:00

This method has four stages:

1) Find an object
2) Name a part of that object that exists in multiple form
3) Change a small number of those parts, or add a small number of new forms of that part
4) Use a random word to change those parts

Example

1) Find an object (using naming/listing).

For this example my object is: an ice-cube tray.

2) Name a part of that object that exists in multiple form.

There are many individual cube "cells" in an ice-cube tray.

3) Change a small number of those parts, or add a small number of new forms of that part.

I apply the changes to one, two or three of the parts. I'll focus on the existing parts of an ice-cube tray -- the cube cells -- and I'll opt to change three.

4) Use a random word to change those parts

This can take the format:

Three of the ice-cube cells are X cells

I can consider any immediate changes that are triggered , or I can use a random word to help create ideas. Initially, without a random word, I'm thinking that the cube cells could be rectangular. This would have benefits -- it would be easier to remove an ice cube from a rectangular cell as more leverage would be possible. But with the random words: device, queen and constant I get:

Three of the ice-cube cells are device cells.
Which could suggest that some of the cells could have a device that speeds the icing of the water.

Three of the ice-cube cells are queen cells.
Which suggest that three of the cells could be more important than all the others. Maybe they could be much bigger. Perhaps there could be an ice-cube tray that doesn't have any cells -- it would be just a rectangular box and you would have to break up the ice after freezing according to how much ice you need.

Three of the ice-cube cells are constant cells.
A means of keeping the cells at the same temperature -- even when the ice-cube tray is removed? There could be a device that wraps round the tray to keep the cubes frozen when you know you will need a few.

Creating "What if?" questions: the trigger

2006-08-12T16:32:00.000+01:00

Considering the following "What if?" questions:

What if animals became more intelligent than people?
What if we had edible clothing?

I could conclude that, if these events were actualised, the results would be:

Animals are more intelligent than people
Clothing is edible.

What's the source or origin of these changes? I could consider that the origin is me -- as a god, omnipotent being, possessor of magical powers (or whatever) I would be able to effect the changes. I would be the trigger of the changes. I can rewrite the WI? questions thus:

What if I make animals more intelligent than people?
What if I make clothing edible?

Other triggers can be considered:

Ation triggers

An ation is simply any action carried out on an object. So, with the "What if?" question:

What if committing a crime makes you smell bad?

The ation is "committing a crime". I can opt to create a word for the ation. With "committing a crime" it could be something like "CC-ation". So CC-ation is the trigger that makes you smell bad. Here are some more ations:

Riding a bike
Meeting an old friend
Brushing your teeth
Buying a car

Any of these could be used as the trigger for a WI? action:

What if riding a bike makes the rider ill?
What if brushing your teeth makes your teeth smell unpleasant?
What if buying a car makes the car increase in value?

Random word triggers

I can also opt to make any single random word a trigger for the changes. With nighttime, shouting, and viruses:

What if nighttime makes people fall asleep instantly?
What if shouting makes your IQ double?
What if viruses make you psychic?

Specific categories for triggers

I can also create triggers based on the following categories:

Time (duration), Place (area), Person(s), Thing, Object, Activity.

I can use one of these categories in a WI? question:

What if a time makes your legs paralysed?

and then name a specific time (or duration) for the "time". Thus:

What if the midnight hour makes your legs paralysed?

Creating "What if?" questions: sentence restructuring

2006-08-12T15:55:00.000+01:00

With the sentence-restructuring technique for "What if?" questions I simply write an existing WI? question, choose a word in the question and restructure the sentence to make that word the last word in the sentence. This last word becomes the focus word.

So with the WI? question:

What if the air could think?

I choose the word "air". Restructuring the sentence to make "air" the last word leads to:

What if thinking could be done by air?

and "air" becomes the focus-word.

Changing the focus-word

There are three ways I can change the focus-word: replace it, name/list, reverse-reach followed by naming/listing.

Replacing the focus-word

To replace the focus-word I simply choose a random word to take its place:

What if thinking could be done by: smells, guns, alarms, television? etc.

Naming/Listing the focus-word

I can apply the naming/listing approach to the focus-word. The aim is to produce a list of many different types of air:

Bad air, smelly air, air exhaled in a breath, subterranean air, smokey air etc.

Any/all of these can be selected as a focus-word:

What if thinking could be done by the air exhaled in a breath?

(See also 500 uses for a paperclip: stepping up the concept level and naming/listing which covers this approach in more detail.)

Reverse-reach followed by naming/listing

With this approach I consider the focus-word -- air -- and apply reverse-reach followed by naming/listing. With reverse-reach I consider questions that could have been asked that made me give "air" as an answer. Such as:

Name something that's all around us
Name something that goes in your mouth
Name something that contains nitrogen
Name something you can't see

I can choose one of these and give an alternative answer. So if I choose "Name something that goes in your mouth" I can answer:

Toothbrush, food, drink, flies, whistle etc.

Then I can apply naming/listing to any of these. With "drink" I could list:

Baby drinks, alcoholic drinks, rare drinks, fizzy drinks etc.

Then I can choose any of these to complete my WI? question:

What if thinking could be done by alcoholic drinks?

Applying sentence restructuring again

I can continue the sentence restructuring on any WI? question created. With the WI? question:

What if thinking could be done by the air exhaled in a breath?

I could restructure it thus:

What if thinking could be done by the exhaled breath's air?

and change the focus-word in any of the three ways discussed above:

What if thinking could be done by the exhaled breath's micro-organisms?
What if thinking could be done by the exhaled breath's moist air?
What if thinking could be done by the exhaled breath's carbon dioxide?

Creating "What if?" questions: total conversion

2006-08-12T14:48:00.000+01:00

This technique can be used to create "What if?" questions such as:

What if we had mouths in the palms of our hands?
What if people had wheels for feet?
What if people had pliers for hands?
What if human bones were made of glass?
What if the air could think?

These questions can be created with two techniques: total conversion and piecemeal conversion.

Total conversion technique

With the total conversion technique, one subject (usually an object) simply converts/turns into another object. Using this approach I name a subject-object (using naming/listing) and name a target-object (also with naming/listing).

Example:

Subject-object = eyelid. Target-object = bottle opener. What if = What if eyelids became bottle openers?

Subject-object = newspaper. Target-object = coelacanth. What if = What if newspapers became coelacanths?

Gradual conversion technique

With gradual conversion, I consider how an object could make a piecemeal conversion into another object, usually by considering how only one characteristic could change at one time. So if I have created the "What if?" question:

What if the air became a brain?

I can list one characteristic of the brain (perhaps by asking a question such as: "How (insert adjective) is the brain?") which could be: intelligence. So, as part of the air's "journey" towards becoming a brain, the intelligence of the air would be the first characteristic to change. In effect, I would be left with "intelligent air".

At that point I can either stop or opt to carry on the air's conversion to a brain by considering another characteristic.

Creating What If? questions: conversion by degree

2006-08-12T13:33:00.000+01:00

This technique can be used to create "What if?" questions such as:

What if animals became more intelligent than people?
What if we had edible clothing?
What if gravity were twice as strong?
What if your sense of smell amplified by a factor of 100?
What if diamonds became the most fragile substance?
What if all the children suddenly became adults?
What if farm animals stopped reproducing?
What if all the dead people came back to life?
What if all your daydreams became public?

Five stages

There are five stages to conversion by degree:

1) Choosing a subject
2) Asking "How X is the subject"?
3) Providing the "X" for part two by creating a list of adjectives
4) Increasing or decreasing the degree of the "X"
5) Forming the "What if?" questions

1) Choosing a subject

To choose a subject I use the naming/listing technique. For this example, my subject is "accidents". The random word "green" creates a naming/listing directive:

Name green accidents

Which could be: accidents that affect the environment = oil spills.

For this example "oil spills" is my subject.

2) Asking "How X is the subject?"

At this stage I ask:

How X are oil spills?

I need an adjective for the "X".

3) Providing the "X" for part two by creating a list of adjectives

There are systematic techniques I can use to create a list of adjectives. Using some of those techniques for this example I create the adjectives:

Silent, allowed, recorded, red, pretentious, nasty, patriotic, small

I randomly choose one of these adjectives -- allowed -- and complete my question thus:

How allowed are oil spills?

I can consider that oil spills are legal, but frowned upon.

4) Increasing or decreasing the degree of the "X"

Next I increase or decrease the degree of the adjective -- in this case: allowed. I can opt to either slightly change the degree or change it by an extreme amount.

5) Forming the "What if?" question

I can form my "What if?" question from considerations resulting from a slight or extreme change of degree. With the oil-spill example I opt for an extreme decrease in the degree to which oil spills are allowed:

What if oil spills were totally forbidden and punishment for offenders is draconian?

More examples

1) Choose subject: Name a cash word = money.
2) Ask "How X is subject?"
3) Provide adjective(s): decent, toxic, automatic, friendly.
"Toxic" gives: How toxic is money?
4) Increasing/decreasing the adjective: money becomes fatally toxic
5) Form "What if?" question: What if handling money were fatal?

1) Subject: Articulated lorries
2) How X are articulated lorries?
3) Adjective = "lazy" gives: How lazy are articulated lorries?
4) Increase degree: articulated lorries become so "lazy" that they stop moving.
Decrease degree: articulated lorries become less lazy (energetic) to the point that they never stop moving
5) "What if?" questions:
What if all the articulated lorries stopped working?
What if it became impossible to stop all lorries?
or (with a little imagination): What if articulated lorries didn't need petrol?

1) Subject: Name horse accident = falling off a horse
2) How X is falling off a horse?
3) Adjective = "speedy". How speedy is falling off a horse?
4) Increase degree: Your fall from a horse is so fast that you are sure to be hurt
Decrease degree: As soon as you fall from a horse you float to the ground in slow-motion
5) "What if?" questions:
What if all falls from a horse were fatal or resulted in serious injuries?
What if you knew that you couldn't be injured while horse riding?

By-products and imagination

Notice how WI? questions can be the by-product of other WI? questions. A little imagination can lead to interesting considerations:

What if we stayed drunk for a week?
What if intoxication only lasted an hour?
(Both products of changing the degree of longevity of intoxication)

can lead to questions such as:

What if pills could be taken to reduce levels of intoxication?
What if you couldn't work for a week?
What if hangovers lasted a week?
What if you could get drunk instantly?

"What if?" Questions

2006-08-12T13:30:00.000+01:00

Here are some great "What if?" questions from Roger von Oech:

What if animals became more intelligent than people?
What if we had mouths in the palms of our hands?
What if men also had babies?
What if we had edible clothing?
What if we elected our officials by lottery?
What if human life expectancy were 150 years?
What if people exuded a foul smell from every pore whenever they did anything bad?
What if people had wheels for feet?
What if you had no memory whatsoever of your first ten years?
What if people had pliers for hands?
What if human bones were made of glass?
What if there were no trees?
What if you could only talk one hour a day?
What if gravity were half as strong?
What if people ate only one meal every two days?
What if people exuded a terrible smell from all their pores whenever they behaved unethically?
What if all human beings died at the age of 50?
What if your sense of smell were amplified by a factor of 100?
What if trees developed the ability to move themselves up to 2 meters a day?
What if all right angles (90 degrees) were prohibited in all new construction?
What if every person was required to spend at least two years outside of the country where they were born?

I have created some systematic techniques to create "What if?" questions so that their creation is less dependent on huge "creative leaps":

Creating "What if?" questions: conversion by degree
Creating "What if?" questions: total conversion
Creating "What if?" questions: sentence restructuring
Creating "What if?" questions: the trigger

Tags:

creativity ideas idea generation what if

Paperclipology: finding key facts with the suffix and stem methods

2006-08-07T19:10:00.000+01:00

(Part of the "Name five hundred uses for a paperclip" project.)

The suffix method

This is a quick method that can help with the listing of key information about a subject -- in this case, paperclips. I start out with my subject:

Paperclip

and simply add a suffix to the word to see what the 'new' word suggests. For example, the suffixes (pl?) "er", "ing", "able" and "ish" give "paperclipper", "paperclipping", "papperclippable" and "paperclippish" which suggest:

Paperclipper = someone who uses a paperclip (or perhaps someone who assists in the manufacturing in some way)
Paperclipping = using a paperclip
Paperclippable = something that can be paperclipped
Paperclippish = like a paperclip

Finding more suffixes

Random words can be used to provide new suffixes. With this approach I take a few letters from the end of the word -- or even the whole word -- to use as my suffix:

Tesco -- take "co" to give: paperclip-co = a company that makes paperclips
Plant -- take "plant" to give: paperclip-plant = the area of a company where the manufacturing occurs
Eyebank -- take "bank" to give: paperclip-bank = any receptacle for paperclips
Duplicity -- take "icity" to give: paperclipicity = dexterity with a paperclip (?)

Obviously not every word will provide a workable suffix and often a little imagination is needed to find/create a meaning. The good suffixes (such as "ing", "er" and "able" etc) are worth remembering as they will work with any other subject.

Creating a stem

It can be worth removing letters from the end of the word to give a new word that can be used with the suffix method. Removing "clip" from "paperclip" gives "paper" which is obviously very pertinent to the challenge.

Paperer = someone that uses paper
Papering = using paper
Paperable = something capable of being printed on paper or made with paper
Paperish = like paper
etc.

A brainstorming tip: systematically memorizing ten ideas and interesting thoughts from a brainstorm

2006-08-06T10:00:00.000+01:00

This is a routine I've developed that I apply at the end of a brainstorm. I make a list of ten items from the brainstorm -- combining interesting ideas and interesting thoughts -- and systematically memorize them. Thus I can run through the list at later dates and see if the grey matter can provide any further insights or ideas.

Memory Systems

I use the memory systems documented by the likes of Tony Buzan and Harry Lorayne (his The Memory Book (with Jerry Lucas) introduced me to memory systems). The number-shape peg system is a good method. With this method you write the numbers 0 - 9 and consider what objects the numbers resemble.

0 = hole in the ice
1 = telegraph pole
2 = swan
3 = breasts
etc.

Then you write your list of ten items and associate each item (often using ridiculous, exaggerated imagery) with the number-shape objects.

0 (hole in the ice) + 'what if you had to buy a cat every time you buy a dog?' = see a mischievous dog throwing a terrified cat down a hole in the ice

1 (telegraph pole) + Idea: a second water supply to each house with untreated water for use in the garden = see your neighbour climbing a telegraph pole to access a tap at the top

etc.

Fake dinosaur trivia

Here's some "fake dinosaur trivia" I have memorized and that I keep reviewing:

1) Some dinosaurs were so dumb they would literally attack their own reflection in water
2) A dinosaur desperately in need of fluid would pierce its own skin and drink its blood
3) Some sea-dwelling dinosaurs would produce a "siren call" that would lure unsuspecting dinosaurs into the water
4) Some dinosaurs would "play dead" before attacking an unsuspecting prey
5) A dinosaur would never attack a dinosaur of the same species
6) Smaller dinosaurs had larger territories than larger dinosaurs
7) If a carnivore ate a herbivore the carnivore would vomit the contents of the herbivore's stomach
8) The T-rex could run faster on an incline than it could on level ground
9) Some carnivores could guarantee themselves a greater number of prey by producing a rancid smell that would scare other carnivores from the area
10) The dinosaurs died out when herbivores starting killing other herbivores to use as decoys

A creative exercise: spotting no action in an action

2006-08-05T19:22:00.001+01:00

This is a creative exercise I like. I name an action and consider how that action is not occurring. It's a very good creative challenge and helps to uncover some unusual focuses. I use the format:

When (action) is occurring how is (action) not occurring?

So with the action "running" I consider:

When I am running how am I not running?

I try to name about ten ways that the action is not occurring -- even if they are only applicable to a slight degree or a bit of a cheat.

1) At times my elbows are kind of traveling in the opposite direction
2) As I'm running I'm getting nearer to the end of my run (when I'll be not running)
3) As my feet hit the floor my shoe soles stay on the floor for a moment
4) My mind can be elsewhere -- I'm daydreaming about anything other than running!
5) I'm not flat out -- so I'm nearer to stopping than I could be
6) If I'm looking at something in the distance I don't perceive my movement as much
7) If I were watching the action from outer space the turn of the earth would seem to cancel out any movement
8) Sometimes my shoe soles will slip an imperceptible amount, thus making me closer to falling than running
9) There will be some fluctuations in my pace: sometimes I will speed up slightly, sometimes slow down
10) If I'm breathing heavily then my attention may be on my breathing rather than the actual running

Another example

Action = watching television.
When I'm watching television how am I not watching television?

1) I blink
2) Sometimes I will be distracted by something in the room
3) I will reach for the remote control to view teletext
4) My mind can wander off while I'm watching
5) I won't pay as much attention if there's a commercial break
6) I won't pay much attention to the breaks between programmes
7) If it's getting late my thoughts may be turning to sleep
8) It's impossible to give the TV one hundred percent attention
9) I'm partially aware of my surroundings: is the phone ringing? Is someone at the door?
10) The size of the screen is actually quite small; if it were bigger than naturally the TV would receive more attention from me.

How to create new ideas for existing TV shows

2006-08-05T14:20:00.000+01:00

Here is a simple approach that can create ideas for new episodes of existing TV shows. There are four stages:

List TV shows
List simple information about the show
Represent the simple information
State the information in "idea form" and apply changes to the focus word

List TV shows

I start by making a list of TV shows. I can do this by using a resource such as the IMDB (which lists TV shows in addition to movies) or by triggering my memory using naming/listing (I have a thing about everything being achievable with just a pen and paper -- "imagination is greater than knowledge" and all that).

List simple information about the show

For this example I will choose the Antiques Roadshow. I want to list simple, key information about the show. I can do this in two ways: by finding key information in the title or by making a simple description of the show.

Information in the title:

Information contained within the title "Antiques Roadshow" is: antiques, roadshow, road and show.

Simple description:

I can imagine making a simple description of the show to someone who's never heard of or seen the show: it's a show where members of the public bring in antiques and have them valued by experts.

Representing this information

I represent this information in the format "Antiques Roadshow has X" which, with my information gathered, gives:

Antiques Roadshow has antiques
Antiques Roadshow has roadshow
Antiques Roadshow has road (the location)
Antiques Roadshow has show
Antiques Roadshow has members of the public
Antiques Roadshow has valuations
Antiques Roadshow has experts

State the information in "idea form" and apply changes to the focus word

I choose one of the above items of information, and write it in "idea form". Thus:

The new Antiques Roadshow has antiques.

The last word in the sentence -- antiques -- is the focus word. I will be carrying out two kinds of operation on the focus word -- naming/listing and reverse-reach -- to generate the ideas.

Naming/listing the focus word

(See also 500 uses for a paperclip: stepping up the concept level and naming/listing which discusses this technique.)

At this stage I want to name as many examples of antiques as I can. Here are some examples:

Book antiques = antique books. July antiques = antiques made in July. Half antiques = unfinished antiques. Proper antiques = antiques that are, without doubt, authentic. Wish antiques = the most desirable antiques. Pretend antiques = antique toys. Ship antiques = antiques in transit. David Soul antiques = valuable props from TV shows. 100 antiques = antiques that are one hundred years old.

Once this listing has been completed the "idea form" sentence is made into the final idea by adding any/all of the information listed above. So if I choose "the most desirable antiques" my sentence reads:

The new Antiques Roadshow has the most desirable antiques.

So this would suggest an episode of the show where the most desirable antiques are featured -- perhaps something like the top-ten of antiques by auction value, or the top-ten most valuable museum exhibits in the country etc.

Reverse-reach

With the reverse-reach operation I consider the focus word -- antiques -- and consider a question that someone could have posed that made me give "antiques" as an answer. For example:

Name something that burglars take
Name something old
Name a valuable object
Name something made by craftsmen that is valuable at a later date
Name something you'd see at the Queen's residences

I choose one of these. For this example I'll choose "valuable object". Next I treat "valuable object" as a concept in its own right and apply the naming/listing technique to valuable-object.

Dog valuable-object = diamond encrusted collar. Controversial valuable-object = abstract art. Equipment valuable-object = tools used by the Stradivarius family. Baby valuable-object = Elvis's dummy.

When the listing is complete I can choose either the prompter question (controversial valuable-object) or the answer (abstract art) to be used in the "idea form" sentence:

The new Antiques Roadshow has controversial valuable objects

or

The new Antiques Roadshow has abstract art

Perhaps the episode could be called "That's an antique?!" and would feature items that have an unexpected high value etc. such as works of art that consist of a canvas painted totally black.

500 uses for a paperclip: stepping up the concept level and naming/listing

2006-08-05T13:32:00.000+01:00

Stepping up the concept level

There's a solitary red paperclip on my desk that needs five hundred uses. However, when considering that challenge, am I creating uses for that paperclip, all red paperclips, all paperclips in general, or what? What I like to do at the start of a brainstorming challenge is "up" the concept level to dictionary level. On a written brainstorm I remind myself of the need to do this by writing:

The paperclip is a paperclip

where the latter paperclip is the paperclip(s) I would consider as a result of reading a dictionary definition.

Naming/listing

Now that I know I am considering paperclips at the dictionary-level of a concept I can start naming and listing paperclips. The directive can read:

Name paperclip

and I can name paperclips off the top of my head, but I can improve the search by using the directive:

Name X paperclip

where the "X" will be replaced with a random word to help list more paperclip examples.

Naming/listing: using words of two or three letters

For my directive's "X" I usually start by using words of two or three letters. With the random word "key" My directive reads:

Name key paperclip.

I try to list two or three types of key paperclip:

Important paperclips, paperclips used as a keyring, the first ever paperclip manufactured.

Uncovering the "hidden" examples

I like to create a considerable list with the two/three letters approach. This helps to create a multifarious list and uncover the "hidden" examples. For example, the directive:

Name sad paperclip

made me think of an unusual example of a paperclip: Office Assistant. Copious listing helps to uncover more examples -- both the obvious and non-obvious -- and map out the terrain for the challenge.

Using longer words and naming concepts

For my naming/listing directive I can use any random word. So for example:

Name famous paperclip

made me think of this: I traded one red paperclip for a house

However, sometimes a directive will suggest a concept that is worth considering in its own right. With the directive:

Name future paperclip

I can name examples of future paperclips (paperclips I will own, future designs of paperclips etc.) or I can conclude that the concept of future-paperclip is worth listing and remembering in its own right. I can represent this concept with a hybrid-word or opt to make up a neologism.

Using the hybrid-word to list more examples

I can use the above hybrid-word future-paperclip to list more examples. With the directive:

Name next future-paperclip

I could consider: the next paperclip to arrive on the market, paperclips that will by used at the store Next, mooted paperclip designs etc.

Name 500 uses for a paperclip: starting out

2006-08-05T11:35:00.000+01:00

As I start out on the classic brainstorming challenge about naming as many uses for a paperclip as possible, there are a number of preliminary stages that I consider:

Switching to present moment awareness
Stating the creative directive
Stepping up the concept level
Naming/Listing

Switching to present moment awareness

Instead of rushing into the exercise of creating uses for the paperclip I can start out by considering present moment awareness. This takes the form:

Now Here Me Doing: creating 500 uses for a paperclip

The full benefits of this will be considered in a later post. But briefly, this information can be changed with the sentence restructuring technique to provide different insights into the challenge and maybe create some other challenges. I could rearrange the information to read:

Creating 500 uses for a paperclip is being done here now by me.

With "me" as the focus word I could consider alternatives such as asking others to participate in the project, etc.

Stating the creative directive

The creative directive reads:

Create 500 uses for a paperclip

As before, the sentence restructuring approach can provide variations or insights into the challenge. So if I rearranged the information to read:

There are 500 uses for a paperclip that you must create

then with "create" as the focus-word I can generate other alternatives such as:

List 500 uses for a paperclip
Find 500 uses for a paperclip
Improve 500 uses for a paperclip.

Stepping up the concept level and naming/listing

A quick method for highlighting general problems

2006-08-02T18:21:00.000+01:00

In a nutshell: find a subject. Increase or decrease the degree of a characteristic of the subject. Consider problems that would be caused by that. Use those problems to identify real-world problems.

A quick method for highlighting general problems

There are five stages to this method:

1) Find a subject
2) Identify a characteristic of that subject
3) Increase or decrease the degree of that characteristic
4) Consider what problems would be caused by the change of degree
5) Use that problem to highlight 'normal' problems of the subject

Finding a subject

I find a subject using the method I've used in many posts on this blog: the naming/listing method. For this example I'm going to use the template:

Name X object/thing

where the "X" is provided by a random word. With the random word "super" my template reads:

Name super object

I choose: a Superman outfit available for hire from a fancy dress shop.

Identify a characteristic of the subject

I create a list of adjectives and use an adjective to complete a template such as:

How X is it?

With "creative" as my adjective I now consider:

How creative is the superman outfit?

Well, Superman outfits aren't normally noted for their creativity! Never mind...on to the next stage.

Increase or decrease the degree of the characteristic

I opt to increase the degree of creativity of the Superman outfit. What does this mean? To me this suggests that the wearer of the outfit would become more creative. I can continue increasing the degree of the creativity (perhaps even dipping into thoughts on fiction).

Consider problems caused by the change of degree

With the outfit wearer enjoying undreamed of levels of creativity one problem is obvious...they wouldn't want to give the suit back.

Use that problem to highlight 'normal' problems of the subject

The fantasy problem of the wearer not wanting to give the suit back relates to a real problem: people hiring outfits from the fancy dress shop and returning them late. But I can also look to consider other problems that would be caused: wear-and-tear of the outfit, popularity of the outfit leading to high demand, the shop stocking enough outfits to cater for all sizes etc.

More examples

Object: shower head
Characteristic: blind
Question: How blind is it? As a shower cannot be blind, maybe the blindness could extend to the user of the shower.
Problem(s) caused: shower user wouldn't be able to see control for power and temperature
Real problem: finding a comfortable level for power and temperature.

Object: dog food
Characteristic: furry
Question: how furry is it? Not at all. Make it furrier and furrier.
Problem: dog can't eat food.
Real problems: leftover food. Smell of dog food. Cleaning dirty dog dishes.

Object: fish pond
Question: how picturesque is it? Quite. Make it more picturesque until it's stunningly beautiful.
Problem: theft of plants. High maintenance.
Real problems: theft of garden implements. Herons eating fish. Chore of regularly feeding fish.

A couple of thoughts

2006-08-01T20:01:00.000+01:00

Here's a couple of things that I've been thinking about lately and that I'd like to pursue when I get a chance.

The start of a creative challenge

Suppose I worked for the BBC and I my creative challenge was: devise an advert for The Apprentice show. There would be a point in the future when my goal to devise a great advert would (hopefully) be realised. However, would there be any value in considering how the goal has already been realised to a degree (even the smallest, almost imperceptible degree) before I've even started working on my challenge? Here are some initial thoughts:

The show itself is already -- to a degree -- an advert as people can switch on the TV and see the show.

The show appears in the TV listings. These too are adverts.

There are already adverts made for other TV shows on the same channel. These will make people more likely to watch TV and thus -- by chance -- happen upon The Apprentice.

This Apprentice example maybe isn't the best example, but I'll consider this approach and see if it offers any insights into creative problem solving. Maybe such thoughts could be used to help list information about a subject or even redefine a challenge. Jump in if you have any thoughts.

Ideas in flux

I've always thought of an idea as a kind of ultimate final product of a number of novel combinations. But what if any idea -- and its components -- is constantly in a state of flux: the 'final' idea is actually just a stage of the journey of a greater idea? Could a kind of 'next stage' of a journey be crafted so that an idea evolves into new ideas and greater concepts are uncovered?

The Listing Point

2006-07-30T15:00:00.000+01:00

During a brainstorm I often find that an idea (or broader concept) is created that can be easily developed into more ideas by merely replacing one word in the idea. I call this the listing point; clever thought experiments and cerebral dexterity are forgotten for the moment and the focus is one activity alone -- listing.

Example

Suppose I have created the idea "Put adverts for hangover remedies on the bottom of beer bottles (or glasses)". I can step up to a broader concept level with a directive such as:

Put adverts in an unusual place

Now at the listing-point all I have to do is make a list of places and then consider if each of the places could be an interesting location for an advert.

Listing places

List George place
Possibilities: George Harrison's house. The "By George" clothing section of ASDA supermarkets. George Galloway's constituency. The Big Brother house (George Galloway was a housemate in Celebrity Big Brother).

List light place: a street light, the London Planetarium, the sun, lampshade section of a shop. Oxford Street at Christmas.

etc.

Forcing ideas

With a gun-to-head mentality I ensure that I force an idea from each of the places listed:

The blue plaque on George Harrison's house could be shaped like a guitar, with the body providing the information and the fretboard showing an advert for a guitar shop (sacrilegious, I know).

The mirrors in the changing-rooms of the "By George" clothing section could have adverts for image consultants.

George Galloway's office could advertise cat food (what else?)

etc.

The joy of the listing-point is that I can continue listing all day and I know that ideas will result; I can expect a high "failure rate" but I know that quantity eventually breeds quality. Here are some recent ideas I've created by considering interesting places to put adverts:

Adverts for headache remedies on the soles of a boxer's shoes.

The white sphere of a nuclear power station painted to resemble and advertise a make of golf ball.

The phone number of taxi cab offices on the bottom of glasses.

Adverts (for any product) on the walls of the tunnels on the underground.

Cut off their dicks

2006-07-30T12:24:00.000+01:00

In the early days of BrainReactions' Brainstorming Tool I decided to test the site by posting the following challenge: How can you stop people urinating in public swimming pools? One of the responses was "Cut off their dicks". Now, I suppose flippant responses could be viewed as irritants, but the interesting thing is that BR brainstorming forum doesn't suffer from the problem that many forums suffer from: lack of posts. There seems to be a steady rate of new challenges and suggestions.

Any brainstorm can benefit from a wide range of responses ranging from the outrageous and ridiculous to the sensible. The outrageous suggestions (or challenges) surely help to reduce the inhibitions of new posters..."If others are clowning then my own ideas won't seem so ridiculous". It helps to keep the posts and suggestions flowing.

Gathering momentum

To help a forum maintain its momentum I reckon that answers to brainstorms could be made within six categories: standard, outrageous, two/three word only, two/three word outrageous, redefining the problem and magical solutions. Here are some examples of the six-categories approach used with the above problem:

Standard - add dye to the water that changes colour when someone urinates
Outrageous - make offenders drink chlorinated water
Two/three words - Life bans
Two/three words outrageous - Name and shame
Redefining problem (using "why and why again" technique) - Why do you want to solve the problem? Because swimmers will know that the water is clean and healthy. New problem = how can we ensure (and make patrons aware) that the water is clean and healthy?
Magical solutions - Create organisms that eat pollutants

I'm sure that more categories could be devised; naturally, one would have to be mindful of the KISS rule (Keep It Short and Simple) to avoid overcomplicating things.

A lifespan for responses

It could also be worthwhile giving posters the option to state the lifespan of responses: maybe a poster could opt for their response to 'die' after 24 hours? Thus the clowns could go on clowning with impunity :)

Coat hangers: advanced labeling of the subject

2006-07-29T14:08:00.000+01:00

See previous post: Coat hanger: creating variations of an idea with X-versions

With this approach I use a more advanced method to label my X-version. In the previous post my labeling of the coat hanger was simple, such as:

City version
Name version
Fictional-city version
etc.

With this approach I use adjectives (and words/phrases with an adjectival function). I create a list of adjectives and, considering the coat hanger, form a prompter question in the format:

How X is it?

where the 'X' is an adjective chosen from my list.

There are two ways to respond to the prompter questions. The 'retort' method and the TAD (to a degree) method.

The Retort Method

Suppose that my random adjective is "glass". My prompter question reads:

How glass is the coat hanger?

For my "retort" I can say "It's not glass, it's wooden". Thus "wooden" becomes my "X" for my X-version:

Wooden version of coat hanger.

I can then go on to consider alternative materials for the coat hanger. Plastic coat hangers and metal coat hangers are obvious choices, but the methods discussed in the previous post can expand on these possibilities.

The TAD (to a degree) Method

With the TAD method I consider how the adjective in the prompter question is true to a degree. For example, if my random adjective is "mountainous" then my prompter question reads:

How mountainous is the coat hanger?

Usually I would consider that the hanger isn't mountainous in any way or form, but I want to consider how this is true to a small degree. Perhaps I could say:

The coat hanger is mountainous in that it has buildings of varying height, like the mountains in a mountain range.

Now I use this information to create the "X" for my X-version:

Buildings-of-various-heights version

and I can use that at the start of my search for alternatives, as discussed in the previous post. Here are some initial thoughts:
With my focus on the varying heights of the buildings I can consider the possibility of varying the heights of the buildings even more -- maybe some of the buildings could extend beyond the frame of the coat hanger? Another assumption uncovered there -- that the thing depicted by the coat hanger must be inside the frame.

More examples of the Retort and TAD methods using random adjectives

Random adjective = liquid. Prompter question = How liquid is the coat hanger? Retort = It's not liquid, it's solid. TAD = It's liquid in that some human sweat will be on the hanger.
Solid version:
Alternatives possible: half solid/half liquid version. Idea: perhaps a hanger made of clear plastic with a 'snowstorm' kind of effect inside?
Human-sweat-on-hanger version:
Alternatives possible: versions totally covered in sweat. Thought: the sweat would have a cooling effect; what about coat hangers that warm clothes? (A slight tangent there.)

Random adjective (actually, a random word forced to function as an adjective) = book. Prompter question = How book is the coat hanger? Retort = It's not a book, it's a coat hanger. TAD = It's a book in that you would probably read the name of the manufacturer on the hanger.
Coat hanger version:
Thoughts: why not consider other types of coat hangers and clothes racks? Idea: A coat stand with a city depicted in some way? A Nelson's Column coat stand perhaps?
Features-the-name-of-the-manufacturer version:
Alternatives: a coat hanger that features the name of the owner? Idea: caricature versions sent as a gift?

Random adjective: lively. Prompter = How lively is the coat hanger? Retort = It's not lively it's static. TAD = It's lively in that it moves about when you remove your clothes from it.
Static version:
Thoughts (cheating a little by considering a homonym): static electricity could give the hanger a charge. Idea: dab the buildings on the hanger with fluorescent paint so that they glow at night as though light is coming from the windows.
Moves-about-when-you-remove-your-clothes-from-it version:
Idea (an interesting tangent): some means to prevent coat hangers falling off the rail when you remove clothes.

Random adjective: free. Prompter = How free is the coat hanger? Retort = It's not free you have to pay for it. TAD = It's free in that wood comes from trees, which grow freely from the ground.
Have-to-pay-for-it version:
Thoughts: an alternative way to pay for a coat hanger? "Buy X, get a coat hanger free?" What if: the lower bar of wire on cheap wire coat hangers from dry cleaners was twisted to form the name of the dry cleaners?
Wood-from-trees version:
Thoughts: finding another source for the wood? What if you could have a coat hanger made from old junk furniture? Also, what other ways could old furniture (or any household waste, in fact) be used constructively?

Coat hanger: creating variations of an idea with X-versions

2006-07-29T12:16:00.000+01:00

I spotted this idea -- the CityScape coat hanger --on BoingBoing and thought I'd use it to demonstrate my latest thoughts on the X-versions technique.

Labeling the idea as an X-version

I want to label the idea above and a good way to do this is to pick a word from the name -- or brief description -- of the product. In this case: CityScape coat hanger. Choosing "city" gives me:

Idea is city version

Alternatives

At the next stage I want to consider alternatives for the city. I can do this in three ways: by simply choosing a random word to replace the "city", by naming/listing cities, or by using reverse-reach.

Random word approach

With the creative directive:

Create X version

I choose a random word for the X. "Penguin" gives:

Create penguin version

which simply suggests that the coat hanger would feature penguins instead of a city. "Create name version" leads to an interesting idea: coat hangers that feature names --personalised coat hangers (right).

Naming/Listing approach

With my coat hanger labeled as a "city version", I can name/list cities to create more ideas for coat hangers. Initially some possibilities are obvious -- featuring other capital cities from around the world, for example. But the naming/listing approach will help to suggest many more options and uncover some assumptions too.

Name ex cities: cities that were destroyed in the past
Name write cities: fictional cities
Name 10 cities: cities that are in Europe

Converting these into X-versions format gives:

Create historic-city version
Create fictional-city version
Create cities-in-Europe version

"Fictional-city version" is an interesting one. An assumption has been uncovered that the city should be real. A hanger could be made featuring a fictional city -- Gotham City perhaps? "Cities-in-Europe version" leads to some interesting ideas too. A hanger could be made that features several famous buildings from different cities. Or maybe a hanger could feature the tallest buildings from around the world?

Using reverse-reach

With reverse-reach I imagine that someone has set a directive that made me give "city" as an answer. For example, a directive could've been "Name a really busy place in a country". I use that to complete my X-version directive:

Create really-busy-place-in-a-country version

I can name/list busy places in a country. "Football grounds" is one possible answer. "Create football-grounds version" suggests that hangers could be made that depict the stadium of a famous football team. Or if the idea is combined with the personalised hanger idea above, the hanger could feature the name of a famous team.

See also: Coat hangers: advanced labeling of the subject

A blank-page Brainstorm

2006-07-23T17:10:00.000+01:00

Searching for a subject

I want to start by listing activities. I do this with the template:

List X activity

with a random word providing the 'x'.

List smile activity: taking a photo, laughing, watching a comedy, seeing a friend, laughing at a joke, having your photo taken, having a passport photo taken, receiving 'funnies'.

List electrical activity: watching television, cutting the grass, using the microwave, replacing a battery, inserting a plug in a socket, replacing a fuse, replacing a plug

Choosing a subject

I choose "inserting a plug in a socket" as my subject.

Using "inserting actions into actions" to generate ideas

I use the inserting actions into actions method to generate ideas. I choose a specific moment of "inserting a plug into a socket" for attention. I choose: the moment the prongs enter the holes of the socket. I imagine that that action is extended to last an hour and then create moments:

Create people moment
What if: the strength of two people was needed to complete the insertion of the plug? Or if a plug could be inserted by one person only? Idea: I'm sure this has been done in some shape or form, but a plug could have a combination 'lock' that needs to be operated before the plug will work.

Create visit moment
What if: you had to 'visit' another plug in the house before you could use another? Perhaps you would have to remove the plug -- there could be a limit to the number of plugs that can be operated at any one time? (Reminds me of this: Visible display to show rate of electricity use .)

Create Saturday moment
What if: the plug, in some way, told you how many times the plug was used on the last Saturday? Idea: weekly itemised electricity readings, to show you weekly usage rates for lighting, television, computers etc.

Create talent moment
What if: instead of inserting the plug by guiding it in with your hand, you could throw it across the room and the plug would enter the socket? First thought: a device that would automatically insert plugs. And: a device that automatically removes a plug. Idea: a household could have a single "everything off" switch that would, as you leave the house, switch off all the non-essential electrical products -- lights, televisions etc. (obviously fridges wouldn't be affected.)

Create Trevor Baylis moment
What if: you stopped to ask a question such as "What ideas would Trevor Baylis devise regarding the insertion of a plug?" What if: there was a "standard challenge" that would be set when considering creativity? The challenge could be: "Devise ideas regarding the insertion of a plug". Any writings on creativity could discuss the challenge -- the challenge could be a standard entry-point for considering creativity, perhaps.

Other ideas from this brainstorm

A weekly consumption-rate provided for each street. This would work well with the water supply too: each street would be provided with a consumption-rate on a weekly basis. In times of drought, households would have a clearer idea of how their consumption rate affects shortages. Perhaps it would also set a kind of target.

A burglar alarm triggered by the removal of plugs (or the switching on of lights). Or maybe the electricity meter could detect any fluctuations in consumption rates (caused by burglars unplugging appliances and switching on lights) and activate an alarm.

A sensor that detects REM sleep and switches the TV off.

A sensor that turns on the TV when you wake up.

A sensor connected to a device that opens curtains when you wake up.

A blank-page brainstorm

2006-07-22T11:45:00.000+01:00

Starting out: the search for a subject

To get the ball rolling I choose a couple of random letters and make words of one syllable from those two letters.

Re = red. Re = rest. Un = urn. Ma = max. Ma = mad. Ma = mark. Mc = mac. Mc = mace. To = top. To = torn. To = two. Ds = days. Da = dees. Da = dab. Th = thwart. Th = thick. Th = theme.

Refining the search for a subject

I choose 'top'. Now I will use naming/listing to list different types of tops:

Table tops = the top of tables. Ascot tops = the top hats worn at Ascot. Ascot tops = the top events at Ascot racetrack. Side tops = The replica shirts of football teams. Side tops = The greatest (top) achievement of sporting clubs. Mexican tops = the places of highest altitude in Mexico. Mexican tops = Mexican hats. Delivery tops = The tops of delivery vans. Delivery tops = The most popular foodstuff that is delivered to homes. Motivation tops = The times in your life when you feel most motivated. Good tops = Clothes tops that you like. Good tops = Tasty toppings on desserts.

Choosing the subject

I choose: 'the tops of delivery vans'.

It is possible to order goods from supermarkets via the internet. The supermarkets deliver the goods to your home by van. I am focusing on the tops of those vans.

Using the grid technique to create ideas

Using the grid technique I create areas for the top of delivery van:

Create cycle area
Thought experiment: there could be an area of the van's top that has a cycle that the driver sometimes uses to power the vehicle. Making that idea workable: there could be cycle-type delivery service where the delivery man uses a bike to distribute products such as lollies, ice creams etc. Idea: The main delivery van could stock lollies and ice cream and offer additional goods not ordered by the customer. Tangent thought: ice cream vans could tell households that they will arrive at the same time as the supermarket delivery van. Benefit: households would know what time the ice cream van would arrive. Challenge: ice cream vans play music to alert people of their arrival. What other ways could the ice cream vans alert people? Possible solution: drop leaflets through the door to inform about a set-time of the ice cream van arrival. Possible solution: the ice cream van could send text alerts to all phones in the vicinity.

Create far area
What if: part of the van's top was removed and placed somewhere else in the street? Benefits: neighbours would become aware of the service. Idea: the delivery person could drop leaflets to the neighbours of the house where a delivery is made. The leaflets could inform them what time a regular delivery is made and ask them if they'd like a small delivery to be made. Benefits: the neighbours would be slowly introduced to the service.

Create hole area
What if: part of the van's top had a hole in it? Consequences: the food would get warm and no cold products could be delivered. Idea: cheaper deliveries that deliver 'room temperature' products, such as bread, biscuits or beans. Idea: the option to pay a premium for a 24 hour instant delivery (have you ever been a party where you run out of drinks and ciggies?)

Create microscope area:
What if: you could climb on the top of the van and be able to see a microscopic view of one of the products? Idea: the side of the van could show a sizeable picture of one of the products carried. Further idea: the van could have a surplus of that product with a 'stop me and buy one' policy. Further idea: with every delivery the customer could be supplied with a small sample of a product - or products. The customer could specify a different type of sample they'd like each week. For example, one week they could ask for drinks samples, next week herbal samples, next week dessert samples.

Create sink area
What if: an area of the top was sunken into the van? Consequence: the 'sink' would collect water. What if: the delivery van sold that water as 'pure' water? Idea: the van could distribute bottled water, but the customer would provide the bottle, thus saving money on packaging. Further idea: all deliveries could be 'packaging free' (to the greatest extent possible), thus saving more money.

Create warm area
Consequence: if part of the van's top were warm then obviously some of the deliveries would be heated. Idea: deliver meals, ready to eat. Further thought: every neighbourhood has restaurants that deliver to your door (our area has pizza shops and curry houses). Each of these employs their own staff to deliver. Alternatively, could a single agency provide all the restaurants with their delivery service? Perhaps that agency could be the first call made when you want food delivered. 'One number covers all'.

Create trip area

What if: the roof has a handle where you hold on and and travel with the delivery van? Consequence: you would find out what people in your area do and do not receive deliveries. Idea: if the number of deliveries in an area reaches a certain level the deliveries could be cheaper.

Create damage area

What if: an area of the top was damaged? Consequence: some of the food would be damaged. Idea: the delivery service could sell food (at a discount) that has passed its sell-by date but is still edible.

2006-07-16T13:22:00.000+01:00

A museum with simulations of extreme weather conditions and natural phenomena

I would like to see a museum created where visitors can experience simulations of extreme weather and natural phenomena. Visitors would be able to:

Experience the temperature of the Sahara
Experience increasing Richter magnitudes in an earthquake simulator
Experience the hardest rainfall recorded on earth
Lift weight-accurate models of the largest hailstones
(Briefly) enter an environent at the temperature of the poles
See the effect molten lava has on different objects
See models of giant icycles
Create artifical lightning

There could also be areas with simulations of extreme weather conditions recorded in each country.

2006-07-16T13:11:00.000+01:00

A new type of athletics record?

I've been thinking about the wind resistance in Roger Bannister's four-minute mile. To a certain extent, an athletic performance is in the 'hands of the gods' - wind resistance is a factor, as is altitude. I would like to see a perfect environment created that is conducive to good athletic performance. This enviroment would consist of a chamber where there is no wind resistance (or assistance) and a constant supply of oxygen. An important factor in running races -- pace -- would be considered, with the environment providing constant feedback on the pace needed to break a record.

The new record would be known as a 'cell record' - with the perfect environment created taking place in a chamber known as a cell. These records would not compete with existing athletics records, but would exist to prove that human performance can be improved with perfect conditions.

2006-07-16T12:39:00.000+01:00

The problem with theme parks and fairgrounds

I always worry about the same thing at fairgrounds and theme parks: will my wallet/money/keys fall out of my pocket while I'm on the ride? The solution as a youngster is simple: 'dump everything with mum'. My other worry is that my glasses will fall off; if you remove them for the ride then the blurred vision makes the ride less enjoyable.

If I were a theme park boss I would manufacture cheap - flimsy even - bags that can be attached simply to a belt or belt loop. The idea is that the bag would contain all the 'pocketables'. The bag would also contain an elasticated cord that can be attached to the ends of a pair of glasses.

Of course, these problems are preventable with a little foresight, but how many realise the problem when it's too late?

More on rubberducking

2006-07-15T18:53:00.000+01:00

I like to use the rubberducking technique:

Place a rubber duck on your monitor and describe your problems to it. There's something magical about stating your problems aloud that makes the solution more clear.

(See also Rubberducking and creativity.)

I'm also experimenting with defining my 'audience' during rubberducking: I create a list of people and choose one to be my audience. I imagine how I would explain the problem to that person. I ensure I create a multifarious list that includes children ('how would you explain your problem to a child?' is good advice), the great and the good, and even eccentric people.

Thinking during brainstorms

Since 1994 I've always scribbled on paper as I brainstorm. As a result I've come to find it difficult to think without pen and paper in front of me! I've experimented with ways to think without paper: thinking to songs is one approach I enjoy. Recently I've been using an approach where I select a person from a list and imagine that the person is in the same room talking to me about a problem I'm working on (or a creative focus). I make an effort to mentally hear their voice.

Blank-page brainstorms

2006-07-14T16:11:00.000+01:00

In the coming weeks I will be posting some 'live' blank-page brainstorms. With these BP brainstorms I start out with a blank page and with no (initial) objectives. During the brainstorm I often find new tangents and directions of thought; it called almost be called 'meandering' brainstorming. During the brainstorming I am not just looking for new ideas - the brainstorms can:

Create new ideas
Highlight problems
Provide thought-provoking questions
Reveal ideas bubbling on the edge of consciousness
Highlight gaps in knowledge and areas for further research
Trigger memories of 'forgotten' ideas from the past.

Blank-page brainstorm, 22nd July 06
23rd July 06

Idea generation: inserting action into actions

2006-07-14T14:26:00.000+01:00

This technique has several stages:

1) I consider an action or activity
2) I focus on a specific moment of activity within that activity
3) I imagine that that moment of activity is, in some way, extended to last an hour (without having any detrimental effects or reducing the effectiveness of the action)
4) I insert actions - momentary actions or ones of longer duration - into that hour's activity

Example

For this example -- and the first stage -- I'm choosing the action of: an acupuncture session. For the second stage -- the moment of activity -- I choose: the moment the needle has first penetrated the skin.

For the third stage, I extend what would be a momentary action -- the first penetration of the needle -- to an hour's duration. I imagine in my mind that that stage occurs over an hour, without having any detrimental effects or reducing the effectiveness of the action.

I find that this time-expansion approach helps to open-up the mind for options for development, and helps the focusing on an action that would perhaps be considered insignificant.

Stage four

The fourth stage is the creative stage. At this stage I create/insert actions into the hour's action. The template for the creative directive is:

Create X (time)

For the 'time' I either specify a duration of time or use a word to represent a time.

Create X moment
Create X 10 minutes
Create X half-hour

I can also specify a duration that is longer than an hour:

Create X afternoon
Create X era
etc

For the 'X' I pick a random word (or phrase, term etc) to have an adjectival function. So with the random word "dream" my final creative directive could read:

Create a dream ten minutes (within the hour of the penetration of the needle)

Immediately this suggests that, as the needle penetrates, the person would go to sleep. An assumption has been uncovered that patient is awake during acupuncture. Further questions are raised: could an acupuncture session been administered on someone who sleeps through the whole session?

More examples using the acupuncture moment

Using: create X moment (within the hour of the penetration of the needle).

Create stowaway moment
First thought: this to me suggests that the blood would rise ('stowaway') into the needle. Consequences: this would cause the temperature of the needle to rise. Which leads to: would there be any benefits from heating the needles before use? (Indeed, there would. I did some preliminary research and found that heating the needles is a known AP practice)

Create connect moment
First thought: the needle could be attached in some way to all the other needles being used in the session. Benefits? This arrangement could be used to measure the patient's GSR. The practitioner would know if the patient was finding the situation stressful. Which leads to: are there other stressful situations where feedback could alert the practitioner and help them to reassure the patient? Perhaps in a dentist's surgery a patient could be connected to a device to show their heart rate. Or, for a driving test the use of a heart-rate device would prevent the need for any pretence about not showing nerves.

Create swimming moment
First thought: What if the needle actually went all the way into the body so that the whole of the needle was below the skin? Which leads to: would it be possible to find an arrangement that would safely allow the patient to leave a needle in for extended periods? Would that have benefits?

Create seconds out moment
First thought: how would it be possible for the practitioner to withdraw a needle at a constant rate over say, ten seconds? Could a device achieve this? Perhaps a device could be created for 'slow injections': the device would take an hour to penetrate the skin. Systematic desensitization for people with phobias of needles?
Also: would there be any benefit in repeatedly entering the needle and removing it? Could the needle be kept moving for the duration of the session?

Idea generation: the grid technique

2006-07-14T11:17:00.000+01:00

I use this grid technique to generate ideas. With this technique I choose an object and mentally superimpose a grid onto the object. With any/each of the squares of the grid labelled as a "square/area" I create a creative directive:

Create X square/area

where the 'X' will be replaced by an adjective or word with an adjectival function.

Example

For my starting object I'll use an object that already has a grid and individual squares in its structure - the tennis net of a tennis court.

I choose a random word to complete my creative directive: in this example my random word is "blood". My directive reads thus:

Create blood square/area

I can consider that the "square/area" part of the directive applies to one specific square, any square, or all the squares. I then ensure that I complete the challenge and guarantee newness - either by creating a thought experiment (or lateral thinking provocation) or by creating a specific new idea.

Here are my thoughts on blood square:

A square that absorbs any blood that lands on it.

My immediate thought is that if the net was from a top tournament like Wimbledon then somebody could sell that part of the net on eBay. Which leads to the idea: cut up the net after tournaments and auction/sell the sections to raise money for a charity.

More tennis net examples (from a 'live' brainstorm)

Create chemist square/area
First thought: the "+" of the squares could be coloured green to advertise a chemist. Which leads to: the squares could alternatively be circular (sponsorship from a tennis ball manufacturer). Further thoughts: some of the circles could be filled in, with the name of the ball manufacturer on the circles.

Create flow square/area
First thought: all of the squares on the net could constantly move (flow along). Further thoughts: sometimes a shot will hit the net and 'bobble over' to the other side, winning an easy point. Is the chance of that happening the same if the ball hits the other side of the net? Problem to highlight: unfair advantages caused by players being at different ends (I'm aware that players swap ends). Example: the problem of the sun in the eyes of a player at one end. Preliminary thoughts on solution: a small portable blimp to block the sun?

Create beg square/area
First thought: a square on the net with the message "please advertise your product/service here for Â£10,000". Further thoughts: some value is apparent here -- the message would act as a kind of advertising teaser; due to the unusual nature of the message people would be more likely to notice any advert when it eventually appears. Here I also notice an assumption I've been making: that the net is at a top tournament. What if that message appeared on every tennis net in the country? Stepping to a broader concept level: perhaps an advert could appear on every example of a specific thing throughout the country. For example, marathons have a blue-dash line on the road to show runners the route. Perhaps each of the dashes could be replaced with a photo of an energy drink?

Create molecule square/area
First thought: would it be possible to create a version of tennis played at a molecular level? Table tennis could be considered to be a miniature version of tennis -- how far could the miniaturisation continue? What if: the game of miniature tennis occurs on a 'court' the size of a shoe box? Each participant could play the game via a computer which would control the 'rackets' in the box. Further thoughts: maybe there could be a computer game where participants play their opponent via the internet and the game is played on a type of real tangible court at some location.

A second level grid

If I choose to, I can select any of the squares of my grid and again mentally superimpose a grid onto that. With the tennis net example, I can either visualise my grid on objects only (the strands of the tennis net) or imagine my grid within the space of the square (in effect, some of the resulting squares would be in 'thin air').

Songwriting and the big problem facing songwriters

2006-07-13T13:41:00.000+01:00

I wrote a pop song in January (well, it kind of wrote itself, but that's another story) and I've been pursuing ways to make a demo for the song. There's a problem: making demos isn't cheap - the minimum cost is about £300 but if I want to make a decent demo I am looking at £1000 minimum. In modern times a demo has to be of the highest quality possible to have any chance of being listened to by any record company. There must be many people 'out there' with the same problem.

I think there could be a solution to this problem - a website could be started called 'A capella A&R*' or something along those lines: any individual would be able to simply sing their song into a microphone unaccompanied and have their rendition of the song recorded and listed on the site for other people to listen to. The barest minimum - the songwriter singing the song unaccompanied (or perhaps with just one instrument) - would be encouraged ahead of demos with full backing. Any site visitor would be able to vote for any song and the voting system would highlight the songs that are deemed 'most commercial'. Then, outside parties would be able to assist the songwriters in developing (and hopefully releasing) their songs. The participation of big names would add to the gravitas of the site. Perhaps the big names would only listen to the songs that had achieved a certain rating or received a specified number of votes?

*A&R = talent scout.

Project: name five hundred uses for a paperclip

2006-07-13T10:46:00.000+01:00

I've been meaning to get this project started and blog about it for some time. The project is based on the classic brainstorming/creativity challenge "Name as many uses for a paperclip as possible". The purpose of this project is to find the most productive ways to create and find uses for the paperclip, explore how focus switching and changing of perspective can occur and, of course, find five hundred uses for a paperclip.

Looking at the uses for a paperclip there are the usual offerings : a toothpick, a bookmark, a hair pin, a key ring, a nail cleaner etc. But I also want to look into how focus-switching and changing of perspective can occur. I mean the kind of focus-switching that can lead to these considerations and ideas:

Start a 'Name a million uses for a paperclip' blog
Contact paperclip manufacturers and ask them for inventive uses
Find more uses by Googling "uses for a paperclip"
Ask other bloggers to post about the challenge on their blogs

Feel free to contribute any uses or new perspectives on the problem.

A creative challenge: captions for a caption competition

2006-07-12T13:54:00.000+01:00

If I have started a creative challenge (creating a caption for a caption competition) a good first step is to switch to present moment awareness. This takes the form:

Now here me creating a caption

For the action of 'creating a caption' I can create a word: maybe caption-creating or cap-creating. The switch to the present moment and creating of a word ensures that I don't rush headstrong into creating an actual caption. Options become apparent: I could invite someone else to participate in the creating. I could Google "caption creating". I could research captions that have won competitions before etc.

Creative directive

I can also create a creative directive for my current creative goal. For this challenge this is:

Create a caption

I can texture the creating by introducing adjectives (and words/phrases with adjectival functions). This takes the format:

Create a X caption

With the random word "symmetrical" my directive now reads:

Create a symmetrical caption

This could lead to something like this:

I drink your lemonade because: I drink your lemonade

With a gun-to-head mentality I consider how I can make this work. Here's a possibility:

I drink your lemonade because: I drink YoUr leMonade

More examples

Create ground caption
I drink your lemonade because: it's better than the coffee my wife buys

Create old caption
That creates an interesting idea: I could Google "I buy your lemonade because" and write an actual link instead of a normal caption. Or I could do something like this:

I drink your lemonade because: it's http://www.bliss.me.uk/Images/logo_intro.jpg

Create space caption
There's usually a word limit (usually twelve) on caption competitions. Why not use one word, but make it occupy all the space?
I drink your lemonade because: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Create question caption
I drink your lemonade because: well, why do you buy it?
which leads to:
I drink your lemonade because: of the same reasons you do

Create sanctuary caption
Hmmm. Enclose the caption in something? ((((((())))))) means 'hug' which could give:
I drink your lemonade because: it (((((((my throat)))))))

Specific focuses, problem finding and listing thinking

2006-07-12T12:57:00.000+01:00

The following methods can be used to find specific focuses and highlight problems in need of solutions.

For this example I want to list different types of thinking - ranging from the obvious choices to the less obvious. I will use the naming/listing approach; so the template I'll use is:

List X thinking

I pick random words to specify the 'x'. My first random word is "rash" which gives:

List rash thinking

I can consider what this means:

1) Thinking that is done quickly
2) The type of thinking done when someone panics

and also use some interpretation/imagination:

3) Thinking that is done when an individual knows they are about to have an accident
4) The thinking of a dermatologist

My next word is "bad" which gives:

List bad thinking

At this point I can treat bad-thinking as a single word in its own right and I can imagine that it has a dictionary entry. The definition would be obvious (but I can look beyond the obvious if I choose). I can now use that new word to list further examples of thinking. The template reads:

List X bad-thinking

Here are various random words and their possible definitions:

Heat bad-thinking = the thinking that is the result of an individual in unpleasant high temperatures
In bad-thinking = introspective thinking that has no feedback from another person
Group bad-thinking = the thinking that occurs in groups (or groupthink)

Creating new words

If my random word is "red" and my template reads:

List red thinking

I can interpret that to mean: the thoughts of people when they are angry. I can create a new word from that - say, "ap-thinking" - and then create a template and list specific cases of ap-thinking:

List delivery ap-thinking = angry thoughts when a delivery is late or repairman doesn't arrive
Mead ap-thinking = angry thoughts resulting from too much alcohol

Two letter reverse-reach for finding a creative focus

2006-07-12T10:36:00.000+01:00

This is a useful technique that can be used to step up to a broader concept level and name further subjects for creative attention.

With this technique I take a subject -- the Olympics, for this example -- and imagine that "Olympics" was my answer to a prompter question that was created using two random letters.

Example

My subject is "The Olympics" and I choose two random letters to form a possible prompter-question. Examples:

SP = Name a Sporting Party
DS = Name a Decent Spectacle
AT = Name an Athlete Tester

I can form longer phrases if I wish:

DD = Name something that provokes Drug Debate
EL = Name a future Event in London
PW = Name something with a Police Watch
RS = Name something that Requires Stewards
DQ = Name something that Decides with Qualification

Naming Subjects for creative focus

I can use any of the prompter-questions to name more possible subjects for creative attention:

Name a decent spectacle:

Firework night
London marathon
Christmas lights in London
The Red Arrows
The Natural Seven Wonders

or

Name something with a police watch:

A police station
A surveillance operation
The camera in a police car
A speeding trap
A speech by a leading officer

A thought experiment: demon conversion

2006-07-12T10:21:00.000+01:00

This is something I've been thinking about recently and I think it could provide insights into creative challenges. It's a product of my fiction project.

Demon conversion

1) I was eating my dinner when an evil demon appeared. He told me I had to convert the fork in my hand into the Angel of the North...or face dire consequences. Thinking about the challenge for a moment I considered the task easy and that I could approach the challenge in a couple of ways that would complete the challenge:

I could melt down the fork and make a model of the Angel of the North.
I could travel to Gateshead, melt down the fork and spread the molten metal over the Angel.

However, the evil demon then stipulated that the challenge must be completed in thirty seconds. Desperate to complete the task in any way possible, I panicked, ran out of my house into the front garden, plunged the fork into the ground and said to a passer- by: "This is the Angel of the North".

2) I was eating my dinner and an evil demon appeared. He told me that I had to convert my front garden into a gym. I considered the task easy: I could buy some gym equipment, set it up and charge locals to use the equipment. However, the demon stipulated that the task must be completed in thirty seconds. Desperate to complete the task, I rushed to my front garden and said to a passer-by: "do some press-ups and I will stand on your back".

As a thought experiment, example 2 generated thoughts that led to an idea: that a website could be started called 'the home gym' (or maybe 'free gym'). The purpose of the website would be to teach visitors how to achieve physical fitness without any expenditure whatsoever. An achievable goal?

3) Another time the evil demon appeared and told me to convert the potato on my plate into a fish. With the time limit of thirty seconds I panicked, rushed to the fish tank and plunged the potato into the water. I said to the demon "This is a fish".

This made me think that this approach could be used as a free-association tool to find a subject for creative focus. Asking myself "What would plunging my hand into the tank look like?" I remembered the practical joke where someone conceals a slice of carrot in their hand, plunges their hand into a fish tank, brings the 'fish' out of the water and proceeds to eat it. It also made me think of trout-tickling.