About a month ago I wrote about the need for balance between creating and learning, you can read it here.
In regards to this balance I started thinking of my own life to date and how much time I’ve spent Learning vs. Creating. So from my rough calculations, I’ve spent about 75% of my life learning from kindergarten through my recent master’s degree. its clear I’m wayyy out of balance. Reflecting on those years that I was creating I actually accomplished quite a lot. Pre-kindergarten I mastered walking and talking! Now I think that’s pretty impressive. Between my undergrad and masters degree I was involved with several startups, which I’m still working with today.
Looking at things from this perspective it becomes apparent that when you focus on creating you can get a lot of amazing things done. Its just a matter of getting past the trap of constantly seeking knowledge and being drowned by information. Hopefully I can overcome this barrier, use what I’ve learned so far, and start creating. So it begins.
Kickstarter is a platform I’ve been following since its inception in 2009 and its amazing how far its come to date. The basic idea is getting funding from people who support your work, simply because they believe in what you’re doing. The foundation of Kickstarter is crowdfunding, one of four different strategies stemming form crowdsourcing. Crowdfunding is exactly what it sounds like, using the crowd to fund projects. Its an innovative model and I suggest everyone participate either through their own creative projects or a small donation to a project you find interesting.
To learn more, check out the video below on how Kickstarter Funds Creativity or visit their website.
I recently watched a TED Talk by Sarah Kay, it was spoken word, which I myself really enjoyed (see it below).
After watching it I scrolled down to the comment sections and there was quite the back and forth going about what Sarah Kay had performed was amateur and wasn’t ‘real’ poetry. Many said that it had to be much more powerful, not use mainstream cliches, be more catered to the individual instead of the audience. Others argued that the entire point of spoken word was to connect with the audience, however it may be.
The question I have is what is art then? There seem to be many conflicting views on what makes something art. In my opinion I feel that it is just the expression of an individual that has no purpose but to really be shared with others, a gift if you will. Its not about the recognition or money or fame, but genuinly sharing one’s feelings and experiences. Do you think Sarah Kay’s work was art or not?
What are the keys to innovation? It can be as simple as thinking back to the good old days when we were in kindergarten. In this article from the Harvard Business Review we look at what we can learn from kindergarten.
Don’t have time to read a document? A book? An article? Well Topicmarks claims to have developed the perfect algorithm to give you a short and sweet summary of any text you input. Now I can’t say its perfect, but its an interesting tool to check out.
I really enjoyed the video, but not necessarily for the content itself, which was overall quite good and talked about major themes for the future of art. Why I really enjoyed it is because it got my head buzzing with all sorts of ideas and I love anything that can trigger my creativity.
Recently there have been a number of generators coming out, making fun of some of the trends we’re seeing today. This one is a startup simulator that pokes fun at the formulaic manner we see many of these web start-ups pitching themselves nowadays. Other recent ones have been the Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator and the Mflow Random Album Generator.
Many of us are glued to Google, Facebook, and texting, which are all new habits that many couldn’t live without. Slate.com explores this phenomenon and explains the role of th brain in all this and why its dangerous.
Enjoy! And if you missed last week’s links check them out here.
A look back over 2010 through the lens of ideas from The New York Times. The article touches on economics, biology, engineering, medicine, sports, literature, and more. Also check out the The Words of the Year.
Demo Slam by Google is a platform that allows anyone to share their technology demos with the world. The premise is to create a competition between demos every week to spice up typically boring demos and it does a fantastic job in doing so.
An interview with David Rand from Harvard goes into how a persons relationships effect them. More specifically, he reveals how people that are happy or sad can spread those feelings, so be mindful about who you spend time with.
At TEDWomen 2010 Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook, spoke about the rarity of women in leadership positions. She sheds some light into this dilemma and how we can make progress towards balancing the sides for the future.
We need to make decisions or else we miss out on opportunities. Seth Godin discusses this concept further and pushes us to take a chance, quit browsing, and buy something, as he puts it.
Although I think the Time Top 100 Most Influential People is the biggest joke I’ve ever seen, the Top 10 lists are quite good with a wide variety of items including best web videos, music albums, news, books, and more.
Looking for a new way to keep up with the news? Well look no further as newsmap provides an innovative way to arrange all the top stories around the world. You’re able to adjust the content by category and region of the world, giving you a fully customized experience.
Video games have come so far, yet the classics can never be replaced. In this remake of the original Super Mario Brothers, you are able to play with a number of familiar characters (such as Link, Samus, Megaman, etc) that brings a nice twist to the classic game.
A telling talk from TEDxMidwest by Diana Laufengerg goes into her experience of teaching. She reveals some key insights into how kids truly learn and how the education system needs to adapt to keep up with the world.
From the Harvard Business Review, we get 6 ideas for 2011 that could shape the year. These include contests, touch screens, labs, coupons, games in business, and lobbyist. For more details check out the link.
We all think we have brilliant ideas, whether that’s true or not is hard to say, but therein lies the problem. Why don’t we share our best ideas with other people, with the world, with everyone, to get feedback, to truly assess the ideas, improve them, and adapt them? I feel the major reason behind this type of behavior is…
We believe that if we share our best ideas with others, they will steal them.
Now this is an interesting point and it can happen, but I’d think it’s not as likely as we may believe. First of all, these ideas we cherish are the ones we have a passion for, we believe in, and that we would put in the time and effort for to realize them. Most of the people you share your idea with, will not share the same commitment and belief as you do. Furthermore, an idea is a complex thing that can’t be fully communicated in words. Most of us have a vision of how this idea can become reality, what are the small details that will lead to its success, and its always these little things that are needed to understand the full value of the idea. Without this you only give a glimpse into the concepts and general feedback, so why not share your idea and find out what others think.
There’s also the situation where we may never really try to make our idea into something real, so why not share it in this kind of scenario? Even if we have no true intention on working on an idea, there’s always that thought in the back of our mind saying, “Someday I’ll do this, the time will be right later on, so I’ll just save it till then.” But that time often never comes for one reason or another…
Another interesting aspect that adds to this dynamic is who you share your ideas with. More often than not we share with who we trust, such as friends and family, but they most often than not give us biased feedback. Its not everyday that you have a friend who will be brutally honest with you and just as importantly even understand the idea. It is surely more valuable to share with people outside of your sphere to get a more accurate assessment.
Wouldn’t it be better to share our ideas for the purpose of getting feedback OR simply giving someone else the opportunity to make your idea into reality? Sure, things may not always work out how you’d hoped and you’d be taking a risk by being open about what you want to do, but overall it seems the positives outweigh the negatives.
What do you think? Should we share our ideas more openly?
The following slideshow is a rundown of various ideas, thoughts, and projects on the web today compiled by Google’s Creative Labs. There’s a wide variety of topics in the presentation including media, art, technology, politics, and more, all under the theme of creativity. Its a bit long at 120 slides, but definitely worth a click through, check it out below.
What were your favorite topics from the compilation?
In need of a mindmapping tool? Bluemind is the ideal solution, its lightweight, easy to use, and gets the job done. I’ve been using it for the past few weeks and love it (sorry for all the Mac users out there, but this is PC only).
This TED Talk by John Hardy completely takes the idea of a Green School to the next level. Check out this amazing school in Indonesia and what it’s all about.
A music adventure, that’s how the team at thesixtyone.com (picture above) describe their new service. Here, you’re able to discover new artists, in a seamless, easy to use experience.
It used to be Google, but ever so slowly, Facebook is taking over everything. A great article by Brian Solis examines how Facebook has moved into Google’s territory.
A great video talking about the “Remix” and asking the question, is Everything a Remix? Check it out below.
So is Everything a Remix? Its an interesting idea, as we see many people borrowing ideas and concepts from one another and some artists even coming out and saying that the best artists steal. Instead of calling it stealing though, I feel its essentially intersecting, where we take existing concepts from different places and combine them into something “new”. What do you think?
