ideas

Recently, I came across an interesting article written by Ann-Maree Moodie in an innovative Australian magazine called FastThinking. The article had a title called Leave me Alone so it sure got my attention! The author talks about how ironic our state of lives have become. On the one hand, we strive to create new technological gadgets and electronic products, which is supposed to help make our daily lives easier.


image:Golden Wood Studios
Unfortunately, items such as mobile/cell phones, e-mail, electronic organizers and the like also serves to create distractions and intrusions on any quiet time that we may obtain on a given day. She also made a good point, that even when you are on a plane and flying at high altitude, it is now possible to reach you via e-mail or phone, so you don't even get any quiet time while flying anymore! The article also goes deeper to examine studies that have been done by cognitive theorists on idea creation.

However, the issue that the author had raised about the importance of silence and the influence it has on the formation of ideas helped me to look at my own environment and the distractions that I face on a daily basis.

Take for example at work, I'm expected to find new solutions and ideas that can be incorporated to our existing software system. But, during the course of the day I will receive a huge amount of e-mails (sometimes it feels like an insurmountable amount of e-mails; currently, I'm still trying to clear my inbox as I have a lot of follow-up items that have yet to be actioned!), then there's the phone calls, skype messages/calls, meetings (and more meetings) and generally people just coming up to me to discuss things. With all these distractions, I do wonder how I find the time to come up with practical solutions, let alone coming up with innovative ideas? To be honest, it is very hard with all these constant distractions (and I know these are just part of life at work). I'm just wondering how I can be more constructive and innovative in the face of these daily happenings? And that's just at work. When I am at home, the television is blaring in the background, the microwave or jug/kettle is boiling, dinner to cook and if I'm surfing the net - then there goes most of the evening!

Take a look at your day and list the items that take up your time and prevents you from focusing on forming solutions or coming up with new ideas for a project - you might be suprised as to what you will find out.

Based on this article and after an assessment of my own daily rituals, I do agree that it certainly doesn't hurt to have some quiet time out. Lately I've been trying really hard to have a few quiet moments, so that I can think clearer and find some focus so that I can come up with more innovative ideas whether it is for work, our websites or projects we have in mind. I have been trying to implement the following:

1. Reading books - I do a lot of reading on the net each day, but I do remember how much I used to enjoy reading a novel. I find reading to be very relaxing. It provides me with much needed quiet time, helps me to unwind and think clearer so I can reflect on life and things in general. It also stimulates my imagination, which in turn helps me to think outside of the square. I have just finished a Jane Austen book and I am currently reading Charles Dickens's masterpiece "A Tale of Two Cities" (ok, this is a rather hard book to read, though once you get passed the first few chapters, it is pretty good and you learn a lot about how people used to live from 1775, especially in France and England).

Basically, find a hobby that you enjoy that helps you to achieve your own quiet tranquility and fosters your mind to be creative and active.

2. Turn off the television - For me anyway, television is a huge distraction, so I am trying hard to make sure that I do not watch too much of it. Lately, because I have been reading my novels, I've spent less time watching TV. Turning it off or just putting it on mute, provides the silence I need to think clearer.

3. Allocate time on the net - I know this is hard for a lot of us, but I think putting aside time one spends on-line is important. If we consciously do not do this, then like anything it becomes an addiction and we start to lose touch with the real world. I personally think the internet provides us with a lot of helpful and good resources. Information is at our finger tips. All I'm saying is that it's also important to find a balance.

4. Reduce mobile/cell phone usage - In the age of the mobile/cell phone technology, I know a lot of us spend time on the phone either talking, texting and now the ability to also surf the net. Again with this technology, balance is the key.

5. Emails - I enjoy reading personal e-mails, but these too are a real distraction. At the same time, work related e-mails can consume one's day especially when we all rely on it so much. I tend to create folders, so I separate work and personal e-mails from each other. When I need a sanity break I will open my personal e-mails. However, finding your own method to get on top of your e-mails is crucial, so that you do not spend the whole day sifting through them. I tend to assign a few hours in the morning to sort through them, that way I can focus on other things during the rest of the day. Like I said, I'm still working on it as my inbox is still very full!

6. Find quiet time - Honestly, just set aside some quiet time for yourself. It can be as little as 30 minutes each day. Try it out and see if it helps you relax and think clearer so that you can come up with more innovative and creative ideas.

Here's hoping that you may find silence to be golden for your life aswell...

While I surf through the net each day, I have come across some really remarkable websites/blogs. By remarkable, I mean worth making a comment about. It could be because the site offers very useful information, adds value to what I'm doing, or contains interesting or humorous content - but content that stands out from the rest of the pack.


image:StaR_DusT
As you know, our site promotes ideas that spread therefore, I thought it would be an interesting concept to find out from our readers (yes that's right, I'm looking at YOU), if you could tell me some of the most remarkable websites you have found out there on the world wide web. I am certain there are sooooo many out there that I haven't even heard of, that's why I'm asking for your help :)

As for myself, one website I found absolutely remarkable, is a site called We Feel Fine. It has a really unique and interesting concept. It searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling" and then collates the data and displays it in an innovative way. It's almost like looking into the soul of all the people around the world as it captures how people are feeling when they use these phrases...it is really remarkable. If you're interested in checking out this site just click here.

By sharing with the rest of our readers, the sites you think are worth making a remark about, we can all spread the word and ideas together.

So post a comment with:

1. Website name/url
2. And why you think it's worth talking about

I look forward to your suggestions. Thank you in advance for taking the time to share with us :)

Innovators are hunters: They pursue ideas. They listen, observe, and ask questions. They’re never satisfied with things that work “well enough.” They solve problems and make connections.

image:John Howe

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

”

J.R.R. Tolkien

An idea is simply a new combination of existing elements. The best way to make new combinations is to develop the ability to discover relationships—to make connections between things that seem totally unrelated.

Tolkien said that the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as The Hobbit, grew out of the simple sentence quoted above. He wrote it one day when he was doing some mental gymnastics. He was fond of making up words, and “hobbit” is what he came up with that day.

His curiosity was stimulated. “What’s a hobbit?” he asked himself. “And why does it live in a hole in the ground?”

He had the raw materials for a story: a hobbit—whatever that was—and a hole in the ground. How were they connected? This simple question led to Tolkien’s creation of a mythological world and the unforgettable characters that populate it.

Innovators are pursuers. Ted Hoff, who invented the first microprocessor in 1969 for Intel—the chip that made personal computers possible—said, “The issue with invention is to pursue it…Otherwise, the idea is just a flash, and it’s gone.”

If Tolkien hadn’t followed his hobbit down the hole, we would not have the pleasure of knowing Bilbo, Gandalf, and Frodo.

Frederick E. Ives, inventor of the halftone printing process, is hardly as well-known as Tolkien’s characters have become since his stories were made into blockbuster films. But this great inventor helped shape the face of modern communication. His invention of halftone printing is an example of what can happen when people pursue ideas.

Before Ives invented the halftone process, photographs could not be printed in newspapers. Printers had no way to reproduce the fine shades of gray in black and white images.

The halftone process revolutionized printing. Ives discovered that black and white dots could be used to reproduce shades of gray, since the eye “sees” the dots as an uninterrupted image.

After studying the problem one night, Ives went to bed in a state of mental exhaustion. When he opened his eyes the next morning, he saw “apparently projected on the ceiling, the completely worked-out process and equipment in operation.”

How do we make the right connections?

We become hunters. We immerse ourselves in the problem. We search for relationships that start to reveal how the pieces fit. And when it seems that we have reached the limit of our abilities, lightning strikes.