Creativity and the "naive daring of outsiders"

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The great physicist Niels Bohr is believed to have said that "an expert is a man who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."

He wasn't being kind. What about you? Have you ever worked with someone whose view of the right course of action never deviated from what had been done before, or who took only the most deliberate steps toward a goal? Competency is important, of course. But for want of a little courage, some "experts" will miss strategies or paths that might not just compete in the marketplace - to use a business analogy - but miss the opportunity to create an entirely new market dominated by the creator.

Promoting his new book, Jonah Lehrer makes a point about innocence when tackling open ended problems. A certain phrase immediately appealed to me.

Imagination was once thought to be a single thing, separate from other kinds of cognition. The latest research suggests that this assumption is false. It turns out that we use 'creativity' as a catchall term for a variety of cognitive tools, each of which applies to particular sorts of problems and is coaxed to action in a particular way....

We tend to assume that experts are the creative geniuses in their own fields. But big breakthroughs often depend on the naive daring of outsiders. For prompting creativity, few things are as important as time devoted to cross-pollination with fields outside our areas of expertise. (emphasis supplied)

I've always thought of the IdeaFestival as the place where beginners, entrepreneurs, interactive artists, college students, the curious, white color professionals, molecular biologists - you get the idea - are exposed to the widest variety of people and ideas. Arrive with an open mind and the odds of a soul-satisfying, toe-curling thought outside your area of expertise are high. And once "naive daring" has done its thing?

Work like mad. Niels Bohr also new the basics.

Wayne

The IdeaFestival's Secret Sauce

Energized by her recent experiences at SXSW, Emily Heyward has written a piece at Fast Company, Desks, Where Creativity Goes to Die, describing what she learned while there. I thought I'd share it with blog readers. This quote stood out in particular:

Initially, I tried to attend talks or panels directly related to my industry and clients, but each time the information felt like things I already knew, and instead of feeling inspired, I just felt tired.

But as soon as I stepped outside my little world, everything changed.

By seeking information and experiences that had nothing to do with my day-to-day, the conference became far more worthwhile. I was stretching my brain in new ways. I felt intellectually stimulated and energized. And guess what? It ended up inspiring me to think about my own work differently.

Many of us who are fortunate enough to work with the IdeaFestival are often asked who is speaking and what sessions a prospective attendee might consider. There are always favorites, of course. And some presentations, whether because of presenter or subject matter, attract more interest than others. But like Heyward, allow me to gently suggest that if you are thinking about coming to IdeaFestival 2012, don't just target the presentations that are obviously connected with your day-to-day life, whatever it may involve.

Here's why. Sessions that featuring experimental physicists or biologists, for example, are not just for academics, but have frequently provided fascinating and unlikely tales of discovery - the happy coincidences, moments of insight and unexpected outcomes that can be incredibly inspiring. They're often a testament to human restlessness and ingenuity. Likewise, presentations from marketers or former co-creators of Twitter - I'm thinking of you Dom Sagolla - are not just for the social media enthusiasts. For the attentive listener, the numerous business leaders and economists who have spoken throughout the years don't just fine tune what you may already know about turning a buck, but, rather, have had some mighty interesting things to say about what really motivates people or how to deal with uncertainty when making decisions. Nassim Nicholas Taleb of "Black Swan" fame, whose appearance in the middle of the market meltdown of September of 2008 couldn't have been timed better, comes to mind. Similarly, Jane McGonigal trashed stereotypes during her talk in 2008 by suggesting that, far from a waste of time, games could be used to improve reality, not simply as a means of escape from it. In addition to becoming the dominant 21st century medium, games have been called upon to tackle serious problems. Using the 3-D spatial reasoning skills of its players, "Fold-it" has provided insight into the design of antiretroviral drugs.

So this year when you're thinking about what events to attend during the festival, why not consider taking in as many as possible? With the purchase of an all-access pass - coming soon! - you'll not only help support the continued success of the IdeaFestival, which works very, very hard to be as accessible as possible to the widest number of people, but you may well be pleasantly surprised by the discoveries you make. We think that you'll think about your work differently.

Wayne

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Simple questions and the edge of human knowledge

Physics has always been a do-it-yourself endeavor.

In this TED- Ed video, Adam Savage describes how simple experimental concepts led to breakthroughs in our understanding of the natural world.

The use, for example, of a toothed wheel to test how fast light traveled was ingenious. No less impressive is the startling adduction drawn from the shadow cast by the sun simultaneously in a deep and narrow well and past a vertical stake driven in the ground many miles away. As Savage points out, the "simplest questions can lead one to the edge of human knowledge."

The video brilliantly illustrates that point. Stay curious.

Wayne

Ellen McGirt on "the possibilities in people's lives"

Fast Company senior writer Ellen McGirt and speaker and entrepreneur CC Chapman are two of our favorite people. In a warm discussion with CC that was posted last week at Passion Hit TV, Ellen talks about writing, life, 9/11 and heartbreak.

It's just one of the many, many such conversations that happen off to the side at the festival every year. Thanks for posting the video CC!

Wayne

Shakespeare's middle class education

Genius is unevenly distributed in history. Why were certain periods such as Socratic Athens and Renaissance Florence blessed with so much of it?

Saying that Shakespeare was a "genius for all time, but he could only have existed in his time: his genius was unleashed by his age,"  Jonah Lehrer argues that those eras, to which he adds Elizabethan England, featured successful "meta-ideas", which "include concepts like the patent system, public libraries, and universal education."  

Elizabethan England made a concerted effort to educate its middle-class males, which is how William Shakespeare—the son of a glover who couldn’t sign his name—ended up getting free Latin lessons. We need to emulate these ingenious eras and encourage rampant experimentation in the education sector, whether it’s taking the Khan Academy mainstream or expanding vocational training. As T. S. Eliot once remarked, the great ages did not contain more talent. They wasted less.

Lehrer identifies diverse societies that attract immigrant talent and "institutions that encourage risk taking" as catalysts for the flourishing of creative expression and the lasting benefits that follow. As for the risk-taking institutions we have in this time and place:

Bill James, the pioneer of Moneyball-style statistical baseball analysis, points out that modern America is already very good at generating geniuses. The problem is that the geniuses we’ve created are athletes.

Read the whole piece here.

Wayne