Jack Oughton - Get More Better Ideas by Jack Oughton

Have More Better Ideas: (OR: Everybody Gets To Be Creative Whether They Like It Or Not)

¨:…:¨ Jack Oughton

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Intro - We Should All Be Experts On This Stuff By Now  Hi and thanks for considering reading this book, which might help you do more creative things with your life…

 One of the things that truly perplexes me is how little emphasis that most people place on getting good at thinking, and creative thinking.  Much like breathing is essential to living, thinking is essential to actions. And everybody, everywhere thinks and does things, (whether they put much thought into it, or not…)  IMVHO everybody should become an ‘expert’ in their own domain(s) of creativity, and in being creative in general.  And I don’t claim to be an ‘expert’ on creativity on the whole, but I do want to help.  Enter this guide…

What’s this guide then? Why, it’s along the lines of my other guides…

 Small bite-sized cheatsheet / cribsheet pieces, divided into categories and punctuated more with bulletpoints than full paragraphs.  This is an attempt at conciseness. Though it has an order and structure, it is meant to be scanned, returned to and digested as regularly as you’d like.  As ever, these are my experiences not yours. So don’t take my word on everything. I’m very often wrong (though I’m also very creative, if I do say so myself…).  I also stray towards topics that some may define as pseudoscience, but they’ve worked for me. 

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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 So instead, take what’s useful from here, discard the rest and kill your gurus.  Also supplementary hyperlinks to further reading look like this. I’ve put them there as signposts, and I don’t recommend you take a look at them until you are finished and you’d like some more information.  This prevents information overload and all that :)

“For a creative writer possession of the ‘truth’ is less important than emotional sincerity.” - George Orwell

Who is this book is aimed at? • Everybody (ahahaha) • OK, seriously, everybody’s creative. Usually more creative than they think. • But it’s primarily aimed at those who don’t work in creative environments, and who don’t see themselves as creative (a limiting belief we can try and demolish here) • Secondarily it could be used supplementally for those who see themselves as creative and/or work in creative industries. • The ideas here may be used to add to your already existing creative processes… “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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What will/might you get: • Ideas, tools, inspiration and substances for improving creative thought • With the noble intention of… • i. Improving your ability to come up with new ideas • ii. Improving your ability to solve problems • Tips for breaking ruts • Help for thinking and providing under pressure, such as time constraints and deadlines. • Ideas in how to find inspiration anywhere and everywhere • Help in identifying and overcoming barriers to creative execution • Thoughts around goal setting and priorities for creative people. • Guidance in cultivating a ‘creative mindset’ • Quotable, wise and inspiring words from a variety of very creative people • Signposts towards further reading in the creative thinking / ideation field • And much more! (if all goes to plan)

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Axioms / Presuppositions

Some points I take for granted to put this whole thing into context before we really get started

• CREATIVITY: “…the phenomenon whereby something new is created which has some kind of subjective value”

• All things originate in the mind before coming into reality. • All actualisation is creative, regardless of what you do and how you actualise your idea. • Every great new idea was unknown and unexpected before it came to be developed and eventually taken for granted. • The act of having an idea and bringing it into the world is creative. • Creativity is not an absolute attribute then, but more a continuum. • The level of creativity could be equated with the level of novelty of the things you create (how new and different they are)

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• Being ‘more’ creative does not then equate to being ‘better’ - it’s contextual. Maybe more novel ideas are excellent for the abstract artist but less suited to the chef. • Both people will require a certain level of creativity, however. • Creativity and ‘being creative’ is also a label, and as such is vulnerable to what happens with every kind of reduction and labeling. • Sure, we need labels to help us navigate reality, but such labels can also hinder our navigation, oversimplify or be misinterpreted. • “The finger that points at the moon is not the moon” - Buddhist Aphorism • Much of what I write about here is not fully teachable or conveyable by words. Such things are experiential… • E.g.: You don’t learn to get great at guitar by reading books about guitar. You get great at guitar by playing guitar and applying what you read to your guitar playing experience. • So, in much the same way, these concepts here are things that you can integrate into doing creativity. Being creative. • Because creativity can be seen as a state of being.

”I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process — an integral function of the universe.” – Buckminster Fuller – VERY CREATIVE GUY! “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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What creative thinking can do for YOU... I find it hard to believe that anyone needs to be ‘sold’ on the idea of thinking more creatively and more often but here are a few points, almost for the sake of it... • Come up with awesome new ideas (duh...) • Come up with awesome solutions to existing problems, yours and others. This makes you valuable in so many different environments, be that problem solving in your business or work, helping those you love get things accomplished, or whatever else you can envision. • Achieve what you want. And often by new and novel means! • Make a difference and create something very new and far ‘ahead of the curve’ • Do more creative things and feel the inherent rewards that come simply from being creative and expressing yourself • Be more creative in your ‘regular’ activities. Who said that creativity was confined just to the activities that we’ve labeled as ‘creative?’

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Getting your ‘Eureka Effect’ on Or: The Trouble With Trying To Arrange Your Epiphanies Or: What That Curious Feeling In Your Head Means

“wuh”

• As Oliver Burkeman said in The Guardian’s ‘This Column Will Change Your Life’; “…if startling insights could be systematically arrived at, they wouldn’t be startling.” • Which means that I obviously can’t guarantee you any spectacular learnings. • But I will try to startle you with these ‘Aha’ moments of insight and realisation, nevertheless... • So if you get any of these sudden feelings of realisation, why not make a note of what you learnt...? • It could be your brain telling you that a meaningful synaptic connection has been made. • Making a note of that feeling might help you better retain the information. • Because that the information/learning might be valuable to you at some point, maybe now, maybe later…!

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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SOME BIG POINTS… Let’s begin…

Creative Skill Does Not Equate to ‘Creative Relevance’ Or: Dealing With The Unfortunate Fact That The Public’s Taste Is (Often) Shit Or: The Creative Person’s Miniature Manifesto Or: The Art Vs. Commerce Occasional Dilemma • It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do, technically, if your creative output isn’t relevant to important issues and other people. • As creators we must have relevant ideas, if our creations are to be anything more than intellectual entertainment to the very few people who understand them. • Think of the musician with great technical skill but who writes music that nobody else can ‘penetrate’. • He has personal relevance yes, but not collective relevance. • He might have a tiny cult following, or find that nobody else finds value in his music.

“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life”. - Miles Davis “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Brutal Reality • This is a brutal reality and is often the reason why popular music can become what seems to be a ‘lowest common denominator’. • Collectively, people seem to like Justin Bieber’s uh…‘boyish charms’ more than they like sonic exploration and innovative new musical sounds.

It’s also why some great artists die poor and unappreciated. Think Van Gogh...

• But, this process is also a filter that separates the people who really want it, from the rest. • Especially the people working in relatively unpopular genres or media where financial or critical acclaim is harder to get. • It is one of the most trying and brutal filters imaginable. • But, for whatever reason that keeps them going, a truly ‘creative/artistic’ person isn’t prone to give up just because of a lack of monetary or popular recognition. • They’ll just keep on regardless of what the world does/doesn’t do… • This might mean they’re a little insane or deluded, or something else. • But can you fault such courage and dedication!?! “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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IDEAS AND THE BRAIN Operating tips for the squashy supercomputer To have good ideas, have lots of ideas. • When coming up with content ideas, reality is not a constraint. • It is only a constraint at detailed planning or execution.

Ideas are associative and a ‘numbers game’. • They lead to other ideas. • So make your threshold for initial ideas low. • It’s almost a process of momentum. Don’t be afraid to have some initially crappy ideas and don’t settle for a mere 5 or 6 when you could have so many more. • This is basically the idea behind the idea behind brainstorming The brain has two ‘modes’ of working (in my experience). ‘Creative’ and ‘Analytical’ • Your right brain, (the ‘creative’ part) throws out ideas. • Your left brain, (the ‘analytical’ part) evaluates and works with them. • When the two parts aren’t working in tandem, the right side is generating ideas, which are being censored and quashed by the left side. • When they are working in tandem, the right side is generating ideas and the left side is filtering in such a way that the best ones rise to the top. • You can also think & plan for yourself as working in these two ‘modes’...

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Here’s how I try to think of it

Dat brain…

I use an example from my own life to hopefully illustrate Creative Mode: A time for artless/artful, unbridled creative expression… • At this point I focus on getting as many ideas out as humanly possible, and as quickly as possible. • I leap between ideas, often not finishing them. In writing these means insanely furious typing with no spelling correction and no sentence flow. • It’s an associative period where self-esteem is high and inhibitions near non-existent. There’s no filter and no judgment. • The work produced here is often quite ridiculous, low quality and not for public consumption. But it’s a goldmine of future material that pays off during the second stage...

Analytical Mode: A time for a more realistic assessment and evaluation of the work… • Usually comes in the late evening, with less energy. • For me this will be when I come back to the mess of nonsequiturs, poetry and text shaped carnage, which I left for myself to work with from ‘Creative mode’. “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• Amidst the mess of ideas, sometimes patterns or ideas will emerge that are worth further pursuit. • This part of the process is where the good things come to fruition and is sometimes the more arduous part • But it can also be very fun and relaxing picking through all the ideas and possibilities. And making them happen.

• Because all those grand ideas are worthless without implementation…

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will” - George Bernard Shaw

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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(SELF) EDUCATION AND SEEKING OUT IDEAS Mining the rich resource of real life experience and available information for personal gain and fulfillment.

Life is your ‘material’. • Think like a standup comedian and steal like an artist. • Creative thinking could be seen as a way of looking at what already exists and seeing how it can apply to your goals. • This is the idea of active learning and being a participant in life. • Consider eating the world with your brain. Cultivate open mindedness and not just acquiring information for information’s sake. • It’s like ‘intellectual masturbation’ vs. ‘finding meaning’ or ‘seeking opportunities’.

The education process is fuel for the mental furnace:

Just think of all your ideas seething in the heat of their own significance…

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• It’s fuel for synthesis of concepts - reading widely allows you to unify between disparate subjects/domains and bring something new to the table from the combination. • Wanna innovate? Smashing ideas together is a good way to do it. • Though life is your material - some material is more useful than others. And some material is useless. • *So consider what you choose to consume* • AKA try an ‘Information Diet’ for creative and critical thought. • Ironically, reading books about being creative isn’t probably the best way to do so. Nor is extended periods in a passive medium, such as TV. • The best way to do so is simply to do so. • Or to put it another way, you get better at being creative by doing things creatively. Or doing creative things. • BEING creative can make you ‘a creative’ • What ‘resounds’ best with you and what everybody learns from best is often a very unique thing.. • I or nobody else can tell you what to read or consume that’ll help you be ‘more’ creative.

“Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.” - Arthur Koestler “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Things Maybe Not To Do • However, I can make suggestions to avoid the things that probably make you less creative. • Avoiding them may be a means to be more creative instead. • These things may include the junk media; endless news, pulp fiction and reality TV…? (shockhorror!). • Time spent not consuming that information could be spent well… actually doing stuff. • Also consider your learning style and not trying to fight against it. • Example; If you are a kinesthetic person, you’ll probably make better use of your learning/creative time by immersing yourself in the practical aspects of the creative act, as oppose to having a dialogue about it.

Constraints are cool • A certain number of constraints will direct your energies and creativity. It’ll also stop you overreaching and being overwhelmed by possibilities. • But too many will stifle you. • What’s the ideal amount? Again, it seems to be a personal choice. • See theory of constraints for more on the subject, in an analogue taken from business. • Examples of constraints that can be useful: Budgets, timelines/deadlines, wordcount limits, the musical range of an instrument, limited access to social media websites, limited number of candidates to choose from, limited cooking ingredients to work with…

How to ‘get’ constraints? • Constraints can be said to come in two ‘flavours’; Artificial and Natural. • Natural Constraints already exist. “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• Artificial Constraints you impose upon yourself. • Here is a stupid example involving cigars. Think of a more realistic issue in your own life and think of the kind of constraints you could apply to it... • A natural constraint for example, is not having the money to take up a new hobby in expensive cigar smoking that might detract from your creative work.

You can see that this guy isn’t getting shit done.

• An artificial constraint is choosing not to spend that money and time on smoking in the first place, knowing that it’ll make you less creative. • Regardless of the kind of constraint you use, you achieve the goal of NOT detracting yourself from your creative time with your newfound cigar habit. • As I said, pretty dumb example, but capisce?

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Identify barriers to creative execution: Attributes Separating Creative Dreamers From Creative Dynamos. Because having creative ideas is only step 1 in making them happen... • We all know people who are, as the Texans say, ‘all hat, no cattle’.

Though I’m sure that’s not the case for this guy.

• Some of them may have many creative ideas which they talk about, but which we never see. • Surely you know some of these people? • True executors of creative ideas, and not just ‘perennial dreamers’ have some things working in their favour...

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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These Attributes Include: • EMBRACING REALITY AND BEING FULLY PREPARED FOR MURPHY’S LAW: knowing that often taking even the smallest idea to fruition is a lot harder than expected, will take longer, will involve more problems and is more complicated than could be imagined. • EXPLORING: knowing that lots of ideas are good but… • TESTING THINGS: knowing that not all ideas can pan off. Is not afraid to discard the ones that aren’t working. Does not become too invested in an idea. • PERSISTING: sticking to the process of execution, despite everything (and it will be everything) that fate, technology and other people throw at them.

“There are really three parts to the creative process. First there is inspiration, then there is the execution, and finally there is the release.” - Eddie Van Halen

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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PRIORITIES AND GOALS Deciding what to do, and what to do first.

Getting your priorities in order: Creativity is in

large part a matter of Priorities.

“Action expresses priorities.” - Mahatma Gandhi

• In fact, life’s a matter of priorities. Your priorities determine what you do and the order you do it. • And (at the risk of making a massive simplification here…) your priorities stem from your values. • So, are you aware of your values? • Do you value being creative? • How much? • If yes, can do you do so more? • Do you believe yourself to be creative? • If so, why? If not, why not? • Examine your values. • Fundamentally & simply this comes down to just asking why you believe what you do, and then asking why again to every response you come up with. • Rinse and repeat. “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• This is a process of self-inquiry in which the questions lead deeper towards your core values. • There’s enough material here to write another ebook on ‘values examination’. • And I don’t claim to be an expert on that either :3 • So instead of taking too much of a detour I suggest that people interested in affecting this kind of self change consider researching the different therapeutic approaches offered by the various schools of psychology.

Goal Setting For Creative People: Very briefly touching upon a subject that’s been done to death Yeah, I’ll talk about goals briefly as they relate to doing creative stuff. You’ve probably read some form of this somewhere else. Grandma, sucking eggs, etc…

• In creating, focus on means goals, not ends goals. • An ends goal: States the final thing and benefit that will be obtained from the project • A means goal: Encompasses and breaks down the individual steps required to actually achieve the ends goal. • So, by completing your means goals you realise your ends

goals!

Or as another truism/cliché says; “Inch by inch, life's a cinch. Yard by yard, life's hard.” “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Some Ridiculously Simplified Examples: #1 – Completing the first draft of a book Bad: I will finish my book by next week. Good: I will write 500 words of my book every day this week and proof read/edit it in two parts over Saturday and Sunday, finishing on Sunday evening. Outcome: By writing the 500 words every day, and completing the edit over the weekend, the original end goal of finishing the book happens as a bi-product of the means goal. The means goal has separated that process into concrete and ‘actionable’ steps, which can be completed and monitored on a daily basis. #2 – Growing Tropical Orchids (disclaimer: I suck at gardening so don’t try to use this as practical instruction) Bad: I will have orchids flowering in my garden by the summer. Good: I will plant my orchid seeds tomorrow. I will keep the greenhouse heated at around 80°F and at around 60% humidity. I will water them every 3 days from planting and I will feed them with fertiliser every Friday. I’ll add these actions to my calendar to make sure that I remember to do what is required on each day it is required… Outcome: By planting, watering and feeding your orchids from seed to flower (and provided the weather and bacteria/pests don’t get in the way), by the end of Spring you’ll eventually end up with a garden full of beautiful and rare flowers. Unless you are me.

Now apply think of how to apply this process to one of your projects…  Ask, what are each of the steps involved from start to finish? List them. “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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 Work from the end or the beginning but try to plot each of them in order.  Then multiply the estimated time required by 2.5 for each step.  Because things almost always take far longer than you’d expect them to. Even when you adjust for the fact that you know they’re going to take longer than you think.  Consider Parkinson’s Law. If I give myself less time to do it, can it still be done at the same level of quality? (This doesn’t work for every kind of project…)  And not all projects can have clearly charted & defined points. Some are just too ambitious and/or ambiguous.  For example: “becoming a multi platinum artist” is a worthy ends goal.  But the amount of steps and uncertainty in the means that you set for it are going to be spectacular.  You couldn’t possibly predict everything you’d need to do and all the things that would come up as you worked towards it.  (Not that it would stop you if you wanted it enough!)  So instead remember that you simply operate on the best information you have available at the time  Expect things to change, especially in complicated projects.  Steps in the process are added after the process has begun.  Thus, flexibility in life and all things is paramount.

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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The reason why the palm tree survives the hurricane and the house doesn’t is not because the tree is ‘tougher’ or heavier (it isn’t) - it’s because the palm tree is flexible…

Your instincts: Preferences as direction and ‘trusting your gut’ • Evidence suggests that we evolved intuition as a means to shortcut overthinking everything. • When we stereotype or generalise, we take a shortcut on the thinking process. • We ‘think/decide faster’ and with less conscious effort. • By doing this we go on ‘feeling’ as oppose to more carefully considered logic. • Obviously such generalisations don’t always work out for the best (think bigotry, racism, sexism, etc.) but we can put a little faith in these instincts, they helped get our species to where it is today. • Your ‘Preferences as direction’: Trusting your preferences can be a shortcut to getting things done and not overthinking the process too much at the expense of the results. “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• Preferences/Instincts can be honed by paying more

attention to them. • Perhaps think of your intuition and instincts like a ’mental muscle’ that gets stronger with more use. • Which could also be known as that old cliché of ‘listening

to your gut’. • Or your heart • In a personal example did this initially by learning to improvise jazz solos on the guitar… • This forced me into a place where there was literally not enough time to consider what I was going to play next. • In such an environment you instead respond to the cues of the band you are playing with. • It puts you into a state of something like… spontaneous reaction, intuition and very little conscious thought. • I’m sure you have experienced it one form or another  • This wonderful space of ‘no mind’ can be found in many disciplines. • You can find it in fields such as sports and martial arts (in what the Japanese call ‘Mushin’) • From this intuitive practice, my tendency to ‘censor’ my own ideas is now much lesser in almost every other area… • Though I still have ‘perfectionistic problems’, especially in music composition. • But we are all works in progress, right..?

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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BIRTHING IDEAS Things to remember about birthing ideas…

Apparently it took Edison around 1000 unsuccessful attempts before he finally got that little invention, the lightbulb, to work.

• Often (not always), the more ‘creative’ the idea, the longer it takes for it to be appreciated. • Some things as so far ahead of ‘the curve’ that they’re not widely accepted in the lifetime of their creator • For a simple example, think about how the Catholic Church treated the people who blazed a trail in astronomy during the Scientific Revolution, such as Galileo… • Remember this when people cast doubt on your plans. • Some ideas are just bad though. So verify. ^_^

Craziness vs. Practicality • Often great ideas begin as crazy ideas... • But the leap from crazy to great requires nurturing. • Too critical an approach and the idea dies on the vine. “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• Too lax an approach and the idea remains as crazy and unworkable as it started.

Self worth and ‘creative feedback loops’ • Don’t tie your self worth to your creative output. • On days in which the creativity is not at the level you want it to be, this may cause you to be unhappy with yourself and your so called ‘failing’ to have ideas/solve problems. • But, being unhappy can (though not always) make you less resourceful and creative. • Thus punishing yourself for ‘being uncreative’ becomes a very bad and repetitive negative feedback loop.

Taking notes Perhaps 80% of being creative is retaining the bloody good ideas that you do get. But you must be diligent, for ideas are fleeting… • Be receptive to your brain... • Remember that ideas are fleeting. • I.e. some of us find we get ideas when we don’t expect them. And at ‘inappropriate’ times. And we’re quick to forget them. Even the great ones. • Be aware of the times you are most creative… • Personal example: I quite commonly get my ideas circa 02:39 in the morning. • So, be ready to take notes. • There are many ways to do this! • Some use dictaphones, some use notepads. I have a notepad beside my bed for when the ideas come in the night. • Though I should really use a Dictaphone, ‘cos its pretty hard to write in the dark and I have woken up the next day not really understanding last night’s indecipherable ‘notes’ :D • But find what means of note taking works best for you… “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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MINDSET

Since creative ideas (obviously) spring from your mind, your mindset is a thing of paramount importance…

Here are some good ‘beliefs to remember’: • Ideas are ‘out there’ (see collective unconscious,) and thus you are a limitless source of ideas • Ideas are easy to get. Good ideas, bad ideas, strange ideas… • How good they are? Maybe the world will be the judge of that. • So having ideas is easy, they’re just a little hard to actualise… • And even if you are super prolific, you can always be even more creative. • Never ever fucking peak. • Pick a role-model to inspire you. • What would they do in your situation? What things did they do or attributes did they have which you could steal/borrow to help you be a more creative or critical thinker? • Try to really get into their head. • See NLP’s modeling concept for a more systematic approach to this. Or method acting. • My personal rolemodel is Leonardo Da Vinci… “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Emotions (happy and sad) can aid creativity

 As an example, think of the amount of songs, poems and pieces of art created by people who are in love. Or heartbroken. Or have just lost someone close to them.  If you are physically able, you may find that these times of emotional intensity are an opportunity to have some seriously new ideas.  And it may sound strange, but in this way you may be able to make the best of an unhappy situation.  When life gives you lemons, make art…

Sometimes your conscious mind needs ‘space’ Allowing a ‘wandering mind’ (AKA ‘task unrelated thought’) is often a means to access other, non conscious resources that can chew on your problem(s), or simply surprise you with a completely new idea….  You can find space in a number of different ways…  ‘Zoning out’ and daydreaming; Einstein came up with many of his world altering theories in the time that he spent daydreaming in a boring job at the patent office. Just taking your mind off of the problem and letting it think about whatever it wants to for a while can do wonders…

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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 Cycling between projects; Perhaps by working on a completely different problem. For example, if you are stuck on a problem in one domain, try moving to something completely different.  Can’t finish the painting? Go read a book about cats and get some perspective…  Google have formalised this part of the creative process allowing their workers to pursue ‘20% projects’ - in which they spend 1/5th of their time working on their own, non Google ideas. It seems to work for them!

Characteristics of the creative person: In creating personal change, often it helps to model the type of person we intend to become. Here’s a creative stereotype, borne of a mix of many of the attributes that we associate with creators of all kinds. Maybe we can ingest some of these attributes… The creative person... • Is not inhibited and believes in their own ideas: Does not censor their own ideas (and acting upon them) too greatly. • Is ‘changeable’ and open to spontaneity: Understands that being too set in any one way of doing something usually isn’t helpful, and that fresh ideas often emerge from unexpected sources and completely spontaneously. • ‘Revises’ and Questions: Does not think in terms of ‘not broken, doesn’t need fixing’ • Does not resemble anything in particular: Though their thinking may show common patterns, ‘creatives’ tend to come in all shapes, colours and sizes. • Contrarian / uses ‘own logic’: Are not necessarily illogical, but instead play by a different rulebook to most. Maybe a different, less incumbered set of rules and logic…? • Is enthusiastic - loving the work often creates another kind of feedback mechanism by which the creative person is “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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compelled to do the creative work more, practice more, and thus the process perpetuates. This is a ‘positive’ feedback loop.

Or some may call it a virtuous circle.

• Is curious: Is enthusiastic about problems. Will examine and reexamine problems just for the fun of it. Is optimistic, but perhaps not naively so… • Able to suspend judgment: As judgment and prejudging can ‘strangle ideas in the crib’. • Embraces the unknown and the unexpected. Every great idea we now take for granted was unknown and unexpected before we came to take it for granted. They used to kill

you/laugh at you if you said the world was round… • Enjoys challenges/problems: Almost with pugilistic intensity. Because creativity is often a problem solving process… • Is often perennially dissatisfied: Sometimes neurotically, sometimes not. Either way, such dissatisfaction works as a motivating force towards realisation of creative ideas. “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• Perseveres: Knows that good things don’t often come easily and is motivated one way or another to make them happen. Doesn’t give up too quickly when the idea gets hard.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” - Albert Einstein

‘The Creative’ may hold certain beliefs: • • • • • • • • • •

Problems = Interesting / Opportunities Imagination > Knowledge There Are No Sacred Cows Daydreams and reveries are OK... Intuition knows some things that conscious thought doesn’t. ‘Silly’ ideas are OK. What other people think of me or my ideas is not my problem. It’s good to make the most of those times that I feel particularly ‘inspired’ Though I don’t have to be ‘inspired’ to have ideas… Ideas are a valuable commodity, but fundamentally are limitless.

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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MORE BIG POINTS •

Everybody can have ideas. Everybody is creative in

some area. Never buy into the myth of certain people being uncreative and don’t let nobody tell you otherwise. • Attack assumptions (yours and others) and cultivate the ‘beginner’s mind’: What you think you know, you don’t. The world used to be flat and cigarettes used to be good for you… Revisit things and challenge yourself. Or as an old cliché says; ’when you assume you make an ass out of ‘u’

and ‘me’

• Think in terms of problem solving: Defining the issue in terms of a specific problem or challenge presents you a discrete issue that you can tackle, as oppose to an amorphous, unassailable issue. • Envision multiple solutions: When attacking a problem imagine there are multiple ideas or solutions to be had, not just one. • Do not become attached to one idea at the expense of others. The ‘right’ one may turn out to be the wrong one... • Seek clarity: Remember we tend to procrastinate upon and make harder the things that we’re not totally ‘clear’ on how to tackle. • Solutions already exist: even if not yet discovered, perhaps think of yourself as a ‘materialiser of potentialities’.

Solutions exist as potential much the same as the mass of snow on top of a mountain possesses the gravitational potential energy to destroy the village at its feet.

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• And (hopefully) without getting too ‘metaphysical’ you could think of the process of creative thinking as discovering an infinite number of as yet unrealised possibilities, ideas and solutions.

RESTATING / REDFINING THE PROBLEM: AN EXAMPLE… • So, try restating your problem: Another way to get perspective on it is to try and describe it in different terms… • Our rather prosaic example… instead of stating your issue as: “The company is losing money” you could try reframing it as a question: “How do we make customers want to give us more money per transaction?” • Or “How do we cut costs so that we need to spend less in acquiring a customer?” • Essentially these are all ways to deal with the initial problem of poor cashflow. • Or maybe it’s not even a ‘cashflow problem?’, maybe it’s a ‘wrong kind of customers’ problem? Or a ‘wrong perception of the company’ problem? • Think in aspects, not absolutes: It could very well be all of these things at once, but focusing on a different aspect of the overall problem could allow you to tackle it in a different (and better) way… • As an old saying goes, ‘there’s always more than one way to skin a cat’ • Is it a sickness or a symptom?: And what you think of the main problem could actually be a symptom of a much larger and more significant problem…

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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APPLYING VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES TO THE PROBLEM OR: BEING A DOG FOR FUN AND PROFIT • Then consider someone else’s ‘aspect’: Try seeing the problem from a different perspective: How do the customers see your business – think from their view: why don’t they want to spend more? • Or see it from the perspective of a dog. If you were a dog, how’d you approach your company’s cashflow problem?

“Your cashflow problems taste delicious.”

• Maybe you are the dog of the company’s chief salesperson and you’ve noticed the quality of dinner has significantly decreased now that the company’s facing hard times? • And what might a dog do in this situation? • You might go lick ‘Daddy’s’ face and make him feel better about life.

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• And now that he feels better about life, he could go out, succeed and provide you a more fulfilling dinner. • Success! • And so, how could you lick the faces of your customers? • Uh…metaphorically… • This might lead your company to consider a customer appreciation strategy and subsequently do a better job of retaining your customers. • Later on you could even write one of those cookie cutter kind of business articles that inevitably end up on LinkedIn entitled ‘Lessons In Customer Appreciation From A Loyal Dog’ (or something similar…) • In the article, you could use your company as a case study and gather some publicity in the process. • So, following this associative process and restating the problem you might be able to come up with a novel approach to solving your problem. • And come up with new ideas for alternative marketing strategies (i.e. an article about your dog) • There are pretty much no limits on the ways that a problem can be redefined. • The dog idea is pretty stupid and came completely off the cuff, but it provided something to work with and took all of 15 seconds to generate the idea. • Think about how much better/more detailed your customer appreciation strategy could be if you really made the effort...

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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OVERCOMING ‘INSPIRATION PROBLEMS’ Problems with perspective and ruts, and how to kill them dead.

Perspective: • Powerful ideas are often ones that help you see the same things from a different perspective. • Or multiple different perspectives. • And seeing things from different perspectives can help you solve problems.

But perspective is a bit of a motherf*cker… • One of the main problems in coming up with ideas is the fact that you are you • I.e. you are trapped within your own perspective and subjective experience. You can never have someone else’s experience and insights and are thus forced to have all your own creative ideas and see things ‘from your own eyes‘ (see qualia)

“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it” – Salvador Dalí

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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But, others can help • Doesn’t matter if you are “the most creative person in the world”, sometimes you need the mind of someone else to overturn your problem. • This is why working with others can be so important. • BUT if you can’t work with others it is your responsibility to break the rut alone… • But having a rut isn’t too bad a thing… • I dunno about you but I get in and out of ruts all the time. • I think they’re natural. • Our energy and our creativity is often cyclic. • You can guide your nature but you can’t fight it • So, creative (mini) ruts are gonna happen to you. • But you can do other things when they do. Such as work in a different domain. And all ruts end eventually. • They’re only a problem when they start to last too long! • And how long is too long? That’s a personal definition. • Personally, I’d say longer than a week is a warning sign • At times like this more drastic action is needed…

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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THINKING LATERAL, GETTING IDEAS & ESCAPING RUTS Because nobody is invulnerable to the insidious anticreative phenomena that we call a ‘rut’… • Lets use metaphor that we can visualise for emphasis... • If you are stuck on one path of motion (your rut) you can only go forwards or backwards down that path.

Getting out of a rut in the ‘real world’ requires a forceful lateral motion, or going all the way to the end of the rut...

• And it’s the same for the kind of creative ruts we find ourselves in. • We need to think/move laterally. • So, how do we do this...?

CHANGE stuff! • Change the physical environment: Get out of the environment. Change your surroundings. Work elsewhere or take a walk. Take proper holidays and really relax, it grants perspective and provides inspiration • Change the sonic environment: Experiment with music as an aid to thought. For me, I find that ambient electronic music usually work best. I’ve done things like setup iTunes “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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•

playlists with tracks that correspond to a certain creative mental state I want to be in. It does work for me… Here’s an example of my ‘creative writing playlist’: some tracks which help me focus - I often use them when I write: Autechre - 444 , Lusine - Headwind, Igneous Flame - Geiss and Aphex Twin - Rhubarb Change the intellectual environment: Change the kind of information you are consuming. Meet new people. Speak with new people. Read something you wouldn’t normally consume. Maybe something you’d normally avoid… Change the subject: Do something that challenges a different part of the brain, or allows your unconscious faculties a chance to mull the subject over. Block in one domain might not apply to another. Consider a ‘mini vacation’ from that subject or kind of work, if you can. Change the medium: Words failing you? Draw something. Or the musically inclined may want to pick up an instrument. Here we return to that idea of ‘synthesis’ As in allowing you to unify differing concepts… Change the physiology: Try Nootropics: i.e.. Theobromine, Caffeine, Omega3, Ritalin. Etc. There are a number of substances, commonly available and …not so commonly available, that provide boosts to your brainpower...

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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Omega 3: that shit is good for your brain

• Change the psychology: Stop and go do something physically strenuous, or meditate. Both work by putting your brain into a different place and give you perspective on which to return to the problem. • Or try Intermittent Fasting: (but not under all instances) for those who get used to it may find that, IF produces periods of intense focus (once you get past the hunger pangs). There could be many reasons. Try it and find out… • Embrace ‘healthiness’ and movement: It’s so commonly said, but it’s still true. Make sure that you are rested, properly fed (perhaps not overfed) and that you regularly express yourself through movement… • Consider the mind body connection. The mind can be made lethargic by too sedentary or sluggish a body.

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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KNOWING YOUR ENEMIES: Overcoming the cognitive biases that stifle creative thinking

“One of the biggest problems with the world today is that we have large groups of people who will accept whatever they hear on the grapevine, just because it suits their worldview — not because it is actually true or because they have evidence to support it. The really striking thing is that it would not take much effort to establish validity in most of these cases… but people prefer reassurance to research.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Unfortunately, our human minds are susceptible to a fair few creative biases, but a few of the ‘big ones’ to watch are…  Functional fixedness – A term used by psychologists and means to only see the obvious ways of looking at a problem. It’s where the individual does not leave their comfort zone when thinking about solutions to a problem domain.  For example the man with a hammer sees everything as a nail, even though the hammer could be used as a paperweight. Or a catapult. Or a percussion instrument…  Change bias: after an investment of effort in producing change, remembering one’s past performance as more difficult than it actually was.

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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 Which might cause you to not do things in future, misattributing things as being harder than they were.  I.e. you may never run a marathon again, remembering only the world ending lactic acid burn at mile 22, and not the amazing shape that disciplined training and eating got you into.  The Context Effect: Memories and thought are often dependent on the environment in which they took place. They’re associative.  Which is why some people find that certain spaces ‘make them more creative’.  It’s also why you might find it easier to remember your exam questions in the classroom in which you learnt what you are being tested on.  Placement Bias: Basically your tendency to exaggerate how good you are at the things you see yourself as good at, and how bad you are at the things you see yourself as bad at.

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

Get More Better Ideas v1.0 // Jack Oughton http://jackoughtonwriter.info// https://www.facebook.com/jack.oughton.writer // 2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @koukouvaya

CONCLUSION / REITERATION / EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Because everybody loves a good conclusion… • In case you’ve forgotten, you are creative. • And you are one very good idea from almost anything you want. • Creative thinking allows you to solve existing problems. And also to solve problems that you haven’t thought of yet. • Ideas are associative. Have lots of ideas. • Don’t become too attached to any single one of them. • Remember that not being able to come up with an idea/being in a rut is usually a problem of perspective. So CHANGE things and get some perspective. • The only constant is change. • Just because creativity isn’t completely under your conscious control, doesn’t mean that you don’t have a say in directing it. • Creativity and one’s unconscious resources are more guided than controlled. • Reality is not a constraint when ‘having ideas’. • Reality can be brutal but don’t let that stop you.

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

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• Eat the world with your brain. Life and experience are the building blocks of incredible ideas and both are freely available to you • Sometimes you need to think less and feel more (trusting ‘the gut’ or ‘the heart’ instead of ‘the brain’) • The right amount of constraints are good for your thinking. • To be more creative, put more of your priorities on being creative. Your priorities stem from your values. So do you value your creativity at a ‘core’ level? • Don’t tie your self worth to your creative input unless you enjoy being unhappy and making yourself less creative in the process. Let the ideas happen. • Take notes and be ready to capture ideas, which will often/inevitably come when you least expect them. • Catch all your ideas without judgment and filter them later. • The Zen Mind is the Beginner’s Mind. Attack assumptions. • Creativity is a label, and beware of labels. • Feed your mind and body the right things. Beware too much ‘junk media’. • Ideas are never completed, merely abandoned. • Time grants you perspective. Don’t fear to leave something and return to it with ‘fresh eyes’. • Be creative with the right people and between you the possibilities are multiplied, not added. • Coffee and fish juices make you more creative 

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

Get More Better Ideas v1.0 // Jack Oughton http://jackoughtonwriter.info// https://www.facebook.com/jack.oughton.writer // 2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @koukouvaya

TOOLS … CREATIVE THINKING APPS / TECH TOOLS / AIDS Want to explore further?… • • • • • • • •

Oblique Strategies Creative Mindset Audit Google Search: “Ideation” Google Search: “Brain Training” Google Search: “TRIZ” Google Search: “Ideas Bank” Google Search: “Nootropics” Google Search: “Creativity Exercises” / “Creative Thinking Exercises” • Robert Harris’ introduction to creative thinking [draws distinctions between creative and critical thought] • Bulletproof Exec’s Upgrade Your Brain [some interesting reading on improving/tweaking the physiology of your brain with nootropics and a variety of brain training methods – Dave is hardcore.]

“When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.” - Cynthia Heimel “Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” - Gail Sheehy

Get More Better Ideas v1.0 // Jack Oughton http://jackoughtonwriter.info// https://www.facebook.com/jack.oughton.writer // 2013: CC BY-NC-SA // Wanna chat? Tweet @koukouvaya