The flexibility that leads to creativity is a habit that you can develop on many levels. There are micro-flexibility practices like getting up on the other side of the bed, writing a note with your non-dominant hand, or driving to the grocery store by a different route. There are structured [...]
Self-awareness is not just a solo activity: you need input from others around you. Of course, your thought-stream is most likely telling you: “You don’t need any information from anybody else! You can totally handle this on your own!” That’s why we love the thought-stream: it’s always very[...]
The cognitive biases we carry with as part of our mental equipment are certainly inconvenient. It calls into question one of the aspects of our experience we are generally most proud of: the quality of our thinking. It’s not surprising that your thought-stream really thinks highly of…your [...]
In her book Technology and the Virtues, Shannon Vallor draws on classical Greek, ancient Chinese, and Buddhist principles to lay out a framework for ethical action in the rapidly changing 21st century technological environment. A key principle is “expanding your circle of concern”. As humans we [...]
The creative-thinking maven Michael Michalko (in ThinkerToys) tells the story of Louis Braille, the inventor of the Braille alphabet for the blind. He was musing on the problem of how blind people could be enabled to read books, and happened to pick up a pine cone. The impression of the sharp spines[...]
My wife was once rescued from a perilous highway situation by a kind stranger driving a red pickup truck. When she sees a red pickup today, she still experiences a feeling of gratitude! Your emotions are made of two things: the sensations in your body, and the story you’re telling yourself about [...]
You can fight back against cognitive bias! One of the easiest and most effective lines of attack is to compensate for your built-in tendency to focus on the negatives. Rick Hanson’s book Hardwiring Happiness details a practice he calls “taking in the good”. It’s the choice to allow yourself[...]
Building trust with others can seem like running the bases in baseball. You, with your good intentions, might feel like the lone baserunner. The people you want to build trust with…they might seem like the other team, intent on getting you off the field entirely. Like a runner, you need to [...]
What does it take to be creative? All sorts of images come to mind. One of the most compelling is the starving artist, creating incredible masterpieces while freezing in a top-floor garret. It’s no doubt true that some starving artists create masterpieces. But for most of us, the challenges of [...]
The first time I walked into a pachinko parlor in Japan the experience was almost overwhelming. Colored lights were flashing everywhere. There was an incredible roar of bells and buzzers and music and the rattle of thousands of little steel balls. After I’d been there for a while, though, some [...]