My father warned me repeatedly against what he called the laziness of hard workers - the idiocy of gamely pouring effort into doing a job in a stupid way, rather than thinking first how to reduce the burden.
In other words, perhaps an aid to creativity is to have been indoctrinated into its merits when at an impressionable age. Of course, that's not a controlled experiment - perhaps my dismay at witnessing hard-working stupidity comes from character traits shared with my father rather than from his advice. Nature and nurture, eh?
P.S. Carrots won't grow in our garden soil so we grow them in pots sited next to the tap.
I remember having a bet with my brother who thought it was impossible to not leave bits of rice from sushi in the soya/wasabi bowl. I said, I could do it without difficulty. Instead of picking up the sushi and dipping the sushi in the bowl. I lifte the fish off the rice, dipped the fish and put it back on the rice.
Needless to say I got a sour look and a free meal. (Who says, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch"?)
Innovation comes from thinking about a problem from many points of view, not merely the most obvious one. There is an element of play which is useful as well. And if you get too close to the problem, walk away and do something that exercises your creativity. (Note: On stressful days I bring my camera to work, and go for a walk over lunch to engage myself in a different way of thinking and seeing. It sometime allows me to see a solution I was unable to see before because I backed myself out of look at the trees with a microscope.)
4 comments:
The link didn't work for me.
@d - Fixed - thanks for letting me know.
My father warned me repeatedly against what he called the laziness of hard workers - the idiocy of gamely pouring effort into doing a job in a stupid way, rather than thinking first how to reduce the burden.
In other words, perhaps an aid to creativity is to have been indoctrinated into its merits when at an impressionable age. Of course, that's not a controlled experiment - perhaps my dismay at witnessing hard-working stupidity comes from character traits shared with my father rather than from his advice. Nature and nurture, eh?
P.S. Carrots won't grow in our garden soil so we grow them in pots sited next to the tap.
I remember having a bet with my brother who thought it was impossible to not leave bits of rice from sushi in the soya/wasabi bowl. I said, I could do it without difficulty. Instead of picking up the sushi and dipping the sushi in the bowl. I lifte the fish off the rice, dipped the fish and put it back on the rice.
Needless to say I got a sour look and a free meal. (Who says, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch"?)
Innovation comes from thinking about a problem from many points of view, not merely the most obvious one. There is an element of play which is useful as well. And if you get too close to the problem, walk away and do something that exercises your creativity. (Note: On stressful days I bring my camera to work, and go for a walk over lunch to engage myself in a different way of thinking and seeing. It sometime allows me to see a solution I was unable to see before because I backed myself out of look at the trees with a microscope.)
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