In my never ending quest to figure out how creativity (aka having ideas) works : does the specific way we bring structure to the messiness of the world, act as a spring board to the new idea?
Do we put our ideas in boxes, perhaps try on a few for size, before we then find a new thought outside of that box?
Is that how the mind works?
Certainly looking at the "how to have ideas" literature you find the following recomemdation:
1. Gather lots of info directly relevant to the problem but also around it.
2. Sift through and find patterns in this data
3. Take a break (let your subconscious do some work)
4. Have an idea (!)
5. Craft the idea
But on step 2. how do we actually "find patterns" unless we have some prior ways of spotting the connections? Because we are not looking for trivial connections like "begin with P" or "rythmes with orange" (a small group that one) but rather for connections likely to be more meaningful like "this one's bigger than this one" or "these four create a tidy little 2 by 2".
We don't know for sure which (if any) of these patterns/connections may prod our subconscious to leap off to a new place, but perhaps "good thinkers" have some sort of intuitive ability to try some promising ones.
So possibly where experience comes into play is the ability to fit the data into patterns that in previous problem solving exercises have been useful. Or possibly it isabout bringing in a highly unusual sorting pattern that brings some new perspective to the problem at hand. Maybe it's just about playing with it in lots of ways without worrying if its getting you anywhere.
Anyhow I feel there may be a book/website/resource in a cross-linked list of what I am calling "Thinking Boxes". As the recession rolls in and I perhaps have a lot of spare time on my hands then maybe one day I will create this. But for now I have been compiling a list.
To my surprise I have already cruised past 100 boxes after a couple of weeks. Here is my list so far. It is arranged alphabetically (a not very meaningful pattern, I'm sure I can do better) and I apologise for the lack of links. I'll get round to that post-redundancy.
(BTW all sugestions of ones i've missed gratefully received)
| Super Premium, Premium, Mass, Value |
| 3 7 12 12+ |
| 5 types (double personality thing) |
| 7 Story types |
| Account handling – diamonds, acorns etc. |
| Adoption curve |
| Agricultural, industrial, postindustrial |
| Analog digital |
| Ansoff matrix |
| Arden’s life circle |
| Army, Navy, Air Force (Marines, SAS) |
| Attention Interest Desire Action |
| Audio visual kinaesthetic |
| Autumn, winter, spring, summer |
| BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel4 |
| Belbin's team roles |
| Boston matrix |
| Brand onions |
| Brand preference funnel |
| Brand pyramids |
| CACI type stuff |
| Catastrophe theory |
| Chaotic and laminar zones |
| Chinese Emperors incompatible classification |
| Colours – other cultures |
| Colours – western |
| Commission, fees and royalties |
| Conscious subconscious |
| Covey's Gods of management |
| Coveys urgent, important |
| Crawl, Walk, Run |
| De Bono’s Hats |
| Decades |
| Denial Bargaining Anger Fear Transformation |
| Differentiate, lo-cost, niche (Porter) |
| Direct and indirect costs |
| Diverity x Stimulation/Fear |
| Dress styles : romantic, classic, dramatic etc |
| Drugs analogy |
| Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Quintessence |
| Eastern Western |
| Economic cycles |
| Ego, superego, id |
| Expressive, Analytical, Amiable, Driver |
| Feature benefit (advantage) |
| Feminist |
| Fighter, cleric, wizard, thief |
| Foxes, sheep, owls and donkeys |
| Fractals |
| Gather, Sift, Wait, Generate, Perfect |
| Geocentric, heliocentric revolution |
| Geometric Time,; Days, weeks, months, years |
| Gold, silver, Bronze (Platinum) |
| Goldilocks : too hot, too cold, just right |
| Good bad, lawful evil D&AD |
| Good, Better, Best |
| Greenfield, brownfield |
| Groups : Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Mourning |
| Hard, soft |
| Hero Archetypes |
| Hero’s Journey |
| Iceberg, beneath the waterline |
| Incompatible ideas (believing both) |
| Individual mind, herd mind |
| Industrial, service and creative sectors |
| Introvert extrovert |
| Izzards wheel of fashion |
| Jungian archetypes (links to myths and evolution) |
| Kolb’s learning styles |
| Kuhns structure of scientific revolutions |
| Ladders |
| Learning ladder : Unconscious Incompetence, CI, CC, UC |
| Left hand, right hand |
| Left wing, right wing |
| Lizard brain, mammal brain, human brain |
| Lumpers, splitters, recategorisers |
| Male female |
| Marxist |
| Maslows hierarchy of needs |
| Mass, one to many, one to one, networked |
| Mavens, connectors, salesmen |
| Meisters professional service firms triangles |
| Mind body (duality) |
| Mindshare SIAS |
| Mutate, select, amplify |
| Myers Briggs |
| Nice vs nasty (rational and emotional) 9 boxer |
| No.s of pints theory |
| Normal distribution |
| Obengs project types : lost in fog, making a movie, painting my numbers |
| Parent adult child. Transactional Analysis |
| Pareto 80 20 |
| Poisson distribution |
| Porters five forces |
| Power law distribution |
| Qualitative, quantitative |
| Quantum physics |
| Rational emotional |
| Ready, Fire, Aim |
| Rise, decline, circle |
| S curve theory |
| Spectrums |
| Spiceyness e.g. Nando’s |
| Spiral Cowan second order thinking |
| Spiral Dynamics |
| Star signs |
| Strategy, Idea, Execution |
| Strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution and charisma |
| Sutherlands Law |
| Testosterone and oestrogen cycles |
| The one with 1’s at the front (anti fraud) |
| Three screens |
| Tipping point, crossing the chasm |
| Traffic lights |
| T-shape, vertical and horizontal |
| TV programme lengths; clip, 30 mins, feature, mini-series |
| Tweenagers and teenagers and the forever young |
| Two by two’s |
| Urban rural suburban exurban |
| Venn diagrams |
| Ying Yang (and extra dots) |
Your post offers a very interesting and useful insight.
Thank you very much indeed!
Posted by: Ravindra Joshi | 11/29/2008 at 08:20 AM
Please, explain, What does it mean the creativity from the messiness of the world? I want to understand better your topic. And what is the list of the goods in the alphabetical order. Thanks.
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