Posted on 03/18/2012 9:04:26 PM PDT by TBP
Viewing an exhibition of children’s art in 1956, Pablo Picasso said, “When I was the age of these children, I could draw like Raphael. It took me many years to learn how to draw like these children.”
These two factors — persistent hard work plus the liberating effect of a feeling of childhood — are among two critical ingredients scientists have discovered in creativity. In one experiment mentioned in Jonah Lehrer’s superb new book “Imagine,” a group of people were asked what they would do if they were 7 years old, had a day off and were free to do anything. A second group was given the same instruction — without being told to put themselves in a kid’s shoes. Result: The first group came up with far more imaginative ideas.
Innovative companies like 3M (essentially an idea lab which came up with the Post-it note and many more ingenious thingamabobs and doohickeys), Google and Pixar nudge their employees to think like children, famously supplying them with recess time, Ping-Pong tables and kids’ cereal. Google orders its workers to spend a day a week working on their own random projects, an idea 3M had first.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
My best ideas come from nature.
Just the way the light filters though the autumn leaves...
Its not even nature so much as an awareness that the simple things in life are brilliant and the design just cant be random.
An a epiphany moment.
Daytime driving - especially long 2 - 3 hour trips on monotonous interstates. Several of my best ideas were born there.
Lurking’
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