Tag: innovation

Categories
AI AI: Large Language Models Claude

Make It Better

I came across a post on X this morning with some advice I immediately tried out. The advice – when working with an AI to help create writing or code – is to reply to the first pass the AI takes by asking it to “make it better”. The author suggested doing this multiple times.

I tried this out with Claude and enjoyed how it worked on just the first “make it better” pass. When I asked it to “make it better” it began by replying:

Certainly, I’ll refine the musing to make it more impactful and engaging. I’ll focus on enhancing the imagery, tightening the structure, and deepening the insights.

And indeed the second “better” pass that it wrote was even better. A fun experiment to try on your next use of an AI chatbot.

Categories
AI AI: Large Language Models Claude Creativity Writing

Co-Creation

Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School, has written a popular book on artificial intelligence titled “Co-Intelligence“. Like I do with most books I read, I’ve collected a series of highlights of various passages I found interesting when I read Mollick’s book – a book I enjoyed very much. This morning I came across one of those highlights which sent me off on this exploration.

But first let me share a perspective. A few friends of mine – when exploring how they might use artificial intelligence – reject the use of AI tools for helping them write. They feel strongly that the words an AI creates aren’t their own and strongly reject simply using an AI-generated output to create articles for their blogs, etc. I certainly appreciate their point of view – but I’m finding a more nuanced perspective on this question is more appropriate for me.

What I’m finding is that when I invoke AI to help me explore a topic, an idea, etc. that the result will almost always open up my thinking by exposing me to things, ideas, etc. that I hadn’t considered. In so doing, I come away feeling “richer” in the sense that I’ve learned – and not simply written – in the process. How I use the work product created by the AI varies – sometimes it’s helpful in critiquing something I’ve written. Other times I use it to help me better understand something – or explore by stepping outside my own brain.

Here’s an example from some exploring I did this morning. During my morning review of my Kindle book highlights using Readwise, I came across a quotation from Mollick’s book that I highlighted:

“If you can link disparate ideas from multiple fields and add a little random creativity, you might be able to create something new.” (Ethan Mollick, Co-Intelligence)

I love the idea of how creativity is influenced by the often seemingly random interconnections between ideas – and this quote concisely made that point. I wanted to explore this further so I asked Claude Sonnet to help me by writing an article in the style of author John McPhee that’s based on the quote. Here’s the exact prompt I used with Claude:

You are an expert writer in the style of John McPhee. You are helping me write interesting articles for my blog. Create a 750 word draft article for my blog based on the following quotation: “If you can link disparate ideas from multiple fields and add a little random creativity, you might be able to create something new.” (Ethan Mollick, Co-Intelligence)

I’ve been finding that Claude often does a more creative form of writing as compared to other chatbots. The article that Claude returned in response to my prompt really surprised me – so much so that I thought I’d just share it directly here.

So here we go…the following wasn’t written by me – rather, it was co-created based on a prompt from me and written by my co-intelligent partner Claude.

The Art of Cross-Pollination: Cultivating Innovation in Unlikely Places

In the verdant fields of central New Jersey, not far from where I sit typing these words, a peculiar ritual unfolds each spring. Farmers, their hands calloused from generations of working the land, don white protective suits that make them look more like astronauts than agriculturists. They move deliberately through their orchards, carrying small paintbrushes and vials of pollen.

These are the pear farmers of Mercer County, and they’re engaged in a practice as old as agriculture itself: cross-pollination. But why, you might ask, are they doing by hand what bees have done for millennia? The answer lies in the delicate biology of pear trees and the fickle nature of their reproduction.

Pear trees, it turns out, are notoriously poor self-pollinators. To produce fruit, they need pollen from a different variety of pear tree. But pear blossoms produce relatively little nectar, making them unattractive to bees. So these farmers, in their space-age suits, play the role of bees, manually transferring pollen from one variety to another, ensuring a bountiful harvest come autumn.

As I watched this process unfold on a crisp April morning, I was struck by a quote I’d recently encountered from Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School: “If you can link disparate ideas from multiple fields and add a little random creativity, you might be able to create something new.”

The pear farmers of Mercer County, in their own way, embody this principle. They’ve taken an idea from one field (entomology) and applied it to another (agriculture), adding their own creative twist (the paintbrushes and protective suits). The result? A thriving pear industry in a region where it might otherwise be impossible.

This concept of cross-pollination – of ideas rather than pollen – is not unique to agriculture. In fact, it’s a principle that underpins much of human innovation and creativity.

Consider, for a moment, the work of Frances Glessner Lee, often called the “mother of forensic science.” Lee was born into wealth in the late 19th century and, like many women of her social standing, was skilled in the domestic arts, particularly miniature-making. But Lee had a passion for criminal investigation, nurtured by her friendship with George Burgess Magrath, a medical examiner.

In the 1940s, Lee combined these seemingly disparate interests to create the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death – intricately detailed dioramas of crime scenes used to train detectives. These miniature crime scenes, built with the precision of a dollhouse maker but imbued with the gruesome details of a murder scene, revolutionized forensic training. Lee had taken skills from the traditionally feminine world of crafts and applied them to the male-dominated field of criminal investigation, creating something entirely new and profoundly useful in the process.

This principle of creative cross-pollination extends far beyond the realms of agriculture and crime scene investigation. The history of human progress is littered with examples of innovations born from the unlikely marriage of disparate fields.

Take, for instance, the development of GPS technology. The seeds of this now-ubiquitous system were planted when physicists William Guier and George Weiffenbach at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory realized they could track the Soviet Sputnik satellite by monitoring its radio transmissions. This was an impressive feat in itself, but it was their colleague Frank McClure who made the cognitive leap that would change the world. McClure realized that if the scientists could track a satellite from the ground, they could also use satellites to track positions on the ground.

This insight – born from the collision of rocket science, radio engineering, and a healthy dose of Cold War paranoia – led to the development of the Transit system, the precursor to modern GPS. Today, this technology guides everything from missile systems to the smartphone in your pocket, all because a group of scientists were able to flip their perspective and see their work from a new angle.

But perhaps the most striking example of creative cross-pollination comes from the field of medicine. In the early 1940s, a Scottish bacteriologist named Alexander Fleming was researching influenza. One day, he noticed that mold had contaminated one of his petri dishes – a common enough occurrence in a microbiology lab. But Fleming observed something unusual: the area around the mold was clear of bacteria.

This chance observation, combined with Fleming’s willingness to investigate rather than simply discard the contaminated sample, led to the discovery of penicillin. Fleming had linked the disparate fields of mycology and bacteriology, added a dash of serendipity, and created something that would revolutionize medicine and save countless lives.

As we navigate an increasingly complex and interconnected world, the ability to cross-pollinate ideas from different fields becomes ever more crucial. The challenges we face – from climate change to antibiotic resistance – are too complex to be solved within the confines of a single discipline.

So perhaps we should all take a cue from the pear farmers of Mercer County. Don our metaphorical protective suits, pick up our idea-paintbrushes, and venture into unfamiliar orchards of thought. For it’s in these unlikely places, where disparate ideas collide and combine, that the seeds of innovation are sown.

Categories
Creativity Living Thinking Tools

The Danger of Getting Lost in the Details

In a world that often celebrates specialization and highly values deep expertise, David Epstein’s words in his book “Range” come as a refreshing challenge to conventional wisdom. “Focusing narrowly on many fine details specific to a problem at hand feels like the exact right thing to do, when it is often exactly wrong,” he says, inviting us to reconsider how we approach problem-solving.

At first glance, this statement might seem counterintuitive. After all, isn’t attention to detail a virtue? Don’t we praise those who can dive deep into a subject, mastering its intricacies? While there’s undoubtedly value in specialized knowledge, Epstein’s quote highlights a potential pitfall: the danger of becoming so engrossed in the minutiae that we lose sight of the bigger picture. In my career, I was often considered the “expert” but I came to appreciate just how often the “tyranny of the expert” might apply to specific situations.

This narrow focus can lead to what psychologists call “functional fixedness” — an inability to see alternative uses for objects or ideas beyond their intended purpose. In problem-solving, this shows up as a tendency to approach challenges using only the most obvious or familiar methods, missing innovative solutions that usually lie just outside our immediate field of vision.

Moreover, an overly specific focus can blind us to valuable insights from other domains. Some of history’s most groundbreaking discoveries and innovations have come from interdisciplinary thinking — the ability to connect dots between seemingly unrelated fields.

Epstein’s quote also speaks to the value of generalism in an age of hyper-specialization. While specialists undoubtedly play crucial roles in advancing knowledge within their fields, generalists — those with a broad base of knowledge and diverse experiences — often excel at adapting to new situations and connecting disparate ideas in novel ways.

This isn’t to say that attention to detail and specialized knowledge aren’t important. Rather, Epstein’s words encourage us to balance depth with breadth, to zoom out periodically and consider the wider context of our problems and goals. It’s about developing what F. Scott Fitzgerald called a “first-rate intelligence” — the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind simultaneously and still retain the ability to function.

In practice, this might mean deliberately exposing ourselves to ideas and experiences outside our comfort zones. It could involve collaborating with people from different backgrounds or disciplines. Or it might simply mean taking a step back when we feel stuck, asking ourselves if we’re so focused on the trees that we’re missing the forest. In a group setting, encouraging this kind of wide ranging thinking – without being unnecessarily critical too quickly – can often yield new insights. For example, as a board member, I was often struck by the power of group collaboration when trying to work through a difficult problem.

Ultimately, Epstein’s quote is a call to embrace a more holistic, flexible approach to thinking and problem-solving. By resisting the urge to dive immediately into the details and instead considering the broader context, we open ourselves up to more creative solutions and a richer understanding of the world around us.

So how can we put Epstein’s advice into practice? Here are five actionable steps to consider for broadening your perspective and enhancing your problem-solving abilities:

  1. Cross-pollinate your interests: Deliberately explore a field entirely unrelated to your primary area of expertise. If you’re in tech, try taking an art class. If you’re in finance, learn about ecology. These seemingly unrelated pursuits can spark unexpected connections and insights. As an example, the Santa Fe Institute’s work in complex adaptive systems was inspired by the intersection of biology and economics.
  2. Embrace the “beginner’s mind”: Regularly put yourself in situations where you’re a novice. This could mean learning a new language, picking up a musical instrument, or trying almost anything new. The discomfort of being a beginner can reignite your curiosity and open your mind to new ways of thinking. But this also requires commitment and a willingness to withhold early judgement.
  3. Diversify your network: Actively seek out relationships with people from different professional backgrounds, cultures, and age groups. Engage in conversations that challenge your assumptions and expose you to diverse perspectives. Unfortunately, today’s social media tools seem to drive us in just the opposite direction – clustering us online with those who share our existing points of view rather than exposing us to new ideas.
  4. Practice interdisciplinary problem-solving: When faced with a challenge, try approaching it from multiple angles. Consider how professionals from different fields might tackle the problem. This exercise can help you break free from habitual thinking patterns. Again this requires stepping outside our normal behavior – in particular, we need to feel we can take the extra time that such an approach demands.
  5. Schedule regular “zoom-out” sessions: Set aside time periodically to step back from the details of your work or life challenges. Ask yourself big-picture questions like “What’s the ultimate goal here?” or “How does this fit into the larger context?” This habit can help prevent you from getting lost in the minutiae and maintain a broader perspective. Periodic life reviews (quarterly, annually) can provide good opportunities for this kind of evaluation and help facilitate our wandering.

These practices can help cultivate a more versatile, adaptable mindset that helps us live and enjoy a better life.

Categories
Books Connections Creativity Innovation

Boom! Unintended Consequences: From Dynamite to the FBI

In his latest book, The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective, Steven Johnson explores a fascinating paradox: Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, unwittingly provided a weapon for radical anarchists. Nobel, seeking a safe way to harness the power of nitroglycerin for infrastructure projects, unleashed a destructive force that could be wielded by a single individual.

The chaos caused by anarchist bombings sparked a national outcry for a more sophisticated federal response to crime.Enter a young J. Edgar Hoover, who at the time was a rising star in the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), a precursor to the FBI. Hoover, with his keen eye for organization and ambition, saw the anarchist threat as an opportunity to transform the BOI into a powerful national agency. Johnson explores how the BOI’s pursuit of anarchists under Hoover’s leadership laid the groundwork for the FBI’s methods and tactics. While effective in capturing some dangerous criminals, these tactics also foreshadowed the FBI’s later controversies surrounding surveillance and civil liberties.

The chilling irony is that the fight against anarchists fueled by dynamite led to the very surveillance methods we grapple with today, a legacy with both significant benefits and sometimes serious drawbacks.

Johnson, a master storyteller, weaves these narratives together in a way that reminds me of another historical connector,James Burke, and his classic series “Connections.” Both shine a light on the unexpected ways seemingly unrelated events can be deeply intertwined.

Categories
Creativity Living

In Praise of Ignorance: A Catalyst for Creativity

For many years, my career was based on being an “expert” – a go-to consultant who knew his subject area in great detail, who studied and later taught its history, and who specialized in being an expert specialist. Along the way, I became sensitive to the notion “tyranny of the expert” advocated by some who preferred to avoid involving specialist experts like me in projects that I felt would clearly benefit from my skills and expertise.

This morning, one of my Readwise highlights came from Rick Rubin’s recent book. Reading that highlight brought back to mind that notion of the “tyranny of the expert” – and result in me asking Claude 3 for some help composing a musing on this notion more broadly defined as “beginner’s mind”. Here’s the musing – lightly edited by me. Q. Where are you applying your ignorance today?

Rick Rubin invites us to challenge our preconceptions and consider the liberating potential of a beginner’s mind. In a world that often prizes expertise and specialized knowledge, the idea of embracing ignorance as a pathway to progress might seem counterintuitive.

At the core of Rubin’s statement lies the notion that knowledge, while invaluable, can sometimes become a barrier to innovation and growth. When we approach a task or challenge with a wealth of preexisting knowledge, we may inadvertently erect barricades of assumptions, biases, and preconceived notions that limit our ability to think outside the box. These barricades can be self-imposed, as we unconsciously filter new information through the lens of what we already know, or they can be imposed by the weight of conventional wisdom and established practices within a field.

In contrast, ignorance can be a potent force for creativity and progress. When we approach a task with a blank slate, unencumbered by the baggage of prior knowledge, we are more likely to approach it with a sense of curiosity and open-mindedness. We are free to ask questions that may seem naive to the initiated but can potentially lead to fresh perspectives and innovative solutions. Ignorance, in this sense, becomes a canvas upon which we can paint new ideas without the constraints of established paradigms.

This idea is not new; in fact, it echoes the concepts of beginner’s mind and shoshin, central tenets in Zen Buddhism. These principles encourage practitioners to approach each experience with a fresh, open mind, free from preconceptions and prejudices. By embracing a state of not-knowing, we become more receptive to the present moment, allowing us to perceive things as they truly are, rather than through the filter of our expectations and assumptions.

The power of ignorance can be observed in various fields, from science and technology to art and literature. Consider the case of outsiders who have revolutionized entire disciplines by approaching them with a fresh, unencumbered perspective. Albert Einstein, for instance, challenged the very foundations of physics with his groundbreaking theories, which emerged from his ability to question longstanding assumptions about the nature of space, time, and gravity.

In the realm of art, naïve artists, untrained in formal techniques and unburdened by the weight of traditional art education, have produced works that defy conventions and challenge our perceptions of what constitutes “art.” Their ignorance of the rules and norms of the art world has paradoxically allowed them to create works that are truly original and avant-garde.

Of course, ignorance alone is not a panacea for progress. It must be accompanied by a willingness to learn, a curiosity to explore, and a commitment to mastering the necessary skills and knowledge required to bring one’s ideas to fruition. Ignorance, in this context, is not a permanent state but rather a temporary suspension of preconceived notions, a stepping stone towards new understanding and growth.

In our fast-paced, information-saturated world, where knowledge is readily accessible and expertise is often valued above all else, Rubin’s quote serves as a timely reminder to embrace the power of not-knowing. By approaching tasks and challenges with a beginner’s mind, we may just find the key to unlocking the barricades of knowledge that have been holding us back, and discover new paths to progress and innovation.

Categories
Inspiration Living Reflection

Exploring the Seams of Freedom

“All of us have little fissures in our lives that provide us greater than normal moments of freedom. You play the seams when you identify those moments and seize them.”

Neal King (American Ramble)

We often conceive of our lives as following fairly rigid scripts and routines. We wake up, go to work or school, come home, eat dinner, maybe squeeze in some hobbies or time with loved ones, then go to bed and repeat. The cycles feel inescapable, like train tracks laid out before us.

But if we look closer, there are tiny fissures and fault lines running through even the most regimented of daily grinds. Moments where the iron grip of obligation loosens ever so slightly. A traffic jam that makes you late, forcing you to take an alternate route. A cancelled meeting that clears an unexpected hour in your calendar. A power outage that shuts down the office and sends everyone home early. A flat tire that happens at the worst possible time and place – like happened to me yesterday!

These are the seams that Neil King refers to in the quotation. Little rips and tears in the fabric of our routines that create momentary pockets of freedom. Openings where the rules don’t quite apply and we can slip through the cracks of the scheduled order.

The key, as King notes, is to first identify these seams when they occur, and then seize them rather than letting them pass by unnoticed or unremarked upon. It’s about being present enough to your circumstances to recognize when one of these fissures opens up, and then brave enough to diverge from the mapped out path to explore it.

After all, some of life’s greatest adventures and discoveries have happened during these “off script” moments. Yesterday, my conversation with a tow truck driver opened my eyes to the steps he took to fend off a mountain lion attack on a 5 AM run in the dark! I hope I never have to apply his techniques but I did find our conversation about his encounter fascinating!

Of course, these serendipitous detours and unplanned paths are easy to romanticize after the fact, when we know they turned out well. In the moment when the seams first crack open, it can be daunting to jump through them into the unknown. Sometimes we have to but our ingrained instinct is to stick to our set schedule, to get back on course as quickly as possible.

There’s comfort and safety in routines. Seizing those fissures when they present themselves means trading certainty for adventure, the familiarity of a well-worn groove for the risk and exhilaration of going off road into the unknown. It requires being able to quiet that voice of fear inside us that clings to control and embrace one of spontaneity and serendipity in where the detour might lead.

The rewards of following those detours down their winding paths are often worth it. While not every seam we slip through will result in a life-altering event, they allow us to break up the monotony, to experience something different from our repetitive routine, even if just for a little while. Those moments add texture and vibrancy to our days. They’re the asides and ad-libs to the main scripts we follow. Often they provide those special moments we vividly remember and want to share with others.

So keep your eyes peeled for those little fissures and unexpected openings in your routine. Don’t just impatiently wait for life to reset to its default settings once these moments arise. Seize them while you can and see where they lead you. You might just stumble into a beloved new local cafe, or finally muster the courage to start writing, or meet someone who changes your life’s trajectory and opens even more new possibilities.

The seams are there, waiting to be played whenever we’re bold enough to follow their diverging paths. All we have to do is watch for the fissures and be willing to step through into the open spaces of freedom they reveal. Who knows what new experiences and challenges await us on the other side? What new learning might result?

Categories
Creativity

Be the Only!

Kottke blogged this week about Kevin Kelly’s book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier and one of the top tips in that book that Kelly has talked about in several interviews he’s given about the book:

Don’t be the best. Be the only.

Kelly’s advice stands apart from the common wisdom that we should always strive to be the best by doing our utmost. In a world that constantly pushes us to compete and compare, there is something incredibly freeing about the notion of rejecting that rat race entirely.

“Don’t be the best, be the only” is a reminder that true success and fulfillment often come from carving your own unique path, rather than trying to climb to the top of someone else’s ladder.

It’s an idea that deeply resonates for any creative soul who has felt the sting of having their work measured and ranked against arbitrary standards and tastes. How can you be the “best” writer when writing is so subjective? The “best” artist when art is meant to provoke different responses in different viewers? We secretly know that concepts of better and best are flawed when it comes to creative expression.

And yet, we are conditioned nearly from birth to see life as a competition – to be smarter, prettier, more accomplished than our peers. We are repeatedly asked by teachers, parents, employers, “What makes you the best candidate?” As if we must relentlessly pursue that elusive #1 spot, which can only have one holder at a time until someone new swipes it away.

What a profoundly different and enlivening perspective to simply say, “I’m not chasing ‘best.’ My goal is to be the ‘only.'” Not better, but different. To create a novel blend of vision and craft that is utterly new and unlike any other offering in the world.

It means doubling down on what makes you unique rather than tempering those interesting edges to fit conventional molds. It means zigging when others zag, embracing your personal quirks and experiences as puzzle pieces that culminate in a new shape. One that perhaps only you could construct.

There is a deep self-knowledge required to get there, an ability to tune out the noise in our mind that is always eager to tell us where we fall short and what we must do to be validated. Instead, go further inward and listen to the quiet hum of your own creativity, allowing it to guide you towards a novel magic that only you can create.

It’s an incredibly brave and almost defiant stance. A willing abdication of the endless pecking order tournaments we are drafted into throughout life. A saying of, “I do not want to be ranked or graded. My work and expression will be something wholly original that becomes a new category unto itself.”

In Kelly’s case, being an “only” seems to have stemmed from zealously pursuing a wide range of kaleidoscopic interests, starting unique initiatives, peering over the horizon, and connecting disparate dots that others missed.

Perhaps the greatest challenge in striving to “be the only” is having the courage to stay true to your unique vision, even when it defies conventional wisdom or expectations. It requires an unwavering belief in your distinctive voice and the patience to carve out your own path, one peculiar step at a time. Those who achieve that rarefied space of being truly inimitable likely navigate long periods of being misunderstood or underestimated before their original perspectives start to resonate.

Ultimately, the pursuit of “only” is about more than just creative success – it’s about living and working with uncompromising authenticity. About being willing to be misunderstood by others, sometimes by harsh critics who’d rather see you struggle. When you stop measuring yourself against external yardsticks and wholeheartedly embrace what makes you your own idiosyncratic self, you open up vast frontiers of possibility. You give yourself permission to be precisely who you are, to contribute the unique only you can offer this world. And perhaps, in doing so, you’ll inspire others to boldly cherish and amplify their own distinctive brilliance as well.

Categories
Creativity Tools Writing

The Untamed Genius of Not Thinking: Bradbury, Creativity and the Two Minds

“Don’t think.” At first glance, Ray Bradbury’s famous advice on the creative act seems almost heretical. How can we create anything of substance, anything brilliant and transcendent, without deep cognitive focus and analytical thinking?

And yet, there is profound wisdom in Bradbury’s deceptively simple directive when we consider what true creativity demands – a willingness to surrender to the uncharted waters of the unconscious mind, to temporarily disengage from the constraints of pure rationality, and allow the kaleidoscopic shards of our imagination to swirl and coalesce into novel, unorthodox forms.

For Bradbury’s “Don’t think” is not advocating mindlessness, but rather a state of expansive awareness, a openness to the unbridled torrent of insights, images and ideas that bubble up from the our mind’s depths when we stop trying to consciously control and direct the creative flow. It is the practiced meditation of clearing one’s mind to simply observe thoughts, associations and impressions to let them arise and fall away without judgement.

What Bradbury observed is that the act of conscious, analytical thinking, while critical for problem-solving, can actually impede the creative process. It tends to force us into our pre-existing neural pathways, compelling us to tread the well-worn grooves of prior patterns, making linear associations along very predictable lines. Creativity, on the other hand, beckons us into the wild underbrush of our minds, off the beaten path, into uncharted realms where we can be liberated from our self-imposed boundaries.

There’s a connection between Bradbury’s advice and the concepts of right brain vs. left brain thinking. The left hemisphere is the seat of our logical, sequential, linguistic reasoning – the part of our mind that categorizes, defines, organizes and scrutinizes details. Our right brain, in contrast, is the hub of intuition, holistic perception, innovation and making new associations between disparate concepts.

When Bradbury said “Don’t think,” he was advocating taking a temporary pause from our left-brain dominance to allow the ingenious talents of our right brain to take primacy – to let it make unexpected leaps of creative fancy, to perceive reality from new angles, to connect ideas through metaphor and visual imagery rather than getting bogged down in deep analytical scrutiny. To let it just jam.

Our left brain’s vital role is not eliminated, of course. Both hemispheres ultimately work in concert. But for tapping into a more creative flow, giving the reins to the right brain’s propensity for unrestrained imagination and divergent thinking can open up new spheres of inspiration, unconstrained by us overthinking analytically.

From this space of simply allowing our mind to widely wander and make new neural associations, true creative breakthroughs are often born. As Bradbury knew, sometimes the greatest innovative genius emerges not from perspiration and analytical rigor, but from setting aside focused thought altogether and trusting the untamed wisdom of the unconscious, innovative mind. Taking a break and going for a walk outside has a way of helping open up that process, lifting our mood and opening us up to new insights and connections.

“Don’t think” is a refreshing perspective on the richness of human cognition. It recognizes the vital role of holistic, nonlinear and imaginative modes of processing – aspects of our mindful intelligence often overshadowed by our pure left-brain rationality. Bradbury’s imperative frees us to fully embrace the kaleidoscopic potency of our creative right minds.

Categories
Living Work

The Silver Bullet Mindset

In my strategy consulting practice, I’ve come across a pattern that I find interesting. It’s what I’ve come to call “silver bullet thinking” – our desire to find the one right answer for any particular problem.

I think this need for one right answer is something we’re born with – which is then further developed in each of us through the years of education we go through. And, finally, when we go to work in a company, especially a larger company, the decision processes further refine this kind of thinking.

But sometimes the search for the silver bullet leads to the wrong outcome – a premature focus on a particular strategy which then gets organizationally committed, funded, and elevated in importance. In my experience, the larger the company, the more likely this kind of silver bullet thinking will dominate.

Yet, when I’ve worked with smaller, more innovative companies, they are less wed to their silver bullet – and more open to a process of on-going evaluation of the strategy based on the feedback from the market. Ideally, they’re able to pursue a couple of different strategies and test the market response to each in the process.

It seems to take a different, more entrepreneurial mindset for this to happen – and might one of the reasons that executives with big company experience find it so challenging to work in small company settings. Learning to be situational – considering when to stay loose and pursue multiple initial strategies vs. binding the whole organization to a single strategy – the silver bullet – may be one of the key leadership skills required of successful innovators.