Author Archives: Drew Haninger

Creativity and Ruts

Our beautiful creative mind easily gets into ruts or prejudices. We are looking for a solution and our sub-conscious thinking is saying “no, that’s a bad direction” when we are considering several alternatives. Now why is it a “bad idea”, because it will not work, or because it does not seem so beautiful to our accustomed ruts? Sometimes it is hard to determine. Sometimes a “not so beautiful” solution can be worked over and re-designed to work and look beautiful. Sometimes we are stuck and need a Paradigm Breakthrough.

Trail near Little Spokane River, Washington

Practice Creativity

To be good, we need to practice. So practice creativity. Here ‘s an article on “How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity” by Ed Catmull.

Neuroscience confirms that highly creative people think and act differently than the average person.

Here are some signs it’s maybe time to adjust your direction: discontent or the “something’s not right” feeling . #innovation #creativity

Creativity is intelligence having fun! – Albert Einstein

Brain Waves

While our brain cells work together, groups of them produce very tiny electrical impulses that facilitate processes such as muscle control, imagination, thought, memory, consciousness, and emotional feelings. Electroencephalography (EEG), can detect these impulses as tiny currents. The weak electrical signals, when amplified and input into a computer for processing has led to brain-computer interface (BCI) research.

Little Spokane River, reflections

Creativity Needed – Brain–computer interface (BCI)

Creativity is needed in the area of brain–computer interface (BCI). So far the interfaces seem too crude and pre-historic. Both invasive and noninvasive methods seem like dinosaurs. The noninvasive approach of electroencephalography using probes on the skin of the brain is still too far away from the neural action. The invasive approach is having to decide where in the brain to connect to. There is a great overview on Wikipedia. These are just my thoughts today.

Paradigm Breakthrough

I have talked about this before, but some organizations and companies at some stage need a paradigm breakthrough. Lets look at the BCI technology that is looking for new ways for the brain to talk directly to the computer. BCI is Brain to Computer Interface.

Columbia River, sunset

Innovation

Google was the 17th search engine (not the first). So watch, but don’t copy competition.

Optimism is an essential ingredient for innovation — Robert Noyce, Intel.

Think 10x = Think Big — Larry Page, Google

Na Pali Coast in North Kauai, Hawaii

Deep Learning

I think Deep Learning is the next step in computers where in studying the human brain we discover better ways to create a computer. All the big guys are working on this like Google, Microsoft and IBM. It’s not writing more lines of code, but creating a machine that can learn. There is a great article at MIT’s TechnologyReview.com

Its all in the Feelings

Just a little tip from Steve Jobs: People usually forget what you say, but remember how they “feel” when you said or presented something. What is the lasting impression of your marketing campaign. What do they remember in 2 weeks, what do they “feel” about it in 4 weeks.

Innovation++

Watch, but don’t copy competition. Google was the 17th search engine (not the first).