Methods of Creative Thinking - Random Association

After mind mapping and juxtaposing, we have come to the last method of idea generating. Random Association is so far the most unrestricted method of idea generating. This method barely had any restriction, it just randomly associate random words into the situation. This allow us to enter the existing pattern of our thinking at a totally different point, it is the 'out of context' situation that help generates new connection in our mind.

As I mentioned before, our brain is very powerful, it's a born problem solver! Whenever conflicts are occurred, our brain will automatically generate itself to solve the problem, so as we purposely create conflict to our brain, solution is just the matter of time. Random association can create huge conflict to the brain because it is random, the random word associated might not be associated by our brain before, which means, new connections! In other word, random association helps our brain grow.

Enough brain-talking, let's learn how to make random association work!

First of all, a situation is needed, a problem that faced by people. For example,

how to make a person stop smoking in 6 months time?

Then, you'll need to find a random word, I would say,

traffic light!

Now here's the process, you should first do a mind map of the random word first.

Lastly, merge your idea with the problem, simple!

Colors

Paint different colors to the cigarette to indicate the level of danger that the smoker is getting into. Starting off with, Green; start smoking and start to feel stupid, Yellow; entering the dangerous zone and finally Red; you are now about to commit suicide!

Metal
Cover 3/4 of cigarette with fancy crafted metal, the cigarette will be way too expensive for smoker to buy, plus, the cigarette will be too hot to hold.

Sign
Add in material into cigarette that will change the color of the smoker's mouth, this will definitely affect the smoker's social life further on.




Dirty
Make the cigarette more crunchy than ever, then i will mess up the smoker's hands and clothes.

Methods of Creative Thinking - Juxtaposition

Since I had introduced mind map back in my previous post, now I will introduce another method of idea generating to you, which is juxtaposition. Different from mind map, juxtaposition doesn't need to draw any diagram, but just by placing.

According to Mr. RadziBedu's note, Juxtaposition can be defined as placing two variable, side by side and their contrast or similarity are shown through comparison. By juxtaposing two objects or words next to each other, conflicts between our left and right brain will happen, then our brain will automatically solve the conflicts by blending in both variables, somehow.


There are a lot of obvious example that the society is using juxtaposition to generate ideas, such as

Juxtaposition not only applied visually, but also applied literally, and it is called analogy. There are many different categories of analogies, among the most popular analogies are logical analogy and affective analogy. 


Logical analogies are analogies which use similarities in the design, structure or function of to connect back to the subject. For example, a leopard can be compared with a sport car, as we know the both run very fast. A bird can be compared to a plane because of the fact that both of them can fly. Who knew maybe the Wright brothers were juxtaposing human and bird at the time they invented the first air plane.



Affective analogies are more to emotional expression. Most people used animal to explain the certain characteristic of people. Let me give you an example,

'She looks like a monkey after she wore makeup.'

Does she really look like a actual monkey after she wore makeup? No! By juxtaposing, the sentence highlighted the specific characteristic of monkey - funny, to describe 'she'. She doesn't look like a monkey, she looks funny. Get it?


More examples :

'I'm running like a horse in the competition.' 

- highlighted 'fast'

'He works like an ant.' 

- highlighted 'hardworking'

'She sleeps like a pig.' 

- highlighted 'peaceful'

The definition of juxtaposition doesn't restrict any comparison as long as they had contrast and similarity, but that does't mean everything can be juxtaposed! Sometimes, when me merged together things that had no contrast nor similarity, the feeling is just wrong!

Shark-bird?

Lion-bird?

Eagle-turtle?

So, remember not to make mistakes like these! However, try to look at some good juxtaposition!

Lastly, I will juxtapose something with love to write a poem. Enjoy!

Love is like a chili, 

always excited on first met,

it makes you nervous,

it makes you sweat, 

yet you'll never get enough of it, 

because it's hot and spicy.

Love is like mortar and pestel,

both are not much alike,

but when combined together,

they just make the perfect pair.

Love is like a candle,

people see it so bright,

but always ignore the wax,

a candle without wax,

is nothing but a flameless candle.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise on Juxtaposition



Alright! Let's start with some lucky draw shall we?

First, Mr. RadziBedu didn't tell us what were those words and numbers, he asked us to write down 3 numbers with two digit randomly, so, I picked 37,49,05.


Then moving on to the next step, we are required to replace the number we chose with the word represented it...Oh my god! What the hell is this?

                              37 - Ice Tree

                              49 - Light Rain

                              05 - Fly Root

Next, we need to make a sentence for each combination of words, separable. After that, we have to draw out what we write. Oh boy.






    The ice had frozen the tree.





    After the lightning's light, here comes the rain.






The fly flies around the tree root.









Moving on, we combine the words together as one, and we have to draw out the combined word. Here's the challenging part, Mr. RadziBedu said the drawings must be clear enough to let  him say out the exact combined word by just looking at them, the combined word can be similarly pronounced as other word, as long as you express it.

Guess what, I've generated some new idea! =)

Hmm...juxtaposition, considered done!

Methods of Creative Thinking - Mind Map

Today, we're going to talk about mind map. As we all know since primary school, mind map learning is somehow compulsory to every teacher's teaching material, but yet most people still don't realize how is mind map so important to them and how to utilize it. From here, I'm going to introduce you, THE mind map!

As it was named, a mind map is the map to our mind, what we think? what our mind was generating? So, why is it so important for us to draw out a mind map? In fact, let's start with the container of our mind, the all mighty brain.

Ah! the mysterious brain. Who knew this 1.5 kilograms body tissue could built a whole human civilization? Without the utilization of brain, we are no different than animal. Our brain is so powerful that even  the smartest person in the world had only utilized less than 10% of his brain, so that you can imagine, the brain is way more powerful than we thought. Now, in order to differentiate us from animals, we must learn to utilize our brain and express it, the one solution to it is by drawing mind map!

Our brain receive information in a very special way different from what we imagine. When your parents first gave you your name, for example, Michael, your brain won't just simply receive the information 'MICHAEL' into random part of your brain, the brain will dismantle the whole name into alphabet, 'M','I','C','H','A','E','L' , then spread them separately into different parts of the brain. Whenever people ask you about your name,  the brain will starts to collect back the alphabets from your brain, then spell them back exactly the correct arrangement 'MICHAEL'. The brain's data transmission is so fast that when people ask you your name, you can answer them in less than 0.5 second, the frequent the question, the faster the transmission.

Now, another question, what if we are to think of something original? Something that never exist before? Something that never stored in our brain before? The brain is so powerful not just because of the speed of data transmission, but also the ability to connect data. What do you think the brain dismantle the name for? To make them easier to store? NO! The brain dismantle them to allow you to connect them with other data in the future! Inside our little brain, lives millions and billions of neuron cells, which is far more popular than the human population of the world. Most neuron cells connect each other with their neurons, which I assume, trillions of them, but despite them, there are still neuron cells that are not connected. In order to connect them, the only thing to do is think. Human brain can grow in every second of our life, there is no reason for us to stop thinking, the moment you do that, you're declared dead.

People came out with a lot of original ideas because they connected the neurons that you haven't connected yet, when you study their idea, you can connect your neurons just like theirs too, but there will be no more originality. So, in order to be the first connector of original idea, you must think! Not by brainstorming, but by a systematic method of idea generating, which lead us to MIND MAP.

Have you ever sit on a couch, closing your eyes, trying to think of one specific subject? Here's the awkward moment, when you're trying so hard think of the solution of solving your math assignment, then suddenly, your girlfriend pops out in your brain, 'oh how pretty she is, how cute she is, oh I forgot how it feels to kiss her' BAM! you lost your focus. The reason is, our brain is designed to multi-task, by just sitting down and think, you won't be able to 100% focus on the main subject, you'll get distracted. So, drawing mind map could help you think specifically and arranged.


According to Wikipedia,

A mind map is a diagram used to visually outline information. A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added. Major categories radiate from a central node, and lesser categories are sub-branches of larger branches.Categories can represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items related to a central key word or idea.

According to me,

A mind map is a diagram used to generate idea from information we know. It started with 1 subject, usually, in the center, then spread out like branches, following with the words associated with the subject. The first branches of associated words should be just 1 word. Next, spread into more and more sub-branches, the words after first branches can be more than 1 word.

Tony Buzan
( 1942 - today )

The mind map we see nowadays was developed in the early 1950s, at first, it was written in black and white, straight lines, colors and drawings are not encouraged because they are considered informal. Until an author showed up and installed the mind map with new concept, and the author is the famous Tony Buzan. Although Tony is not the one who developed mind map, but he literally popularize the utilization of mind map through out the world. He advocated the using of colors instead of black and white, using of curved organic line instead of just straight line, using of images and drawings instead of words.

Maximize the Power of Your Brain : Tony Buzan Mind Mapping

'We don't use color in notes traditionally because we are told not to in school, or the research. I say the opposite should do so, we love color.'

-Tony Buzan

Classic mind map

Tony Buzan mind map

‘An image is a picture, a picture worth a thousand words.’

-Tony Buzan

There are two types of mind map - logical mind map and associated mind map. Both mind maps are very much similar visually, but the detail are way different. As what it named, logical mind map is more to logical thinking, that means, never think out of the box. On the other hand, associated mind map can be much more unrestrained than logical mind map, because it doesn't need to be logical, as long as it associated with your thought. Enough talking, let me show you some examples for further understanding.

Analytic, Realistic, Categorized, Logic

Creative, Free, Imagination, Different

There, as I told you just now that mind map is developed to help us generate new ideas, then the reason why mind map is classified into two types is because our brain is, at the mean time divided into two part naturally too, which is the left and the right brain.

 The picture is taken from an advertisement of Mercedes-Benz. It stated that our left brain is actually responsible for the logical thinking of our brain, such as maths, science, physics. As for the right brain, it takes the other responsible for our creativity, emotions, feelings, senses, imagination. That's why there are two types of mind map, logical mind map for the left brain, and associated mind map for the right brain. Together, it forms a powerful brain.

To me, mind map is a method to generate original ideas, to connect things that you never thought they could be connected before, to try new things, to be creative.

-KS Yong

_________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise on Logical Mind Map

According to the order of the mighty lecturer, I will need to do my own logical mind map by choosing any 3 words from his mind map as first branch. My logical mind map must generate 3 original ideas of the function of mortar and pestle, assuming the original function of mortar and pestle hasn't been invented yet in our society. Hmm...interesting. So, here goes!

I chose noise, strong and power

After the logical mind map, 

I generated 3 idea, which related to instrument, gym and protection

(these are some serious idea, laughing is restricted!)

Through the concept of drum kit, knocking the back of mortar with pestle can produce a rather special music.

By studying the design of dumbbell, combining 2 mortar with 1 pestle can make the similar design, the function will be similar to dumbbell too.

From the theory of hardness, covering the vulnerable part of human with mortar and pestle might be a useful gadget, a new fashion too perhaps.

That's it, I'm done! =)

Process of Invention & Innovation

The following discussion is refer to the link below :

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/tech/article/the-pc-is-dead-long-live-the-tablet/

In pace with the lecture, we've learned how to think creatively. Moving up to the next stage, we will enter the process of invention and innovation. First of all, I will need to define both invention and innovation first, after all, they are both different thing.

A picture is more than a thousand words, here's the relationship between invention and innovation.

As we can see, invention is very much different from innovation. It all started with an idea. When you got a new idea that no one thought of before, then you determined to comply it. Make the impossible possible. In that case, it is your invention. On the other hand, innovation is the process of improving or improvising invention corresponding to the needs of society or individual. That's why, a fresh new idea can never be an innovation. It’s like the relationship between computer program and patch, patch is a software that is designed to fix problem that is reported error by user, or update the computer program, but without the computer program, the patch is useless. So, innovation is impossible without invention too.

Enough defining invention and innovation, let’s talk about the process. In iP Frontline (www.ipfrontline.com), Mr. Greg Mills had written an article about the process of invention in year 2000. According to his article, there are 10 steps of invention process, but I’ll simplify the whole article to be more understandable. There goes the 10 steps:

-Realize the weakness of current technology

Observing the weak spot of technology nowadays and invent something to overcome the weakness.

-Tolerance of new things in the society

The society should tolerate new things that are invented but not stigmatizing the invention.

-Invention must be technologically possible

            Inventions that are not possibly complied are just a dream.


-there must be reward for the inventors
            The credit of inventors should not be ignored especially by plagiarism. That's why 
            copyright is advocated

-The inventor conceives the basic solution

Inventors must invent contrarily to solve the specific weakness of current technology.

-The solution is refined and tested

The value of invention must be certain because once the invention is spread, there is no turning back. Inventions that are useless will kill an inventor’s reputation.

         

-The solution must be wildly known to materially benefit society

A great invention ought to solve problem that most people would face in their life, automatically, the society will recognize the invention.

-The solution is obviously an improvement

The invention must 100% overcome the weakness of technology and definitely strengthen current technology.

-The invention is fully integrated only when it replaces the prior art

Along with the growth of technology, inventions are also generated because the advanced technology had turned something impossible into possible.

-The invention ages abruptly when it is improved upon or replaced by a newer invention

Human will always improve, whenever an invention is invented, innovation will soon follow, or else, a better invention is invented later on. This is the cycle of invention.

As I said before, invention and innovation are very much two different thing, as for the process of both invention and innovation too. Here’s a mind map I’ve found on www.innovationexchange.net, it is written by Mr. Simon Berry with the title ‘The Innovation Process’ in year 2007.

In my personal opinion, the process of innovation is like maintenance of an invention, to determine whether the invention had faced any problems, whether the invention needed an upgrade, whether the invention is satisfying the user. To do that, understanding what users think about the invention is a must. From the user’s opinion, we can know the effectiveness of the invention, from user’s complaints. We can improve the invention by solving those problems, increase the satisfaction of users towards the invention. This, is called innovation.

Lastly, I've drawn a few cartoons to give you a concept about the difference of invention and innovation. Enjoy!

Here's the link to my researched website:

http://www.ipfrontline.com/depts/article.aspx?id=47&deptid=2

http://www.innovationexchange.net/the_innovation_process

Sir Ken Robinson@TED.com

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honour to introduce you, Sir Kenneth Robinson!

A PhD in education, an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies.

It is rather fortunate because my lecturer showed us Sir Ken Robinson's talk on TED in 2006, that's when I'm inspired by the talk. In just 20 minutes, Sir Ken Robinson showed me how important is creativity to the world, and how the world kills creativity. It is a global phenomenon that the education nowadays has no concern about art nor creativity, in fact, this phenomenon started a long time ago.

Ever since we were born, we were forced to follow the system of education which set up to make sure we have a decent job in the future. According to the education system, art and dance will always stay at the bottom, because they know that both of the subject will not guarantee our future, that we might end up being a beggar. The truth is, art and dance is one of the way to practice creativity, yet, the society had account them as 'the express way to poverty'. It's so true because I was born in this education system too, since primary school, my got to attend art and music class once a week only, comparing with other subjects such as maths, science, subjects like art and music are really nothing much important. Eventually, we don't put much attention nor effort in these creative subjects.


 'When you get good marks, you can enter a good school, 

when you enter good school, you can find a good job and you'll make money!'

I believe each and every person had heard this quote before from their parents. It's true that parents always wanted the best for their child, I mean which parents don't expect their children to get good grades in school? But the moment parents threw out the quote, they had indirectly emphasized the importance of marks, but not the knowledge. It's funny because school is place to gain knowledge, not marks, however, the cruel reality had proved us that marks are far more important than knowledge. In other words, school is no longer a place to seek knowledge, but a place to get a paper called certificate. I found it quite hilarious because our job nowadays is fully depended on just this little piece of paper.

Now, in order to get good marks, we mostly give up on those subjects that occupy least marks, so there goes arts and music. Have you ever tried telling your parents that you want to be a dancer or an artist in the future? I bet your parents will look at you like you'd just killed their child, because they think you'd just killed your own future. Why would they think like that? Because the long executed education system had mildly brainwashed them. They think that art and music are for those uneducated people. In other words, you don't get to choose what you like to study, especially art and music, even though you chose to study those, you must first pass through your parents opposition, then you're on your own.

I would say the road to study creativity is difficult. Not only the education system will stop you, the society will also boycott you. Whenever you're trying to be creative, the society will try their best to pare down your confidence. As Mr Robinson said, there are actually a lot of creative people think they are not creative because they are being stigmatize by others. That's why, being creative needs courage.

A few years from now, more people will be graduating from university, more people will be having a certificate in their hands, at that time, maybe you'll need a master degree to work as a waiter at a coffee shop. Then, creativity will be instantly valued by the society, because they know that certificate is no longer valuable, everyone will have the same standard of knowledge. However, creativity in other hand, is something that will always be new, always different. 

So, inspite of waiting that kind of phenomenon to happen, why don't we start appreciating creativity now? 

Define 'Creativity'

5 words associated with ‘Creativity’:

Courage

I believe creativity is born in every human’s brain, everyone can be creative, but the question is, do you have the courage to do so? Most of the people in the world are common people, which means their thoughts are generally the same, restricted by lots of issue, such as science, physics, common sense, that are taught by their teacher, lecturer since they were born. To be creative, you’ll have to stood up against their way of thinking, but in order to do that, you’ll first have to endure lots and lots and lots and lots of their discrimination. The moment you felt like cannot accept the fact that you’re different from others, you’ll end up just as one of the common people.

For example, you've now entered a fine dining restaurant and ordered a cup of red wine, people usually drink red wine with a red wine cup, but you have decided to be a little creative by drinking it using a juice cup and a straw. Now, people surrounding you will start thinking you as a weirdo or a freak and gossip about your stupidity, but you know deep down in heart you've done nothing stupid, wine is just a drink, why must it be filled with wine cup instead of juice cup? Is it against the law to drink wine using juice cup? No! You’re just drinking it in a creative way, but the common people think of it as law-breaking because they were taught that wine is drank by using wine cup since they were born, so it is against their common sense. This is the moment of truth, if you can’t bear with the discrimination, you’ll give up using juice cup and change to wine cup, just like one of them, but if you can bear with the discrimination, then you’re proud to be called different, special, creative, one-of-a-kind, or still, a freak among common people.

Craziness

Sometimes when we’re going to think creatively, craziness is a must, because you need to be crazy enough to think spontaneously, to think like a new born baby. A new born baby doesn't know anything about this world, it doesn't know that pen is used to write, it doesn't know shoes is wore by legs, it doesn't know anything logical of this world. There! When you drop everything that had restricted your mind to think, you’ll be a creative thinker, everything is possible to you! Thomas Edison was called crazy when he thinks of the idea light bulb to replace candle light, but thanks to his craziness, the world is brighter than ever.

Circumspection

There are two way to apply creativity, first is to create your own creation, second is to reuse or re-purpose creation that existed before in a creative way. In order to do that, observation of surrounding environment is almost equal to treasure hunting. Everything of the surrounding might be your clue to your creative thought. Even a small piece of paper might inspire you in an unexpected way.

For example, the world’s first printer was invented by Johannes Gutenberg, but Johannes didn't actually invent the whole machine. He didn't invent the table, he didn't invent the press, but with his ability to observe, he’s able to recombine the uses of these items into something new, something that doesn't exist before. He didn't invent them, but to re-purpose them, that is how creative works.

Eureka

Eureka is a word comes from ancient Greek, means ‘I've found it’, which is popularly attributed to Archimedes. Eureka moment, also named as light-bulb moment. It is a way of creative thinking instead of brainstorming. Creative idea comes in any time, anywhere, anyway, which means brainstorming 24/7 in your room doesn't guarantee you to come out with a new idea, but in other way, relaxing your mind and having fun sometimes do help you in getting new idea. After all, it’s just the matter of time to come out with new idea. All you need is a sip of luck.

For example, Archimedes actually discover his famous principle, Archimedes’ Principle, when he was stepping into a bath and suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. That’s when he screamed ‘Eureka!’ in his bathroom, naked.

Mistake

Mistake is something that is unavoidable in order to be creative. Plus, it is good to have mistake, because who knew maybe a mistake will lead you to another new idea? Or maybe a mistake has perfected the imperfection of your artwork? Therefore, don’t be afraid to make mistake, don’t take mistake as a humiliation, we should take it as another way of being different. Not to ask you to make mistake purposely, but just don’t reject it if mistake really happened.

5 words not associated with ‘Creativity’:

Stubborn

The essence of creativity is to produce or accept what that is original, that is new, that is different from others, and an attitude of stubbornness will only bring you away from creativity. Being passive about accepting other people’s opinion or idea will greatly reduce the chances of you getting a new idea. The sense of ego in your own perspective will keep you thinking in the safe zone and never let you over cross it.

Conservative

Conservative is slightly a bit different than stubborn. If you’re stubborn, you won’t accept any opinion or idea that other people said, but if you’re conservative, you will accept the opinion and idea that people mention, but you preferred staying in your safe zone. This will not do any good to creativity because being creative is to think out of your safe zone, being crazy, being different from others.

Consistence

Consistency is good, but regretfully, it’s only suitable for engineers. In the world of creativity, no one wants an idea that is the same. Everyone is looking for a different, special idea. The only thing that can maintain consistent is to keep thinking creatively, or else you’ll be just a common people.

Shadow

As everyone knows, shadow has a very special ability, it is manipulation. Shadow can manipulate every movement and every gesture of a person, but no matter how good it mimic, it’s still a shadow, it cannot do any new movement or gesture unless that person did it first. Now if a person lives like the shadow, he/she will never create anything creative in his/her whole life instead of manipulating, or should I say, copying other people’s idea.

Free-minded

Creativity need to have a strong observation capability to observe ideas what are already exist and then evolve it into an idea that is new. If a person is free-minded, I would say he/she had lost his/her legs in the world of creativity. Most of the ideas are inspired by the environment that we live in, if a person didn’t observe careful enough, he/she might miss an idea.