Why you should give “inbox to zero” a try
This is the start of an occasional series of posts on “new year’s resolutions to help you think more clearly”. Over the next two months, every now and then, I’ll do my weekly post on a technique for thinking clearly. If you like the technique, you may want to adopt it as one of your […]
Is creativity a “discovery” process or a “construction” process?
When I create something new, do I construct it myself, or was it “out there” already and I just happened to be the one to discover it? This may seem like impractical philosophy, but it does have impacts on how you go about creative work. For example, this paper from 2007, by A Alvarez and […]
Bonus post – another way to work out the odds of rolling a 1 with two dice
I was contacted last week by a couple of people about my claim that the odds of rolling a 1 with two dice is 11/36, not 1/3. This post contains two different proofs that it’s 11/36. An elegant proof Remember that we were trying to work out the odds of me hitting a counter of […]
Reframing as a fundamental tool of creativity – lessons from a game of backgammon
Reframing a situation remains one of the best ways to see a new solution in strategy. As I said a few weeks ago, because strategy occurs in the domain of “wickedness”, the way you choose to describe the strategic problem you’re facing will drive the solution you come up with. But reframing is a fundamental […]
Don Draper and “subconscious work”
My family and I are belatedly catching up with “Mad Men” on Netflix – we missed it the first time round. Something that Don Draper said to Peggy Olsen the other day really struck me. You’ll recall that Don Draper is the (anti)hero of the series: the experienced ad executive. And Peggy Olsen (who I […]