“A fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one grand thing.” ( Archilochus)…
So it better (wiser) to focus and limit the scope of your work or should you try to diversify ?
Tag: Creativity
Can Economists ruin Innovation with an Index? Thoughts on measuring innovation, growth, culture, and creativity.
The 2022 Global Innovation Index report released by WIPO has been published for 2022. Here are some of thoughts on the report, including a few comments and reflections on innovation, economic growth, measurement, and cultural resources.
So, how can Thor, Odin, and the rest have been results of pillaging, rape, and raids? This post has some comments on Vikings (the series), culture, creativity, audiences, and cultural resources…
Well… the above sentence is highly reductionist, but there is some truth to it. While watching this captivating (mostly) series (Vikings), I frequently thought about culture and its components. I also thought about mobilizing the past (with some creativity and slight of hand) to support statements in contemporary public life.
Here are some of these thoughts, along with a few quotes from the show I really liked (hated).
In general, short stories focus on a self-contained event or mood. They can be quite powerful (although some really aren’t worth the time). (Very) short stories are a further challenge for writers. Here are three excellent examples from the film “Manto”.
How can we fix the educational system? Should we reconsider what its objectives are?
The overall effectiveness and efficiency of the school system makes for a very interesting discussion. Other than being the main tool to spread knowledge in a society, it is also supposedly an important contributor to the processes of economic progress and of social mobility (allowing for the possibility of individuals moving between ‘classes’) … That – however – is just in theory …
Quotes, Links, Memes, and Readings from January 2022.
Topics include social media, consumer behavior, innovation, markets, trends, and education.
I came across this comic image a while back. It is about drawing an owl – a step-by-step guide.
I will include it here so that you can learn too :
Readings, comments, links, and Quotes from the month of December.
Topics include personal growth, social media, brands, consumer behavior, and Innovation.
The GII report and ‘Index’ reports in general
Let me start by saying that one should be very careful when dealing with broad inter-country indicators and not just because they could (they will) contain mistakes (some have had very juicy scandals that involve cooking data and massaging numbers).. I think that many of these ‘reduce-everything-into-a-number’ measures, especially when they try to measure wide social processes carry inherent ‘conflation risks’ leading to waste of mass-scale resources.
Give yourself permission to be creative
I came across this video (youtube’s cunning recommendation algorithm), and I was quite surprised how insightful and deep it was. It had many lessons on creativity, and the ‘self-permission’ it requires. Frequently, it takes courage to be creative, and this is nicely captured by the talk.
Here are some thoughts / lessons / reflections :
- The value of difference and irregularity: In a world where more and more things (and people) are similar, irregularity and unpredictability are valuable.
- It is quite hard for us to judge how good what we do is. I think that a better strategy would be to do great effort and keep thinking about growth and contribution.
- The world is an extremely unreliable critic: This has been tested many times. Think about it – if something is really original and new, then it – by definition – won’t be familiar, and most people dislike the unfamiliar (because it forces them to think).
- Making sense out of life is crucial , but only at key moments –> Why not always ? Well maybe because this activity of ‘making sense’ is not a guaranteed and linear process. You can’t be sure that you’ll make sense of it.
- Art helps with that: Art is not luxury – it is nourishment for the soul and the growth beyond the confines of the limited and bounded current reality.
- ‘Human Creativity is nature manifest in us’
- ‘Know yourself’ – what do you love ? if you get close to what you love , who you are is revealed to you… and it expands !
- My experience is not as unique as I’ve thought ..
- ‘There is no Path till you walk it’
- Be willing to Play the fool
- Read the book you want to read (I will probably talk about this later here)
- Listen to new music (challenge yourself to do it, even though it might not feel very comfortable at first).