Wave! It's Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting!

How do you take creativity and turn it into innovation?

Well. . .sometimes it happens when you don't actually sit down and say "ok, let's get creative and innovate up some game changing ideas. It often takes place when you actually don't focus on the issue at hand and simply do something totally unrelated or do something fun that gets your mind thinking in a whole different way. 

A great example of this is the Google Wave project below. 

Now in case you haven't heard about Google Wave, it's an online platform designed to merge email, instant messaging, wikis and social networking. Now the question that's out there among the tech pundits, "expert" product reviewers, and the blogosphere is "what is it?" and "what is it good for?"

Well, as I mentioned before, sometimes you just have to play around with "it", conduct some experiments, do something wild and crazy with it and then that's when the light bulb may go off (you may even fail a few times in the process, but failure is almost more important than the successes) as to the practical and/or noteworthy application of it. 

With Google Wave Joe Sabia did just that. He didn't say "let me take this new thing and try to solve the world's problems," he just said let me do something fun with it and voila, you have the first step in what could be a completely revolutionary product that solves the world's problems (or not).  

Well, the important thing is that Joe did what most people don't - he did something. Which is often half the battle. Is what he did useful? Not really, but it's an important first step to show what the thing can actually do and the end result is very cool. 

So let me introduce you to Google Wave and Pulp Fiction. . .

. . . and Google Wave and Good Will Hunting. . .

Comments

[Alison Claire]

...was thinking about what you said about creativity and innovation. Realized how much this echoed my creative process.

You said, "It often takes place when you actually don't focus on the issue at hand and simply do something totally unrelated or do something fun that gets your mind thinking in a whole different way."

True that, Sha'ir! When I create (i'm a writer), I often do something totally unrelated to the project at hand. Say I'm writing a story about ---ooooh, I don't know --- lipgloss, for example. Instead of sitting at a PC researching the different kinds/brands/glossyNESSness....I'll go for a hike up a MOUNTAIN..a big one. And, I'll thrown on my headphones and listen to the radio. It's bizarre, but it might be a line or even a word in some Lil' Wayne song that sparks something in my imagination.......or maybe the sight of a bird flying overhead that reminds me of the time when.......and I'm off. It's like that. Seldom do I get any productive creativity happening by NOT focusing on something totally unrelated to what I am writing about.
Good stuff, Sha'ir! THE END.

[Rasul Sha'ir]

Thanks for the comment Alison! The whole idea of focusing on a problem by not focusing on the problem was huge for me when I was overseas in the Peace Corps. So often solutions came when I was playing with the local kids or decided to just take break and do some "fun" personal project to loosen up the creative juices in my head. Man. . .it worked wonders!

[Bonifer]

Yessir, same page. Solutions lie in different directions from problems. It seems so obvious, but it is very difficult to get people to take their eyes off the 800 lb gorilla in the room long enough to realize they've got a fruit bowl sitting on tyhe table right next to them, and that they are only a couple of simple moves away from having that gorilla as a pet.

Peace!

[Rasul Sha'ir]

Gorilla as a pet. . .(lol) loove it!! Thanks for the post Mike.

[Ibrahim]

Thanks Dr. Shair:

Of the 1,000's of things out there, you not only have the most uncanny way of discovering those items that are most important, but also an imaginative way of rethinking their applications in this market place. Now that is creativity!

Peace,

Ibrahim

[Rasul Sha'ir]

Sir Ibrahim,

Thank you for your comment and kind words. I think there is a real thirst for doing things in a radically different way today, and I'm just seeing how I can fit into that picture. Cheers!