Monday, February 4, 2013

RR Week 5 – Constraints!

RR Week 5 – Constraints! Due by midnight Friday of this week. 
Read the excerpts below and click on the comments section at the bottom of the blog to comment on EACH reading, mention what jumped out at you from the readings and why: what do you think makes sense; what seems illogical to you; what is something that you might not have considered previously? Tell us what your experiences with constraints have been. 

EXCERPT #1: This first excerpt is about why features sometimes get overdone or left out completely when software (or an electronic game) is being created...
"What has been described as 'creeping elegance' is probably better described as 'feature blight,' for like a fungus on a plant it gradually elaborates and blurs the true outline of the product while it drains its sap. The antidote to feature blight is, of course, the 'constricting deadline.' This results in features being discarded in proportion to the time it would take to implement them. It is often the case that the most useful features take the longest to implement. Thus the combination of the blight and the deadline yields software as we know and love it, comprised of bountiful quantities of useless features." —Jef Raskin, author (from "Why Software Is the Way It Is") From “Getting Real” Read more here.

EXCERPT #2: Beatrice C. Benne, Ph.D. talks about how we view constraints...
"For many of us, the word 'constraints' often carries a negative connotation as it seems to imply that there are ‘things’ in our environment that limit or restrict our freedom to act and to achieve our goals. Yet, people with design training know that constraints can be useful in that they provide the canvas within which ideas are framed, concepts developed, and decisions made. In fact, without constraints, creativity and innovation would be merely impossible. As Jeff Klein once reflected, 'constraints are akin to the tiny irritant that causes an oyster to
make a pearl.' 

For a designer, constraints provide the context that informs the design process; without them, the designer would have to choose from an infinite number of design possibilities – a daunting task. In architectural design, building program requirements, specific site conditions, environmental conditions, technical requirements, budget, material availability, and regulations are only but a few of the numerous constraints that an architect has to juggle with on a daily basis. While those constraints force the architect to make some trade-offs, they also drive the necessary decisions that move the design process forward. Indeed, we must acknowledge that complete freedom in the ‘real’ world is an illusion as any decision we make and action we take drive our next actions and the ones of our peers. In fact, as soon as a designer draws a line representing a wall on a piece of paper, she is in fact setting a significant design constraint. In business like in our personal life, constraints can be self-imposed or externally-driven.

And, while we may be required to deal with most of them, some constraints may be unnecessarily limiting. Figuring out how to use constraints as a source of creativity is one of the most rewarding challenges in today’s complex environment."
This is from: Hirshberg J. 1998, The
Creative Priority: Driving Innovative Business in the Real World. Harper
Collins
Publishers, New York.

EXCERPT #3:  This is from a post from Beatrice C. Benne’s blog:
“Let’s say I am a coffee shop owner.  I want you to tell me what is better for the environment: using paper cups, hence increasing deforestation or, using ceramic cups, which I now have to wash using energy and lots of water?  (Of course, much energy and water were used to make the paper cups as well.)

Perhaps you know the answer to this question but more likely you are like me and you don’t.  Perhaps there are some experts out there who have done a comparative life cycle analysis of both solutions and who know the answer.  Perhaps the answer depends on where the coffee shop is located—I would suspect the answer would be different in India or Africa than it is in the U.S.  Perhaps ceramic cups are a better choice today while paper cups might be better in 5 or 10 years when we experience a major water shortage.  Perhaps in 20 years neither solution will be a good one because we won’t have enough water to make our coffee, anyway.  There may not be any coffee growing, by the way. 
I may be over-dramatizing but you get the point.  We all mean well and we are all trying to do the right thing and we truly care.  Yet, driven by our mental models (yes, I know, I have been focusing quite a bit on them lately but they seem to me so critical if one wants to move to the next stage), we love to find easy technical answers to our complex problems and we love jumping to conclusions quickly.” Read more here.

PLEASE put your name on your post.
Due by midnight Friday this week – 2/8/13.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

RR Week 4 – Creative Crisis!

RR Week 4 – Creative Crisis! Due by midnight Friday of this week. 
1.      Watch and consider this video about creativity and business AND about the supposed “crisis” of creativity in the U. S.  http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/29/po-bronson-creativit/

2.      Postulate and comment on why fewer students and young adults are creative now than in years past. Also comment on how important you think innovation is to business – should it be considered one of the most important aspects of business? Why or why not? What are the benefits either way? BE SURE TO PUT YOUR NAME ON YOUR POST!!!!!

3.      Extra information:
Po Bronson on the Crisis of Creativity in American Business
Here is an article that Po, Bronson wrote for Newsweek about this topic in case you want to read more.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html

4.      And more extra information:  a blurb about Po Bronson from the video site:
Po Bronson is the author of two acclaimed novels, a book of short stories and four best-selling non-fiction books including his 2005 bestselling What Should I Do With My Life which was on the New York Times bestselling list for 10 months. Bronson's work is extremely varied. Not only has he written about Silicon Valley both in non-fiction (Nudist on the Late Shift) and fiction (The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest) , he has also authored bestselling analyses of family (Why Do I Love These People) and, with Ashley Merryman, of education and bringing up children (Nurture Shock). Now Bronson is writing about creativity itself. In a Newsweek cover story last month, Bronson and his co-author Merryman write about the crisis of creativity now affecting the American educational system. According to Bronson, the results of creativity tests for American kids has been falling since 1990 — a particularly worrying statistic for American business given that these test scores have been rising over the past twenty years in most other industrialized countries around the world. As Bronson told me when we met in San Francisco late last month, this creativity crisis may be the single most important issue facing the future of American business. –Andrew Keen
Andrew Keen is the author of The Cult of the Amateur.
PLEASE put your name on your post.
Due by midnight Friday this week – 2/1/13.

Monday, January 21, 2013

RR Week 3 – Who’s the boss?

RR Week 3 – Who’s the boss? Due by midnight Friday of this week. 

1.      Consider this quote from Albert Einstein:
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

2.      Use the “add a comment” at the bottom of the blog to relate the concepts in this quote to your own creativity and/or your view of the world - how it is, how you think it should be. How do intuition and rationality or logic factor into your creative process? Tell us.  Keep in mind that there are lots of ways to keep the servant "busy" while we try to let the gift emerge. Sometimes the servant tries to take over - think of all those butlers who "did it" in murder mystery movies. Think about what you do to keep your servant busy... meditate, mantra, music, other ways to occupy your servant's attention so you can turn to your gifts. This is connected to last week’s CO = CM –CR.                  

3.      Also post a URL that links to a video, article, or other item that connects to concepts in this quote in some way AND then explain why you think it connects. Be specific.

PLEASE put your name on your post.
Due by midnight Friday this week - 1/25/13.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

RR Week 2 – the Creative “Formula”

RR Week 2 – the Creative “Formula” Due by midnight Friday of this week.

2. Click on "add a comment " to post your response to what the author says - tell us whether you think creativity (or creative thought) can be expressed in this mathematical way. ALSO tell us what makes ups “CM” or “CR” for you.

3. Leap from your response to what this all makes you think of – a time your CM was much bigger or much smaller than your CR for instance – remember to tell us why!


4. Post a URL to something online that reminds you of the creative formula concept presented in this article. Be sure to tell us WHY it reminds you of this article or how it connects in your mind.
PLEASE put your name on your post.
Due by midnight Friday this week - 1/18/13.

Friday, January 4, 2013

RR Week 1 - What is Creativity...to you? Due by midnight Friday of this week.



Check out the two short videos below. Watch both of them.
USE the "Add a comment" feature at the bottom of this posting to write a response about either one or both. Tell us what the content has to do with who YOU are creatively OR about how YOU view the creative process. Feel free to upload something else that conveys your view of creativity.

This one is by the woman who wrote "Eat, Pray, Love." It talks about "genius" and creative inspiration:
www.youtube.com/watch 

This one is by Larry Lessig and is about how creativity is being strangled by the law:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q25-S7jzgs&feature=PlayList&p=A9BCE1B83A6DFC96&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2

 PLEASE put your name on your post. 

Due by midnight Friday this week - 1/11/13.