I’m holding this Apple in my hand
because of a reason because I hope it
will inspire me it will give me some new
ideas because human history is replete
with examples of inspiring apples I know
not all of them have been very inspiring
but we only want to talk about the
positive ones the good apples for
example there was this English gentleman
he was sitting in his garden and he saw
this Apple fall and he had an amazing
idea and no it’s not about that
Apple that you are thinking of I’m not
talking about Isaac Newton and the
gravity Apple I’m talking about a
different English gentleman I’m talking
about mr. Roald Dahl the gentleman who
gave us wonderful characters like Willy
Wonka from Charlie and Jack Chocolate
Factory and big fat giant from big fat
giant Roald Dahl he had this amazing
habit of observing these apple trees he
would sit in his garden and he would
observe his apples for hours and one day
he started thinking what if these apples
after they fall they don’t stop growing
what if they just keep growing what did
they just keep getting bigger and bigger
and that gave him the idea of one of his
most popular stories James and the Giant
Peach Apple and Peach well you have to
understand when this story was written
late mr. Steve Jobs was still a toddler
so apples were still not cool enough and
rolled I’ll actually thought that peach
looks cute and Apple does not so he said
Apple you go out and I’ll write about
peach
after writing James and the Giant Peach
he went on to write some 17 more
children’s books and numerous short
stories till the end of his life he was
amazingly prolific because he was
amazingly disciplined every morning he
would wake up early and he would start
writing and he would write till the noon
every day he would write whether he had
an idea or not he would write whether he
would like what he was writing or not he
would write whether he felt inspired or
not he would write whether the story was
over or not he would write and that’s
why he rarely suffered from what we call
a writer’s block or a creative block but
not all of us are like roll down some of
us quite often we get stuck if we face
this creative block and some of us in
that moment we even abandon what we are
doing just because we run out of ideas
and some of us in that process we we
abandon the very dream the very passion
that we have been working on and that’s
why it is important to to know how to
deal with these moments it is important
how to overcome these blocks I’m very
lucky as an academician as a as a
researcher since my PhD I have had an
opportunity to observe creative
individuals in a very objective manner
and also personally yeah that’s me I
have once upon a time I have dabbled
well more than a bit in theatre also I’m
blessed with a family with full of
creative people my wife is a
professional artist my sister is a
professional artist so I have also seen
an observed creative people very
personally so for the last couple of
years I have been working on this
problem where I have tried to understand
what do people do what kind of tricks
they use when they want to get out of
this moment of a block
and after collecting some 300 different
tricks I analyzed them and I have seen
three clear strategies that people use
so today I’m going to talk about those
three strategies that people
successfully use to overcome those
blocks and then I’m also going to talk
about a proactive strategy which can
make sure that whatever you do you are
likely to be a bit more creative than
usual so the very first strategy is a
strategy that I call show up strategy
when you run out of ideas just show up
for work just keep doing it basically
it’s a strategy of perseverance many
years ago I was doing this play it was a
French play from the absurd theatre
tradition badly translated in English
and it was presented to an Indian
audience now you know why my acting
career never took off so there was this
play and in that play there was a
sentence a dialogue which was like you
have to catch words in the air before
they fall onto deaf ears it was deep
yeah so you have to catch words in the
air before they fall onto deaf ears
now it was not really coming out well so
one day we decided okay let’s just
rehearse this statement as many times as
possible and we started rehearsing you
have to catch words in the air before
they fall onto deaf ears you have to
catch words in the air before they fall
onto deaf ears you have to catch words
in the air before they fall onto their
deaf fears you have to catch words in
the air before they fall onto deaf ears
you have to catch words in the air
before they fall onto deaf ears that’s
the magic of perseverance with every
repetition a new layer of expression
emerged Charlie Chaplin calls this
perseverance to the height of madness
when you are stuck when you cannot think
of something new you run out of ideas
just keep doing it and you will have a
new solution the other strategy the
second strategy is what I called show
off your self strategy you have run out
of ideas so show yourself off from work
basically this is a strategy of
disconnecting from your work and seeking
an insider outside your work for example
a designer Michael C plays he writes in
one of the books that if you are stuck
you cannot think of a new idea go home
prepare yourself some good meal then
serve yourself some nice red wine
preferably from Australia or New Zealand
nobody’s perfect
then enjoy this meal and then when you
finish this go to the kitchen and start
cleaning the dish and when you are
cleaning the dish
suddenly the clutter in your mind is
also getting cleared and by the end a
new perspective emerges so I enjoy and
savor the moment with another glass of
wine so this is his way of seeking an
insider outside his work now some of you
may say well but how do we know
precisely what kind of an insider will
definitely work for us well some people
actually work for that some people
create an inventory for that Twyla Tharp
one of the greatest choreographers of
all time what she does is that whenever
she has a new project she creates a box
where she puts everything that she finds
to be interesting stimulating exciting
interesting photograph it goes to the
Box interesting article goes to the box
interesting painting goes to the box
it’s like reading a jukebox of
inspiration and whenever she’s stuck
whenever she runs out of ideas she goes
to the box explores it and she comes out
with an answer
this is the disconnecting the inciting
strategy of creating new ideas the third
strategy is what I call steel strategy
and no I’m not really advocating
plagiarism or copying or anything but
what I am advocating here is empathizing
with someone and in that process
stealing somebody else’s perspective
I’ll give you an example Billy Wilder
one of the greatest directors of all
times in his office he had written a
statement on a wall
what would Lubitsch have done he was
talking about Ernst Lubitsch another
iconic director and a mentor for Billy
Wilder
so whenever Billy Wilder was stuck
whenever he could not think of a
solution he would think how would
Lubitsch treat the scene
what would Lubitsch do in this case how
would Lubitsch treat this character and
he always had an answer stealing
somebody’s perspective by empathizing
with the person helps you get a new
perspective for the problem that you
have so these these three strategies
that we just saw they are reactive
strategies basically you respond to a
moment of block now I’m going to talk
very briefly about a strategy which may
help you make sure that you are going to
be creative and that is the strategy
procrastination basically is a term that
comes with that I have borrowed from
Adam grant procrastination basically
means you finish your work before the
deadline now you may say come on I know
I understand the problem I mean I have
lots of students so I know issues that
deadlines create but basically what this
strategy is all about is creating space
in your work for new perspectives
why it may work it may work because of
two important reasons number one
psychologists have told us they have
shown us through studies that we all
suffer from what we call planning
fallacy that means whenever we make a
plan we think that we will do this plan
we will execute this plan like this but
actually we are overestimating our
ability and that’s why most of our
projects they never finish on time
however this happens when we think that
we are able to execute the plan but when
the plan is seemingly impossible when
you know that this is difficult to
achieve something else happens
an economist Albert Hirschman when he
studied some infrastructure projects in
third-world countries he saw this
phenomenon and he gave an interesting
expression for that he said that when
you come across such difficult targets
which are impossible a benevolent hiding
hand comes out to help you and this is a
benevolent hiding hand of human
ingenuity and creativity and that’s why
when you procrastinate when you have set
yourself a tougher deadline your mind
actively seeks new ways and new
solutions to meet your tougher targets
and it brings creativity in your work
and why is it necessary why do we need
to do that because we live in an age
where information is ubiquitous
knowledge is easily accessible and
that’s why the only currency you have is
your ideas and your creativity the thin
line between being creative and being
productive is getting blurred very
easily you need to be both in fact a
very senior and one of the earliest
Argentine movie directors Fernando
billary one day was interacting with
students and he was advocating students
that you know you should try to do
new things you should try to be creative
and somehow in the talk it transpired
that you know being creative is like
chasing utopia so some students said why
should we chase utopia so Fernando said
well wait wait
teasing utopia is like chasing Horizon
what happens when you walk towards
horizon do you actually touch that
horizon do you actually grab that
horizon no but when you decide to touch
that horizon and you walk towards that
with every step you are closer to that
horizon and since Bryson is still there
you keep walking being creative is like
that when you decide to be creative you
may not come up with the most creative
idea but with every step you will be
closer to that objective and you will
keep walking so I hope these strategies
that I have talked about have inspired
you enough to keep walking and find your
falling Apple my god wait wait wait I’m
having an idea maybe I can use this as a
logo for something so all the best
thanks for your attention
namaste [Applause]
because of a reason because I hope it
will inspire me it will give me some new
ideas because human history is replete
with examples of inspiring apples I know
not all of them have been very inspiring
but we only want to talk about the
positive ones the good apples for
example there was this English gentleman
he was sitting in his garden and he saw
this Apple fall and he had an amazing
idea and no it’s not about that
Apple that you are thinking of I’m not
talking about Isaac Newton and the
gravity Apple I’m talking about a
different English gentleman I’m talking
about mr. Roald Dahl the gentleman who
gave us wonderful characters like Willy
Wonka from Charlie and Jack Chocolate
Factory and big fat giant from big fat
giant Roald Dahl he had this amazing
habit of observing these apple trees he
would sit in his garden and he would
observe his apples for hours and one day
he started thinking what if these apples
after they fall they don’t stop growing
what if they just keep growing what did
they just keep getting bigger and bigger
and that gave him the idea of one of his
most popular stories James and the Giant
Peach Apple and Peach well you have to
understand when this story was written
late mr. Steve Jobs was still a toddler
so apples were still not cool enough and
rolled I’ll actually thought that peach
looks cute and Apple does not so he said
Apple you go out and I’ll write about
peach
after writing James and the Giant Peach
he went on to write some 17 more
children’s books and numerous short
stories till the end of his life he was
amazingly prolific because he was
amazingly disciplined every morning he
would wake up early and he would start
writing and he would write till the noon
every day he would write whether he had
an idea or not he would write whether he
would like what he was writing or not he
would write whether he felt inspired or
not he would write whether the story was
over or not he would write and that’s
why he rarely suffered from what we call
a writer’s block or a creative block but
not all of us are like roll down some of
us quite often we get stuck if we face
this creative block and some of us in
that moment we even abandon what we are
doing just because we run out of ideas
and some of us in that process we we
abandon the very dream the very passion
that we have been working on and that’s
why it is important to to know how to
deal with these moments it is important
how to overcome these blocks I’m very
lucky as an academician as a as a
researcher since my PhD I have had an
opportunity to observe creative
individuals in a very objective manner
and also personally yeah that’s me I
have once upon a time I have dabbled
well more than a bit in theatre also I’m
blessed with a family with full of
creative people my wife is a
professional artist my sister is a
professional artist so I have also seen
an observed creative people very
personally so for the last couple of
years I have been working on this
problem where I have tried to understand
what do people do what kind of tricks
they use when they want to get out of
this moment of a block
and after collecting some 300 different
tricks I analyzed them and I have seen
three clear strategies that people use
so today I’m going to talk about those
three strategies that people
successfully use to overcome those
blocks and then I’m also going to talk
about a proactive strategy which can
make sure that whatever you do you are
likely to be a bit more creative than
usual so the very first strategy is a
strategy that I call show up strategy
when you run out of ideas just show up
for work just keep doing it basically
it’s a strategy of perseverance many
years ago I was doing this play it was a
French play from the absurd theatre
tradition badly translated in English
and it was presented to an Indian
audience now you know why my acting
career never took off so there was this
play and in that play there was a
sentence a dialogue which was like you
have to catch words in the air before
they fall onto deaf ears it was deep
yeah so you have to catch words in the
air before they fall onto deaf ears
now it was not really coming out well so
one day we decided okay let’s just
rehearse this statement as many times as
possible and we started rehearsing you
have to catch words in the air before
they fall onto deaf ears you have to
catch words in the air before they fall
onto deaf ears you have to catch words
in the air before they fall onto their
deaf fears you have to catch words in
the air before they fall onto deaf ears
you have to catch words in the air
before they fall onto deaf ears that’s
the magic of perseverance with every
repetition a new layer of expression
emerged Charlie Chaplin calls this
perseverance to the height of madness
when you are stuck when you cannot think
of something new you run out of ideas
just keep doing it and you will have a
new solution the other strategy the
second strategy is what I called show
off your self strategy you have run out
of ideas so show yourself off from work
basically this is a strategy of
disconnecting from your work and seeking
an insider outside your work for example
a designer Michael C plays he writes in
one of the books that if you are stuck
you cannot think of a new idea go home
prepare yourself some good meal then
serve yourself some nice red wine
preferably from Australia or New Zealand
nobody’s perfect
then enjoy this meal and then when you
finish this go to the kitchen and start
cleaning the dish and when you are
cleaning the dish
suddenly the clutter in your mind is
also getting cleared and by the end a
new perspective emerges so I enjoy and
savor the moment with another glass of
wine so this is his way of seeking an
insider outside his work now some of you
may say well but how do we know
precisely what kind of an insider will
definitely work for us well some people
actually work for that some people
create an inventory for that Twyla Tharp
one of the greatest choreographers of
all time what she does is that whenever
she has a new project she creates a box
where she puts everything that she finds
to be interesting stimulating exciting
interesting photograph it goes to the
Box interesting article goes to the box
interesting painting goes to the box
it’s like reading a jukebox of
inspiration and whenever she’s stuck
whenever she runs out of ideas she goes
to the box explores it and she comes out
with an answer
this is the disconnecting the inciting
strategy of creating new ideas the third
strategy is what I call steel strategy
and no I’m not really advocating
plagiarism or copying or anything but
what I am advocating here is empathizing
with someone and in that process
stealing somebody else’s perspective
I’ll give you an example Billy Wilder
one of the greatest directors of all
times in his office he had written a
statement on a wall
what would Lubitsch have done he was
talking about Ernst Lubitsch another
iconic director and a mentor for Billy
Wilder
so whenever Billy Wilder was stuck
whenever he could not think of a
solution he would think how would
Lubitsch treat the scene
what would Lubitsch do in this case how
would Lubitsch treat this character and
he always had an answer stealing
somebody’s perspective by empathizing
with the person helps you get a new
perspective for the problem that you
have so these these three strategies
that we just saw they are reactive
strategies basically you respond to a
moment of block now I’m going to talk
very briefly about a strategy which may
help you make sure that you are going to
be creative and that is the strategy
procrastination basically is a term that
comes with that I have borrowed from
Adam grant procrastination basically
means you finish your work before the
deadline now you may say come on I know
I understand the problem I mean I have
lots of students so I know issues that
deadlines create but basically what this
strategy is all about is creating space
in your work for new perspectives
why it may work it may work because of
two important reasons number one
psychologists have told us they have
shown us through studies that we all
suffer from what we call planning
fallacy that means whenever we make a
plan we think that we will do this plan
we will execute this plan like this but
actually we are overestimating our
ability and that’s why most of our
projects they never finish on time
however this happens when we think that
we are able to execute the plan but when
the plan is seemingly impossible when
you know that this is difficult to
achieve something else happens
an economist Albert Hirschman when he
studied some infrastructure projects in
third-world countries he saw this
phenomenon and he gave an interesting
expression for that he said that when
you come across such difficult targets
which are impossible a benevolent hiding
hand comes out to help you and this is a
benevolent hiding hand of human
ingenuity and creativity and that’s why
when you procrastinate when you have set
yourself a tougher deadline your mind
actively seeks new ways and new
solutions to meet your tougher targets
and it brings creativity in your work
and why is it necessary why do we need
to do that because we live in an age
where information is ubiquitous
knowledge is easily accessible and
that’s why the only currency you have is
your ideas and your creativity the thin
line between being creative and being
productive is getting blurred very
easily you need to be both in fact a
very senior and one of the earliest
Argentine movie directors Fernando
billary one day was interacting with
students and he was advocating students
that you know you should try to do
new things you should try to be creative
and somehow in the talk it transpired
that you know being creative is like
chasing utopia so some students said why
should we chase utopia so Fernando said
well wait wait
teasing utopia is like chasing Horizon
what happens when you walk towards
horizon do you actually touch that
horizon do you actually grab that
horizon no but when you decide to touch
that horizon and you walk towards that
with every step you are closer to that
horizon and since Bryson is still there
you keep walking being creative is like
that when you decide to be creative you
may not come up with the most creative
idea but with every step you will be
closer to that objective and you will
keep walking so I hope these strategies
that I have talked about have inspired
you enough to keep walking and find your
falling Apple my god wait wait wait I’m
having an idea maybe I can use this as a
logo for something so all the best
thanks for your attention
namaste [Applause]
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