raise your hand if you want to be
something okay
good if you didn’t raise your hand well
we have a lovely guidance counselor down
the hall now raise your hand if you want
to go into a competitive professional
out of me – my dad is an entrepreneur
and my mom’s on the nutritionist track
so that should obviously need honest em
baby right well I wouldn’t say that’s
exactly true or true at all
I want to be a writer more specifically
a dramatic writer meaning that I write
scripts for things like movies and plays
college programs for dramatic writing
are very exclusive and small so it’s
good to rack up a portfolio of awards so
you can look flashy on a college
application with this in mind I decided
to participate in a regional playwriting
competition that was coming up I have
written a lot of scenes before but never
an actual one-act play which if you
think about it is pretty dangerous how
could you want to be a writer without
having a script under your belt to make
things worse I found out about the
competition late so I only had three
days to come up with an idea write the
script and edit it it may not seem like
a lot but without a class appears to
help you come up with an idea I had a
lot of my shoulders but hey let me talk
about my favorite class of software year
acting now my love of writing came from
my love of acting so I loved the class
with all my heart the teacher who led
the class was also my advisor so we were
very close as for the class we were a
handful and in that handful there was a
girl who almost always wore green rubber
rain boots to school random I know but
they were like the brightest squeakiest
things ever so I could never take my
eyes off of them one day I was in class
and I was staring at the boots and
to look up and to realize that there was
an odor to them and she recommended a
show to me now I would assume that you
guys would know the show I heard it’s
pretty popular it’s called stranger
fittings now my nerdy self fell in love
with the show and when you recommend the
show to me that I like or give me food I
stay in my mind and my heart so that
night I was sitting in my room staring
at a blank computer coming up with
literally the worst ideas for place I’ve
ever seen in my life a girl who throws a
tea party with her stuffed animals and
they end up killing her real friends a
person with a bowtie yeah that’s it
I spent the whole night on those ideas
it was the night before submissions were
too and I was very close to giving up
maybe writing wasn’t for me I mean
obviously since I couldn’t think of
anything but then something started
nagging at me something that had been
nagging at me for a while my teacher and
advisor just announced that he was going
to retire that year he was going to
California I wish I was in California
instead of school I was jealous of him
Green is the color of envy the boots
holy crap I busted out a script in three
hours the boots that girl my teacher his
retirement it all came together I ended
up being the youngest of five winners at
that regional theater competition got a
governess of the Arts Award and went on
to win many more all because of that sad
thought my teachers retirement and those
bright boots constantly distracted me
from my work now that’s how it’s a
little fun I want to be a writer but how
do we explain what just happened in that
story and where to do that we have to
lay down to platform questions what is
distraction and what is creativity
now distraction is anything that
prevents someone from giving their full
attention to something else you can be
distracted by many things someone
shaking their leg a piece of fuzz in the
air that you definitely want to catch me
going over like a crazy person or my
personal favorite
your sisters singing all the start by
smashmouth on karaoke so loud that you
have hallucinations of Shrek during your
SAT Wednesday basically distractions are
annoying but they can also be annoying
singers and that’s where creativity
comes in
now what’s creativity we all know
creativity is at Deadpool’s fishbone
that one this classical key or that
science project that won Best in Show
the fifth grade but you knew their
parents made it to put creativity in a
more positive light it’s the use of
imagination or original ideas especially
in the production of artistic work now
in schools these days
creativity is slowly being condensed
into elective classes but the culture
that’s all about getting into college
the standardized testing has become a
priority and in order to do standardized
testing you’re taught to use convergent
thinking convergent thinking is very
linear like multiple-choice answers on a
test you have to solve a specific
problem in a specific way with a
specific set of facts like arithmetic
you don’t solve 2+2 by multiplying the
amount of apples that hits ERISA through
his head by the amount of masks at the
2013 Mardi Gras not only would that be
very complicated and near impossible it
would also be very very wrong your ideas
being all over the place is more
divergent thinking divergent thinking is
where you basically let your brain run
wild and find ideas in its smoky trail
it’s creative opening and thinking aimed
at generating fresh views so divergent
thinking can often be explained through
things called semantic networks semantic
networks also known as frame networks
are the web of connections that stem off
of an original point for example while
preparing for this talk I asked my
brother for two totally different words
after waiting for a response that never
came along with a self-evaluation of why
I had no power as the oldest sibling
I enforced my authority upon my sister
asking for two totally different words
she chose quiche then she couldn’t think
of anything else so I asked my dad for
his favorite actor he chose Eddie Murphy
my job was to connect the two I came up
with this now you may be thinking well
you’re trying to get from point A to
point B isn’t that convergent thinking
well in some ways you’re right but this
is a very simple one track version of
divergent thinking if I had kept all of
the dead-end thoughts that sprung off of
even some of these ideas my network
would look something like this so we
start off with quiche which is made from
eggs which is a classic breakfast food
which reminded me of the classic movie
The Breakfast Club which deserves Molly
Ringwald who was also in the movie
Sixteen Candles which sounds a lot like
the mediocre Disney Channel Original
Movie 16 wishes which stars debby ryan
who played Bailey in show life on deck
which is the mediocre spin-off of the
show Suite Life of Zack and Cody I think
you could start seeing a theme here so
one of their main characters Maddie is
played by Ashley Tisdale and played the
iconic Sharpay
in the iconic movie High School Musical
which involved a scene where Troy climbs
a tree on the side of Gabriella’s house
to get to her it’s very cute now that
scene and the tree coming up from the
house reminded me of a certain stump
house which is owned by Shrek whose best
friend is donkey play by the one and
only Eddie Murphy thank you thank you
now that was pretty weird and I know but
that’s how my movie reference train
frame filters through thoughts in order
to get to an idea so that leads down to
our main question how does distraction
fuel creativity as I just explained
distraction comes from a lack of
attention or
Leakey’s century gathering meaning that
your thoughts are out of focus this then
leads to divergent thinking which gets
you generating an idea by stemming off
of a certain point that certain point
being the distraction the idea is the
end result of this divergent creative
process and that’s basically yet to
break it down further we have to dive
into Freudian territory now Sigmund
Freud was an Austrian neurologist born
in the 1800s
while his more notable works include
subjects that I can’t talk about in a
school setting his studies on the
subconscious were very interesting with
him saying that the subconscious deeply
influences the conscious mind now what
does this mean what this means is that
the greater the distraction the stronger
the impact it has on your subconscious
hence if returning later in a dream or
recurring thought for example in the
context of the play that I wrote my
teachers retirement agitated me which
prevented me from thinking of ideas when
I took a step back I realized that I
literally had to be a human windshield
wiper and right away all of the
distraction that was clouding my brain
of course I could have used the other
ideas that I came up with by myself but
not only with the end result for them be
disastrous I wasn’t as driven with
emotion to write them as much as what I
was feeling right then and there that my
teachers retirement ruined my life
and that the Bhoots girl recommending
that show to me kind of saved it so all
in all distraction isn’t actually
distraction its inspiration this
inspiration when put in the right
direction will give you the fuel to be
creative
now here’s my warning don’t use this
talk as an excuse to sleep through class
and go on dangerous adventures because
you’re trying to get creative that’s not
what I’m aiming for with this
distraction is an interruption that
comes naturally it’s an environmental
occurrence you can’t force yourself to
become distracted because then that
becomes
traction it upon itself and a dangerous
one at that because you can’t get any
ideas from it you have to harness a
distraction like it’s a pony I’m dead
serious you have to take it by the reins
not let it run all over the place and
then you can train it to make you look
good emphasizing my previous point you
can’t go attack a wild rabbit is Pony to
try to make yourself look good because
then it will run you over and you’ll die
so I took a distraction and I put it in
the right direction fuelling my emotions
and putting myself in a creative zone
but that’s not always gonna happen if
you’re in a situation like me where you
constantly need ideas for things like
competitions assignments or even just
for fun then I would recommend keeping a
list or a journal and writing down all
of the random things that pop into your
head throughout the day as a student who
has trouble focusing I noticed that a
lot of teachers would say things like
snap out of it and pay attention which
is justified but they did it without
knowing that that would make it even
harder for me to concentrate if one
teacher would have told me hey what you
just said was like really weird but why
don’t you write it down and do something
with it later then I would have
discovered this creative outlet that was
hiding right in front of my face way
earlier believe me writing it is hard
but this method creates a constant
revenue of ideas but hey if nothing in
this talk inspire you at all and you
just came here desperately looking for a
way to get creative
then I deeply deeply suggest getting a pair of these thank you
something okay
good if you didn’t raise your hand well
we have a lovely guidance counselor down
the hall now raise your hand if you want
to go into a competitive professional
out of me – my dad is an entrepreneur
and my mom’s on the nutritionist track
so that should obviously need honest em
baby right well I wouldn’t say that’s
exactly true or true at all
I want to be a writer more specifically
a dramatic writer meaning that I write
scripts for things like movies and plays
college programs for dramatic writing
are very exclusive and small so it’s
good to rack up a portfolio of awards so
you can look flashy on a college
application with this in mind I decided
to participate in a regional playwriting
competition that was coming up I have
written a lot of scenes before but never
an actual one-act play which if you
think about it is pretty dangerous how
could you want to be a writer without
having a script under your belt to make
things worse I found out about the
competition late so I only had three
days to come up with an idea write the
script and edit it it may not seem like
a lot but without a class appears to
help you come up with an idea I had a
lot of my shoulders but hey let me talk
about my favorite class of software year
acting now my love of writing came from
my love of acting so I loved the class
with all my heart the teacher who led
the class was also my advisor so we were
very close as for the class we were a
handful and in that handful there was a
girl who almost always wore green rubber
rain boots to school random I know but
they were like the brightest squeakiest
things ever so I could never take my
eyes off of them one day I was in class
and I was staring at the boots and
to look up and to realize that there was
an odor to them and she recommended a
show to me now I would assume that you
guys would know the show I heard it’s
pretty popular it’s called stranger
fittings now my nerdy self fell in love
with the show and when you recommend the
show to me that I like or give me food I
stay in my mind and my heart so that
night I was sitting in my room staring
at a blank computer coming up with
literally the worst ideas for place I’ve
ever seen in my life a girl who throws a
tea party with her stuffed animals and
they end up killing her real friends a
person with a bowtie yeah that’s it
I spent the whole night on those ideas
it was the night before submissions were
too and I was very close to giving up
maybe writing wasn’t for me I mean
obviously since I couldn’t think of
anything but then something started
nagging at me something that had been
nagging at me for a while my teacher and
advisor just announced that he was going
to retire that year he was going to
California I wish I was in California
instead of school I was jealous of him
Green is the color of envy the boots
holy crap I busted out a script in three
hours the boots that girl my teacher his
retirement it all came together I ended
up being the youngest of five winners at
that regional theater competition got a
governess of the Arts Award and went on
to win many more all because of that sad
thought my teachers retirement and those
bright boots constantly distracted me
from my work now that’s how it’s a
little fun I want to be a writer but how
do we explain what just happened in that
story and where to do that we have to
lay down to platform questions what is
distraction and what is creativity
now distraction is anything that
prevents someone from giving their full
attention to something else you can be
distracted by many things someone
shaking their leg a piece of fuzz in the
air that you definitely want to catch me
going over like a crazy person or my
personal favorite
your sisters singing all the start by
smashmouth on karaoke so loud that you
have hallucinations of Shrek during your
SAT Wednesday basically distractions are
annoying but they can also be annoying
singers and that’s where creativity
comes in
now what’s creativity we all know
creativity is at Deadpool’s fishbone
that one this classical key or that
science project that won Best in Show
the fifth grade but you knew their
parents made it to put creativity in a
more positive light it’s the use of
imagination or original ideas especially
in the production of artistic work now
in schools these days
creativity is slowly being condensed
into elective classes but the culture
that’s all about getting into college
the standardized testing has become a
priority and in order to do standardized
testing you’re taught to use convergent
thinking convergent thinking is very
linear like multiple-choice answers on a
test you have to solve a specific
problem in a specific way with a
specific set of facts like arithmetic
you don’t solve 2+2 by multiplying the
amount of apples that hits ERISA through
his head by the amount of masks at the
2013 Mardi Gras not only would that be
very complicated and near impossible it
would also be very very wrong your ideas
being all over the place is more
divergent thinking divergent thinking is
where you basically let your brain run
wild and find ideas in its smoky trail
it’s creative opening and thinking aimed
at generating fresh views so divergent
thinking can often be explained through
things called semantic networks semantic
networks also known as frame networks
are the web of connections that stem off
of an original point for example while
preparing for this talk I asked my
brother for two totally different words
after waiting for a response that never
came along with a self-evaluation of why
I had no power as the oldest sibling
I enforced my authority upon my sister
asking for two totally different words
she chose quiche then she couldn’t think
of anything else so I asked my dad for
his favorite actor he chose Eddie Murphy
my job was to connect the two I came up
with this now you may be thinking well
you’re trying to get from point A to
point B isn’t that convergent thinking
well in some ways you’re right but this
is a very simple one track version of
divergent thinking if I had kept all of
the dead-end thoughts that sprung off of
even some of these ideas my network
would look something like this so we
start off with quiche which is made from
eggs which is a classic breakfast food
which reminded me of the classic movie
The Breakfast Club which deserves Molly
Ringwald who was also in the movie
Sixteen Candles which sounds a lot like
the mediocre Disney Channel Original
Movie 16 wishes which stars debby ryan
who played Bailey in show life on deck
which is the mediocre spin-off of the
show Suite Life of Zack and Cody I think
you could start seeing a theme here so
one of their main characters Maddie is
played by Ashley Tisdale and played the
iconic Sharpay
in the iconic movie High School Musical
which involved a scene where Troy climbs
a tree on the side of Gabriella’s house
to get to her it’s very cute now that
scene and the tree coming up from the
house reminded me of a certain stump
house which is owned by Shrek whose best
friend is donkey play by the one and
only Eddie Murphy thank you thank you
now that was pretty weird and I know but
that’s how my movie reference train
frame filters through thoughts in order
to get to an idea so that leads down to
our main question how does distraction
fuel creativity as I just explained
distraction comes from a lack of
attention or
Leakey’s century gathering meaning that
your thoughts are out of focus this then
leads to divergent thinking which gets
you generating an idea by stemming off
of a certain point that certain point
being the distraction the idea is the
end result of this divergent creative
process and that’s basically yet to
break it down further we have to dive
into Freudian territory now Sigmund
Freud was an Austrian neurologist born
in the 1800s
while his more notable works include
subjects that I can’t talk about in a
school setting his studies on the
subconscious were very interesting with
him saying that the subconscious deeply
influences the conscious mind now what
does this mean what this means is that
the greater the distraction the stronger
the impact it has on your subconscious
hence if returning later in a dream or
recurring thought for example in the
context of the play that I wrote my
teachers retirement agitated me which
prevented me from thinking of ideas when
I took a step back I realized that I
literally had to be a human windshield
wiper and right away all of the
distraction that was clouding my brain
of course I could have used the other
ideas that I came up with by myself but
not only with the end result for them be
disastrous I wasn’t as driven with
emotion to write them as much as what I
was feeling right then and there that my
teachers retirement ruined my life
and that the Bhoots girl recommending
that show to me kind of saved it so all
in all distraction isn’t actually
distraction its inspiration this
inspiration when put in the right
direction will give you the fuel to be
creative
now here’s my warning don’t use this
talk as an excuse to sleep through class
and go on dangerous adventures because
you’re trying to get creative that’s not
what I’m aiming for with this
distraction is an interruption that
comes naturally it’s an environmental
occurrence you can’t force yourself to
become distracted because then that
becomes
traction it upon itself and a dangerous
one at that because you can’t get any
ideas from it you have to harness a
distraction like it’s a pony I’m dead
serious you have to take it by the reins
not let it run all over the place and
then you can train it to make you look
good emphasizing my previous point you
can’t go attack a wild rabbit is Pony to
try to make yourself look good because
then it will run you over and you’ll die
so I took a distraction and I put it in
the right direction fuelling my emotions
and putting myself in a creative zone
but that’s not always gonna happen if
you’re in a situation like me where you
constantly need ideas for things like
competitions assignments or even just
for fun then I would recommend keeping a
list or a journal and writing down all
of the random things that pop into your
head throughout the day as a student who
has trouble focusing I noticed that a
lot of teachers would say things like
snap out of it and pay attention which
is justified but they did it without
knowing that that would make it even
harder for me to concentrate if one
teacher would have told me hey what you
just said was like really weird but why
don’t you write it down and do something
with it later then I would have
discovered this creative outlet that was
hiding right in front of my face way
earlier believe me writing it is hard
but this method creates a constant
revenue of ideas but hey if nothing in
this talk inspire you at all and you
just came here desperately looking for a
way to get creative
then I deeply deeply suggest getting a pair of these thank you
Please follow and like us: