creativity is the propeller behind
innovation every man-made object every
Theory every scientific or medical
advancement that we have it all started
with someone’s crazy idea you know we’ve
got Benjamin Franklin and his kite we’ve
got Isaac Newton and an Apple we’ve got
Steve Jobs and an apple
we’ve got Archimedes and an overflowing
bathtub I mean look at these people and
we look at these moments and we think
why can’t that be me or more likely why
can’t that be me but with my clothes on
the founder of Visa D Hawk is quoted as
saying make an empty space in any corner
of your mind and creativity will
instantly fill it well this is easier
said than done
because I don’t know about you but often
times I feel like my mind is so full of
other stuff to do I can barely do the
next normal thing in my life let’s have
like extra space sit around and they’re
waiting for creative thoughts to come
flooding in but we also know that
creativity is necessary for us to be
able to move forward so how do we solve
that problem how do we all become
creative so let’s think of our heads
like a bucket okay bucket heads for the
purposes of this metaphor let’s think of
our heads as as this bucket okay this is
your Lego storage container and after a
completely unscientific analysis of Lego
storage containers around the world and
by this I mean a completely unscientific
analysis of the bulk lots of Legos I’ve
been buying enough eBay without telling
my wife I can tell you that most
people’s Lego stash is not in fact all
Lego okay there’s some other stuff mixed
in there
I think the lego bin is the black hole
of the toy room it is where everything
goes to disappear and or die it is like
the spider graveyard for the house the
Lego bed like that’s where you go to
find the dead spiders so we’ve got a lot
of other stuff in there I after I’ve
done this this completely unscientific
analysis I’m Cree able to create a
completely unscientific pie chart to
illustrate my point and as we can see
there’s an entire corner of our mind
here that is complete junk oK we’ve got
things in there we’ve got hot wheels you
know stickers usually dismembered body
parts from action figures they make
their way in their crowns normally
chewed on by some mammal of some unknown
species you know I’m unable
let’s just leave that category blank I’m
happy meal toys are in there and then
you know the absolute gem of this pile
is pet hair that’s usually what’s
shellacked across the bottom that’s
unpleasant so these things that are
mined these rough ER that that stuff we
don’t need and we actually want to get
around to creating something right okay
so this is the information we have
sitting in our level bucket heads and
it’s not necessarily extraneous
information like all of the contestants
from The Bachelorette in 2009 we don’t
need that information either but
sometimes it’s just activities that we
do everyday or distractions that we have
that are easy for us to get right up yet
we seem to keep it in our lives and we
keep it in our heads for no real reason
okay the other 75 percent is actually
Lego that’s great
those are our skills that’s our
knowledge that’s our experiences and
those are the things that we can
actually build with when it comes to
being creative so how do we empty the
junk out of our heads there are things
that immediately come to mind
you know meditation obviously focused
attention meditation that’s a great way
if you’re working on decision making
open monitoring met
rotation if you’re working on creativity
they’re great ways to clear your mind
solitude that’s another fantastic thing
that we need for the creative process
you know take a hike literally exercise
next time you’re driving turn off the
radio have that solitude a moment take a
shower how many of us get our best ideas
in the shower seriously yeah lots of
hands you are statistically like it’s
proven you will more likely to have a
better idea in the shower than you are
at work this is this is serious
so do that you know we need those
moments to ourselves when we don’t have
all that other information all that
other stimuli coming at us because that
leaves us time for positive daydreaming
and it’s positive daydreaming that helps
us stimulate our creative parts of our
minds and what we’re talking about
eliminating distractions you know we
have our smart phones of the greatest
devices the average smartphone user
checks their device on every six minutes
but 150 times a day I will be the person
who says it phone notifications are the
pet hair of your lego bucket head
do a phone audit how many of those apps
do you really need and and other ones
you do need like how many of them do you
need the notifications turned on for is
it absolutely necessary that your hip
buzzes when your friend you had one
class with in high school posts a highly
filtered photo of what they’re eating
for dinner it’s a rhetorical question
the answers the answer is no you know
disconnecting is such a great it’s a
great way to free your mind and another
great way to free your mind is to
remember that it is okay to play as
adults this is sometimes something that
we forget it is okay to have a good time
it’s okay to have fun George Bernard
Shaw said we don’t stop playing because
we grow old we grow old because we stop
playing and who in here wants to grow
old yeah I don’t that’s why my bio
picture in the program is from 2005
you can you can check have a lot more
hair it’s not gel holds my hair like
this by the way a sunblock I’m in the
prevent sunburn phase in my life now but
you have to remember it’s okay to have a
good time and if I told you to write
down one thing right now about what do
you like to do what do you really like
to do what’s something that is is great
for you and and it’s a good time and is
your version of play I bet most of you
would not write down I really love white
sheep watching those completely
inaccurate one-hour emergency room
and/or courtroom dramas that a lot of
people spend their evenings doing that
and the question is is if that is not
the most fun you could be having why is
that how you’re spending your time so we
have all these ways we can be cleaning
out our mind so we’ve cleaned out our
mind now of all of these these extra
things that hold on we’ve now cleaned
out our mind of all of these extra
things that we don’t need and we have a
little bit of space with which to work
okay so we need to start refilling this
space with bricks or Lego bricks that
matter skills knowledge and experience
that can add to our collection that have
long-term versatility that have
long-term value things upon which we can
build with and build upon later right
and how do we do this well there are a
lot of ways the first way to start
adding these bricks to our collection is
by simply saying yes when presented with
opportunities does anyone in here know
what zorbing zorbing is than one heard
absorbing one person thank you
you can back me up when I say this is
perhaps the most idiotic activity I’ve
ever seen in my life I saw this the
first time I went to Switzerland and the
short version okay is that you pay
someone money it’s problem number one in
my opinion
they take you to the top of a hill they
put you in a gigantic inflatable hamster
ball and then they push you then spin
the next several minutes like watching
Switzerland roll by you like a washing
machine and you hope not to end up in a
tornado of your own vomit the end you’re
out 20 bucks needless to say at the time
I said no in retrospect however I wish I
had said yes because that’s not an
experience I’m never sure I’m going to
have the opportunity to get again that
is a very interesting element that’s a
very interesting brick I could have
added to my collection right I got a win
over grab that opportunity you know say
yes when someone invites you to a party
you know even if they’re going to be
really weird people there say yes
especially if they’re going to be really
weird people there because those people
make for the most interesting
conversations I will tell you my wife
said biologist I have been to these
parties
they last a long time so do that you
know next time someone says let’s go do
karaoke say yes go or next time someone
says participate in the Lego fire walk
say yes I’m not looking at anybody
specific when I say say yes
nobody specific at all by the way that’s
great for birthday parties according to
Pinterest and everything on Pinterest
it’s a great idea but these are these
are these are ways for us to be adding
bricks to our collection okay just
saying yes you know moving on there are
other ways there are you know you need
to be you need to be not just passively
having opportunities come too you need
to be actively looking for things
because there’s so many things available
out there for you to be grabbing there
are let’s say when you go to a
restaurant okay when you go to a
restaurant don’t order the safest thing
on the menu
order the weirdest thing on the menu
because even if it’s terrible it will
still be an experience so someone
decided to put it on the menu for a
reason so we might as well find out why
take something apart preferably take
something apart you don’t have to know
how to put back together just in case
but you know for all of those things do
you get some additional bricks
okay that’s adding to your mental
inventory those are skills that’s
knowledge that’s experience okay pick up
a new foreign language or just read
watch Nova man that’s it fascinating the
show never watch that this is cool stuff
on there learn how to solve a Rubik’s
Cube you get you get a brick not just
for your problem-solving ability but you
get like social bricks because you’re
going to be like the highlight of the
party of nerds that we were talking
about earlier
like those people will worship you like
social bricks so now that we have all
this great mental inventory we you know
we’re looking at it and we can’t just
appreciate all of these things for an
exiting the rug
we can’t just appreciate all these
things for like these individualized
shiny pieces of plastic that they are
because that doesn’t really that’s
there’s no magic in that nothing has
been created here these are all just
individual pieces that we own the real
magic happens when they start assembling
them but sometimes that’s intimidating
because we don’t know exactly where to
begin and what can be connected to what
or how many things were actually going
to be able to make out of what we own
but considered just six Lego bricks okay
the the quintessential 2×4 Lego brick
upon which the patent was made hey how
many different combinations can we make
with just these six Lego bricks like a
hundred or a thousand the fact is we can
make more than nine hundred and fifteen
million different combinations with just
six Lego bricks just these six bricks
nine or fifty that’s only if we use
right angles if I start using other
angles and another 26 million
combinations out of those things
okay that’s six bricks and if you have a
mental inventory like this or bigger
than this and you keep adding to it what
you are able to do when you start to
create things is virtually limitless
supercomputer can’t figure that out
they’re called creative exercises for a
reason and that’s because you have to
start putting your pieces together with
abandon you just have to start taking
all of these things that you know all of
these experiences you have all of these
pieces in your inventory and connecting
them just to see what happens okay take
these different pieces and start writing
it could come out as poetry it could
come out as an academic textbook you
could create a great work product when
all of that is said and done but that’s
a byproduct that should not be the goal
it’s just about seeing what you can
create with what you have available
maybe science is more your field at some
point someone decided to take genes from
a winter flounder and combine it with
the genetics from our domesticated
strawberries okay and they took the part
of the winter flounder that that it
doesn’t freeze what it gets into very
cold water and they put that in our
domesticated strawberries and now we
have Hardy or strawberries our
strawberries don’t freeze as easily when
they’re on the vine they don’t freeze
when they’re in transportation and this
was not the case 20 years ago 20 years
ago strawberry was a seasonal fruit now
we can all enjoy strawberry and flounder
shortcake like in the middle of December
and this is why is because there’s a
little piece of flounder in every
strawberry you’re eating now
and somebody said at some point this is
a crazy idea but it’s not and you will
eat it the goal here is not to create a
better mousetrap judge create a better
mousetrap goal is to create a different
mousetrap different mousetraps that’s
where innovation comes from don’t add to
models that already exist start from
scratch heck of a lot more interesting
you know when you when you come across
objects in the world when you come
across these theories when you’re given
effects when you learn things in your
class realize that everything you have
is just a collection of pieces when we
have our smart phones you know these
these smart phones are great things but
all someone did was take what they knew
about a phone and they combined it with
what they knew about a computer and they
combined that with what they knew about
a camera and they combined that with
what they knew about gaming consoles and
they combined that with what they knew
about shopping and all of these other
things and that’s how they came up with
a smart phone that we carry around with
us
day there wasn’t new knowledge there
they just took all of the inventory they
had and they put all those things
together so we’ve answered our question
in how do we become creative people we
work with what we have because your
inventory is completely unique nobody
has the same inventory you do it’s
impossible so nobody can create the
exact same thing you can you have to get
together with your pieces and just start
assembling see what happens so we’ve
answered one question but that just
poses one another what can you build
that’s it thank you
[Applause]
you
innovation every man-made object every
Theory every scientific or medical
advancement that we have it all started
with someone’s crazy idea you know we’ve
got Benjamin Franklin and his kite we’ve
got Isaac Newton and an Apple we’ve got
Steve Jobs and an apple
we’ve got Archimedes and an overflowing
bathtub I mean look at these people and
we look at these moments and we think
why can’t that be me or more likely why
can’t that be me but with my clothes on
the founder of Visa D Hawk is quoted as
saying make an empty space in any corner
of your mind and creativity will
instantly fill it well this is easier
said than done
because I don’t know about you but often
times I feel like my mind is so full of
other stuff to do I can barely do the
next normal thing in my life let’s have
like extra space sit around and they’re
waiting for creative thoughts to come
flooding in but we also know that
creativity is necessary for us to be
able to move forward so how do we solve
that problem how do we all become
creative so let’s think of our heads
like a bucket okay bucket heads for the
purposes of this metaphor let’s think of
our heads as as this bucket okay this is
your Lego storage container and after a
completely unscientific analysis of Lego
storage containers around the world and
by this I mean a completely unscientific
analysis of the bulk lots of Legos I’ve
been buying enough eBay without telling
my wife I can tell you that most
people’s Lego stash is not in fact all
Lego okay there’s some other stuff mixed
in there
I think the lego bin is the black hole
of the toy room it is where everything
goes to disappear and or die it is like
the spider graveyard for the house the
Lego bed like that’s where you go to
find the dead spiders so we’ve got a lot
of other stuff in there I after I’ve
done this this completely unscientific
analysis I’m Cree able to create a
completely unscientific pie chart to
illustrate my point and as we can see
there’s an entire corner of our mind
here that is complete junk oK we’ve got
things in there we’ve got hot wheels you
know stickers usually dismembered body
parts from action figures they make
their way in their crowns normally
chewed on by some mammal of some unknown
species you know I’m unable
let’s just leave that category blank I’m
happy meal toys are in there and then
you know the absolute gem of this pile
is pet hair that’s usually what’s
shellacked across the bottom that’s
unpleasant so these things that are
mined these rough ER that that stuff we
don’t need and we actually want to get
around to creating something right okay
so this is the information we have
sitting in our level bucket heads and
it’s not necessarily extraneous
information like all of the contestants
from The Bachelorette in 2009 we don’t
need that information either but
sometimes it’s just activities that we
do everyday or distractions that we have
that are easy for us to get right up yet
we seem to keep it in our lives and we
keep it in our heads for no real reason
okay the other 75 percent is actually
Lego that’s great
those are our skills that’s our
knowledge that’s our experiences and
those are the things that we can
actually build with when it comes to
being creative so how do we empty the
junk out of our heads there are things
that immediately come to mind
you know meditation obviously focused
attention meditation that’s a great way
if you’re working on decision making
open monitoring met
rotation if you’re working on creativity
they’re great ways to clear your mind
solitude that’s another fantastic thing
that we need for the creative process
you know take a hike literally exercise
next time you’re driving turn off the
radio have that solitude a moment take a
shower how many of us get our best ideas
in the shower seriously yeah lots of
hands you are statistically like it’s
proven you will more likely to have a
better idea in the shower than you are
at work this is this is serious
so do that you know we need those
moments to ourselves when we don’t have
all that other information all that
other stimuli coming at us because that
leaves us time for positive daydreaming
and it’s positive daydreaming that helps
us stimulate our creative parts of our
minds and what we’re talking about
eliminating distractions you know we
have our smart phones of the greatest
devices the average smartphone user
checks their device on every six minutes
but 150 times a day I will be the person
who says it phone notifications are the
pet hair of your lego bucket head
do a phone audit how many of those apps
do you really need and and other ones
you do need like how many of them do you
need the notifications turned on for is
it absolutely necessary that your hip
buzzes when your friend you had one
class with in high school posts a highly
filtered photo of what they’re eating
for dinner it’s a rhetorical question
the answers the answer is no you know
disconnecting is such a great it’s a
great way to free your mind and another
great way to free your mind is to
remember that it is okay to play as
adults this is sometimes something that
we forget it is okay to have a good time
it’s okay to have fun George Bernard
Shaw said we don’t stop playing because
we grow old we grow old because we stop
playing and who in here wants to grow
old yeah I don’t that’s why my bio
picture in the program is from 2005
you can you can check have a lot more
hair it’s not gel holds my hair like
this by the way a sunblock I’m in the
prevent sunburn phase in my life now but
you have to remember it’s okay to have a
good time and if I told you to write
down one thing right now about what do
you like to do what do you really like
to do what’s something that is is great
for you and and it’s a good time and is
your version of play I bet most of you
would not write down I really love white
sheep watching those completely
inaccurate one-hour emergency room
and/or courtroom dramas that a lot of
people spend their evenings doing that
and the question is is if that is not
the most fun you could be having why is
that how you’re spending your time so we
have all these ways we can be cleaning
out our mind so we’ve cleaned out our
mind now of all of these these extra
things that hold on we’ve now cleaned
out our mind of all of these extra
things that we don’t need and we have a
little bit of space with which to work
okay so we need to start refilling this
space with bricks or Lego bricks that
matter skills knowledge and experience
that can add to our collection that have
long-term versatility that have
long-term value things upon which we can
build with and build upon later right
and how do we do this well there are a
lot of ways the first way to start
adding these bricks to our collection is
by simply saying yes when presented with
opportunities does anyone in here know
what zorbing zorbing is than one heard
absorbing one person thank you
you can back me up when I say this is
perhaps the most idiotic activity I’ve
ever seen in my life I saw this the
first time I went to Switzerland and the
short version okay is that you pay
someone money it’s problem number one in
my opinion
they take you to the top of a hill they
put you in a gigantic inflatable hamster
ball and then they push you then spin
the next several minutes like watching
Switzerland roll by you like a washing
machine and you hope not to end up in a
tornado of your own vomit the end you’re
out 20 bucks needless to say at the time
I said no in retrospect however I wish I
had said yes because that’s not an
experience I’m never sure I’m going to
have the opportunity to get again that
is a very interesting element that’s a
very interesting brick I could have
added to my collection right I got a win
over grab that opportunity you know say
yes when someone invites you to a party
you know even if they’re going to be
really weird people there say yes
especially if they’re going to be really
weird people there because those people
make for the most interesting
conversations I will tell you my wife
said biologist I have been to these
parties
they last a long time so do that you
know next time someone says let’s go do
karaoke say yes go or next time someone
says participate in the Lego fire walk
say yes I’m not looking at anybody
specific when I say say yes
nobody specific at all by the way that’s
great for birthday parties according to
Pinterest and everything on Pinterest
it’s a great idea but these are these
are these are ways for us to be adding
bricks to our collection okay just
saying yes you know moving on there are
other ways there are you know you need
to be you need to be not just passively
having opportunities come too you need
to be actively looking for things
because there’s so many things available
out there for you to be grabbing there
are let’s say when you go to a
restaurant okay when you go to a
restaurant don’t order the safest thing
on the menu
order the weirdest thing on the menu
because even if it’s terrible it will
still be an experience so someone
decided to put it on the menu for a
reason so we might as well find out why
take something apart preferably take
something apart you don’t have to know
how to put back together just in case
but you know for all of those things do
you get some additional bricks
okay that’s adding to your mental
inventory those are skills that’s
knowledge that’s experience okay pick up
a new foreign language or just read
watch Nova man that’s it fascinating the
show never watch that this is cool stuff
on there learn how to solve a Rubik’s
Cube you get you get a brick not just
for your problem-solving ability but you
get like social bricks because you’re
going to be like the highlight of the
party of nerds that we were talking
about earlier
like those people will worship you like
social bricks so now that we have all
this great mental inventory we you know
we’re looking at it and we can’t just
appreciate all of these things for an
exiting the rug
we can’t just appreciate all these
things for like these individualized
shiny pieces of plastic that they are
because that doesn’t really that’s
there’s no magic in that nothing has
been created here these are all just
individual pieces that we own the real
magic happens when they start assembling
them but sometimes that’s intimidating
because we don’t know exactly where to
begin and what can be connected to what
or how many things were actually going
to be able to make out of what we own
but considered just six Lego bricks okay
the the quintessential 2×4 Lego brick
upon which the patent was made hey how
many different combinations can we make
with just these six Lego bricks like a
hundred or a thousand the fact is we can
make more than nine hundred and fifteen
million different combinations with just
six Lego bricks just these six bricks
nine or fifty that’s only if we use
right angles if I start using other
angles and another 26 million
combinations out of those things
okay that’s six bricks and if you have a
mental inventory like this or bigger
than this and you keep adding to it what
you are able to do when you start to
create things is virtually limitless
supercomputer can’t figure that out
they’re called creative exercises for a
reason and that’s because you have to
start putting your pieces together with
abandon you just have to start taking
all of these things that you know all of
these experiences you have all of these
pieces in your inventory and connecting
them just to see what happens okay take
these different pieces and start writing
it could come out as poetry it could
come out as an academic textbook you
could create a great work product when
all of that is said and done but that’s
a byproduct that should not be the goal
it’s just about seeing what you can
create with what you have available
maybe science is more your field at some
point someone decided to take genes from
a winter flounder and combine it with
the genetics from our domesticated
strawberries okay and they took the part
of the winter flounder that that it
doesn’t freeze what it gets into very
cold water and they put that in our
domesticated strawberries and now we
have Hardy or strawberries our
strawberries don’t freeze as easily when
they’re on the vine they don’t freeze
when they’re in transportation and this
was not the case 20 years ago 20 years
ago strawberry was a seasonal fruit now
we can all enjoy strawberry and flounder
shortcake like in the middle of December
and this is why is because there’s a
little piece of flounder in every
strawberry you’re eating now
and somebody said at some point this is
a crazy idea but it’s not and you will
eat it the goal here is not to create a
better mousetrap judge create a better
mousetrap goal is to create a different
mousetrap different mousetraps that’s
where innovation comes from don’t add to
models that already exist start from
scratch heck of a lot more interesting
you know when you when you come across
objects in the world when you come
across these theories when you’re given
effects when you learn things in your
class realize that everything you have
is just a collection of pieces when we
have our smart phones you know these
these smart phones are great things but
all someone did was take what they knew
about a phone and they combined it with
what they knew about a computer and they
combined that with what they knew about
a camera and they combined that with
what they knew about gaming consoles and
they combined that with what they knew
about shopping and all of these other
things and that’s how they came up with
a smart phone that we carry around with
us
day there wasn’t new knowledge there
they just took all of the inventory they
had and they put all those things
together so we’ve answered our question
in how do we become creative people we
work with what we have because your
inventory is completely unique nobody
has the same inventory you do it’s
impossible so nobody can create the
exact same thing you can you have to get
together with your pieces and just start
assembling see what happens so we’ve
answered one question but that just
poses one another what can you build
that’s it thank you
[Applause]
you
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