The Final Frontier

The most important part of being a creative person and enhancing your creative ability is to be open to new ideas. But not only just new ideas. More importantly you must be open to different ideas. True creativity is born when you are able to take two or more concepts and put them together to form a new thing or concept. True creativity is also born when you take a concept and turn it upside down or take an upside down concept and turn it right-side up. This is hard to do in a vacuum.

Humans have a brain and a mouth and hands and eyes and emotions for a reason: To communicate our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, passions, frustrations and deepest desires which is the stuff that makes up ... us. And by communicating all these things we are able to help each other, solve problems, save lives, have fun and most importantly enjoy our life on this planet (and I hope, one day, that we are able to enjoy life on other planets as well.)

There have been many stories lately about trying to silence people's opinions and beliefs in one way or another. It doesn't matter if this silencing is being caused by the government or politicians, schools, or the public. I will not place the blame on any one party. But when has the answer ever been to limit ideas?

About 6 months ago a friend of mine decided to stop being my friend. We had just gotten into a heated debate during the elections and I'm really still not sure what her reasons are but I think our friendship ended from a combination of miscommunication, frustration and false perception. My grandma asked if we were friends again or if I had heard from her and I said no. She then said, "Well, that's why you shouldn't talk about politics or religion."

I understand that this rule is followed strictly by many people especially people of my grandma's generation. And I understand why people would choose to follow this rule. I also understand that their are certain times when talking politics or religion is just not acceptable at all. But how is not talking about our beliefs helping either?

I love Star Trek, especially The Next Generation. I'm not a Trekkie but I follow many of the philosophies discussed in the series. As you probably know, each episode starts out with Captain Picard saying, "Space, the final frontier." I love that line but I have to disagree with our beloved Captain. The Universe is not our final frontier. We are our final frontier. You are my final frontier and I am your final frontier. No matter how far humans travel away from our home planet we will always be on a quest to understanding each other and other creatures as well.

The only way to accomplish this difficult but wonderful quest is to talk. Talk to your family and friends. Talk to people whom you know have different opinions then you. Talk to people who are afraid to voice their opinions. Get in heated debates. Walk away frustrated, slam doors, stomp off. Then come back and talk again.

It will be hard. Many people are out of practice. It may seem awkward at times to be so open and raw. But I guarantee that after a while you will see creativity and understanding blossoming all around you.

Thanks to HubbleSite.org for the above picture.

Fluff & Circumstance

In a country where we want "it" yesterday and long detailed conversations have been whittled down to "OMG IMO he was DDG!" you would think we would have mastered the skill of concise speaking or "saying what you mean and meaning what you say." But really all we have done is been able to cram more blather into less time.

Effective communication is a key ingredient of creativity. New ideas hinge on the ability of one person being able to clearly communicate with someone else. People who are working on a problem exchange ideas constantly and need to be able to express their thoughts so the work runs smoothly. Likewise, if you are struggling with something you might ask another person for help. The better able you are to communicate to others the quicker you will be able to solve the problem and furthermore, come up with a more sustainable and effective solution.

But something I call fluff is always getting in the way and begins the breakdown of creativity. Fluff is all the extra stuff that's not really important to solving the problem at hand but for one reason or another some people find it necessary to bring into the mix. It's even worse when there's an over-abundance of fluff while defining the problem. Einstein said, "A well defined problem is halfway to being solved." It's almost impossible to reach the best solution when the heart of the problem is clouded by fluff. Fluff keeps you from seeing the path to the solution. Fluff can be anger, resentment, immaturity, money, a budget, the deadline, power, fear, pussy-footing, being PC, the insistence of getting "it" done now. All of which just hides both the heart of the problem and the best possible solution.

A lot of what I'm hearing on TV and from friends and family about the situations our country is trying to work through seems to be riddled with fluff, especially during processes of defining the problem. Most of the time it seems as though politicians and other leaders don't even care what the problem is or how it came to be. Their constituents and lobbyists just want a fix. Now. The politicians, only paying attention to the fluff, end up leaving the best solutions on the floor.

All I hear anymore when I turn on the news or listen to one of our political leaders speak about something is fluff. It's a wonder they can form words with all that fluff in their mouth. So as a citizen listening to all this fluff how am I supposed to make an informed decision about something? Fluff is not truth or information or details. Fluff is bullshitting your way through a high school paper and has no room in a country that is trying to solve some very complex and important problems.

Sometimes in our own lives all the voices coming at us from every direction cause us to rush and leave behind the best, most creative solution. Being creative is being able to get to the heart of the problem and see the problem and solution clearly. You know when you have reached a creative solution when you have cut through the fluff. Demand this creative process from your politicians, families and friends too. Fluff doesn't weigh much but it's holding all of us down.