New York Times Magazine - the Idea Issue

I have recently rediscovered newspapers, and why we should all worry that they are slowly dying. No where else do we get the scope of thought in one place as newspapers. Yes, we can keep up with the "news" via web sites, but newspapers still give us more breadth of thought than new sites, which tend to be very focused. Every day I read the paper, I find things I did not know I should know, until I found them there.

Case in point, there is a marvelous issue of the New York Times Magazine out this week that is called the idea issue. And it's full of creative ideas from every walk of life. Absolutely stimulating! And it will likely only be around for a week, so go see it now! (or find a back issue to read! It's in Sunday's Times.)

Tom

IdeaPaint

I don't think I ever got over my childhood desire to be able to paint on walls. I do know that they don't make a white board big enough for me to draw mind maps and brainstorm ideas, so when I found IdeaPaint, a paint that turns entire walls into a high performance white board, I got really excited.

Their site is here and their blog of ideas is here.

Now, I have to decide what walls to paint!

Tom

Ideacide

This article, on Ideacide, or the killing of good ideas, is from American Express's OPEN web site for small business. It made me laugh, but also made me pay attention, because it's soooo true.

Tom

Tame Your Creativity

"You come up with too many ideas. Way too many. It’s a curse. It’s a gift. Sound like something you’d say to yourself every now and then? Yeah, me too. It’s ok though because it’s not always a bad thing. There are drawbacks to being a multi-tasker in your mind, but for the majority of the time it brings out nothing but benefits. So today we’re going to look at a few different ways we can tame our over-active minds and find ways to get more done with our creativity."

So starts a nice article on Taming Your Creativity. Written for web designers, I think it's got value to any creative person who at times finds themselves paralyzed by TOO MANY ideas. And honestly, as I get older, I find that is the case far more often than people not being able to find any ideas. They pile up on us until we are overwhelmed, or lose focus and direction.

Good reading, check it out here.

Tom