ideawhen

Thinking and Communicating with Pictures

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:12:48 -0400

Thinking and Communicating with Pictures:

An excellent article here on the power of simple visuals as an effective communications tool.

“The most famous business napkin is the route map of Southwest Airlines. When businessman Rollin King and lawyer Herb Kelleher sat down in 1967 in the St. Anthony’s Club in San Antonio, their intent was to drink to the successful closing of King’s previous airline. Instead, King picked up a pen and—drawing a triangle on a bar napkin as he spoke—said, “Wait a minute. What would happen if we created an airline that only connected Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio?” The world’s most profitable airline was born.”

"Business idea: some sort of business. Step one: hire an ideas guy."

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:21:17 -0400

“Business idea: some sort of business. Step one: hire an ideas guy.”

- Avery Edison (via bullshit)

"Most people seem content just to post cat pictures and get on with their day. I think I need to let..."

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:41:49 -0400

“Most people seem content just to post cat pictures and get on with their day. I think I need to let go of this notion that every blog post I make has to be some ground-shakingly new idea that, oh my goodness, probably nobody’s ever had before.”

- Steven Frank (via marco)

this used to be me on wordpress. i’ve learned not to force it anymore.

"Ideas on their own are just not that important. It’s incredibly rare that someone comes up with an..."

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:40:39 -0400

“Ideas on their own are just not that important. It’s incredibly rare that someone comes up with an idea so unique, so protectable that the success story writes itself. Most ideas are nothing without execution.”

- I had that idea years ago! - (37signals)

"In fact, real moments of inspiration often come at the last minute, when you’ve sweated and..."

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:31:00 -0400

“In fact, real moments of inspiration often come at the last minute, when you’ve sweated and fretted your way through a couple of drafts. Suddenly, you start to see fresh connections, new ways of doing things. That’s when you feel like you’re flying.”

- How to write a movie and kottke

Basement.org: "I've Got A Great Idea! Now What?"

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:26:51 -0400

Basement.org: "I've Got A Great Idea! Now What?":

The germination of an idea is an oddly singular, individual experience. Yeh, you may pitch something to your office neighbor and a furious brainstorming session may ensue, but in the beginning it’s just you and your idea. In any organization today, it’s tough to get ideas out. Yeh, you may blurt out an idea at some company meeting (even though it’s slightly off-topic) or you may let one fly at the tail-end of an email thread, but let’s face it: sharing ideas is hard.

Richard announces Kindling, “a web-based idea harvesting tool for groups and organizations.” I’ve requested an invite and am looking forward to giving it a try.

This stop may be a context switch to another task, but it’s...

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:43:46 -0400

This stop may be a context switch to another task, but it’s often a break to soak in the white noise, and it’s in these pauses that I’m brutally creative. When I stare out the window of the hotel, I see a small harbor full of sailboats, and, somehow, the haphazard arrangement of the colorful sails reminds me of a summer in Minnesota where my jerk of a cousin taught me to play Bloody Knuckles after everyone went to bed. Bloody knuckles, now that was a game, and games remind me of the bizarrely different ways human beings have figured out how to communicate, which is the EXACT topic I’m currently writing about, so I jump back to my MacBook and continue writing. (via Rands In Repose: I Don’t Multitask)

"When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call..."

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:19 -0400

“When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call us ‘infovores.’ “”

- Portals - WSJ.com

Geistesblitz Email & SMS - MindMeister

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:12:00 -0400

Geistesblitz Email & SMS - MindMeister:

Good ideas don’t wait until you’re sitting in front of a computer to pop into your brain - they just happen, anytime, anywhere. This is where the new Geistesblitz Email & SMS gateway comes in: just fire a quick email from your Blackberry to your personal Geistesblitz address or text your brainwave to our inbound SMS number from wherever you are, and never miss a great idea!

i don’t mind map but the whole feature is pretty neat. there are certainly other options out there that possibly might have a lower UE threshold, but, they’re not geared specifically towards idea capture and subsequent action-focused output.

via steve rubel

"Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the..."

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:53:20 -0400

“Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.”

- Transcript and video of JK Rowling’s Harvard commencement address, The… (kottke.org)

"The flash of inspiration is important, and so is the final product, but pay attention to the bit in..."

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:39:32 -0400

“The flash of inspiration is important, and so is the final product, but pay attention to the bit in between.”

- A List Apart: Articles: Saving the Spark: Developing Creative Ideas (via jeff)

swissmiss: some people have too many ideas.

Fri, 30 May 2008 21:30:58 -0400

swissmiss: some people have too many ideas.:

“Free Idea Factory is a repository of free ideas. Some people have too many ideas, some people like to work from a prompt. Here is a place where the two can attempt to equalize the uneven pressures in the fluids of their creative minds.”

pretty good stuff, surprisingly.

"Everyone is still coming in to the office, but instead of working on our current projects, we’re..."

Tue, 27 May 2008 21:52:31 -0400

“Everyone is still coming in to the office, but instead of working on our current projects, we’re creating something brand new. The only rule for the week is that by 6PM on Thursday, we have to complete the project. It doesn’t have to make us any money and it doesn’t need to fit into anything we currently do. It just needs to be fun and creative.”

- Carsonified » Blog Archive » Idea Week - Building a product in one week

The Fine Art of Refining Ideas | LifeDev

Tue, 27 May 2008 21:06:10 -0400

The Fine Art of Refining Ideas | LifeDev

"Sometimes I forget that I’ve stolen an idea, which makes it entirely original. That includes,..."

Tue, 27 May 2008 19:38:21 -0400

“Sometimes I forget that I’ve stolen an idea, which makes it entirely original. That includes, of course, this one.”

- Twitter / Adam Lisagor: Sometimes I forget that I’v…

"You don’t have these perfectly transparent, simple thoughts. You have thoughts that are all..."

Tue, 27 May 2008 18:13:57 -0400

“You don’t have these perfectly transparent, simple thoughts. You have thoughts that are all cluttered up, like overused bookshelves.”

- Rick Moody (I’m re-reading The Ice Storm this week and it is so, so good.) (via rach)

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an..."

Sat, 24 May 2008 16:38:41 -0400

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”

- Twitter / Tiny Buddha (via gina)

rickyv: “Apparently sprinters reach their highest speed right out of the blocks, and spend the...

Thu, 22 May 2008 10:37:49 -0400

rickyv:

“Apparently sprinters reach their highest speed right out of the blocks, and spend the rest of the race slowing down. The winners slow down the least. It’s that way with most startups too. The earliest phase is usually the most productive. That’s when they have the really big ideas. Imagine what Apple was like when 100% of its employees were either Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak.”

Excited to read the rest of a book that begins with that paragraph.

"While walking his dog in the mountains, he accidentally brushed up against some cocklebur plants,..."

Fri, 16 May 2008 18:20:00 -0400

“While walking his dog in the mountains, he accidentally brushed up against some cocklebur plants, and by the time he got back home, dozens of the round, spiky seeds were clinging to his wool trousers (and his poor dog’s fur). What you don’t know is how hard it was for de Mestral to translate that natural stroke of genius into a manmade one.”

- mental_floss Blog » VELCRO: The Humble Origins of the Greatest Thing to Ever Happen to My Sneakers

"Many of the people in Buduburam who came to sketch their ideas for a perfect phone at the Nokia..."

Thu, 15 May 2008 23:07:01 -0400

“Many of the people in Buduburam who came to sketch their ideas for a perfect phone at the Nokia studio did not actually own one… But when I paged through the fat three-ring binders where the Nokia team was storing those sketches, it was evident that the future, or at least some vision of it, had already arrived. Some of the drawings were basic pencil sketches; others were strikingly elaborate, with arrows pointing to different dream features, which were really just a way of pointing — I realized then — to the dreams themselves.”

- Cellphones - Third World and Developing Nations - Poverty - Technology - New York Times