Weasel Words

ongoing by Tim Bray · Good News-Biz News

Tim Bray’s latest blog post, discussing TPM, is well worth a read. It also contains a little side note on the current Republican party, who are largely (and, I believe, correctly) considered by the rest of the world as crazy fucking nutjobs:

Possibly the Republicans are right that homosexuality weakens marriage and tax cuts don’t cause deficits and imprisoning a world-leading proportion of your population increases public safety and deregulating the finance industry is good economics and invading large Middle-Eastern nations (then staying) improves America’s security, as does spending more on the military than the rest of the world put together. And maybe the rest of the world is wrong on these things. I doubt it, though.

But I digress.

The Seed of Apple’s Innovation is almost seven years old now. And it’s still entirely relevant today. Maybe even more so, since it’s clear that many of Apple’s competitors still don’t understand why the fuck they’re getting their asses kicked.

Steve Jobs: Look at Microsoft (MSFT ) — who’s running Microsoft?
Interviewer: Steve Ballmer.
Steve Jobs: Right, the sales guy. Case closed.

(Microsoft’s stock price has now been stagnant for over a decade…)

And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.

From Fast Company’s design outpost: Paddy Harrington, of Bruce Mau Design, talks about 3 Conditions That Set The Stage For Blinding Insight. A bit over-the-top title-wise, but the project (a new website for Studio Gang architects) is interesting, as are the conditions.

Here’s the short version, lifted from the middle of the article:

1. Immersion
Surround yourself with both the problem and with inspiration. That means drawing on the field of study itself, and gathering all the information that you can. It also means drawing on inspiring, but unrelated fields. Insight can come from anywhere.

2. Friction
The differences between things are one of the surest ways to find insight. Just as biodiversity is a hallmark of a healthy ecosystem, cogni-diversity (let’s call it that) is the sign of a healthy creative environment. That can come from a diverse set of collaborators, or simply leaving your office and talking to different people at the supermarket in your neighborhood. Seek difference because insight lies in the space between.

3. Delirium
As Einstein says, we’re slaves to our pre-frontal cortex. The rational centre of our brain controls the vast majority of our conscious thought process. Designers have always known that you have to stay up really late sometimes to find insight. You have to distance yourself somehow from the world. These techniques are simply ways to escape the tendency towards purely rational thought. The trick is to get to a short hand. If you can calm your thought, the chances are much better that that moment of insight will simply emerge from the deeper recesses of your mind.