Free Idea Factory

I have a constant problem with fruit. My fruit bowl allows bugs to occasionally come in and land on the fruit. I have tried a plastic container with a lid. This works but restricts the amount of fruit I can comfortably fit, because of the uneven shapes of fruit. My idea is some sort of zippered mesh bag that fits around the fruit bowl, but comes to a point at the top. This would also comfortably accommodate the odd shaped piles of fruit that fill the bowl. See the picture below for a rough idea:

I know that the iphone has a security feature where all your data can be set to be wiped if the user incorrectly attempts to log into the phone several times.

What about a third party app that makes your phone be annoying in the event it was stolen and someone was incorrectly attempting to access your phone.

Maybe on the third attempt it could say “sorry try again”. Then on the fourth attempt a fake home screen jpeg could be displayed, then when they try and select and app, it says, “Just messing with you. You don’t belong inside this phone. Give it back. Really, don’t be an ass, give me my phone back.

Some other ideas after a certain number of incorrect attempts have been tried:

-The credits from Monty Python and the Holy Grail play on repeat with all the flashing and the llama’s
-Random incredibly unexciting histroy facts are recited in a monotone voice
-A recording of Richard Simons repeatedly encourages the theif that they can do it, then the battery dies
- etc.

I have recently been hearing some pretty concerning things about how some popular Social Websites can use your private information. I think having a Social Responsibility Watch Group would be a great service to general Social Website consumers.

I realize that there is an individual responsibility on the part of the consumer to agree with these Social Websites terms and conditions and privacy policies. But sometimes they change and we may not keep up on them like we should, we may have been less aware of the importance of these policies, or misunderstood them.

Having a group that would monitor and report problems with how your identities and information are managed on popular Social Websites would be something I would be interested in.

Here are some links about popular Social Websites, that I found disturbing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061103759.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7375772.stm

Creativity is often more about the process than any specific result, or an orientation towards new ways of approaching things if you will. While we may start out intending to achieve something in particular, the lessons we learn along the way have the power to transform our whole way of thinking and subsequently being. When we seek out creativity, we open ourselves up to a multiplicity of new ideas and experiences.

This post is not particularly a specific Free Idea Factory idea, but rather a gateway to perhaps producing some new Free Idea Factory ideas and finding appropriate applications for them.

While doing some online research, I came across a great collection of Free Creative Thinking Tools, compiled by Chuck Frey of innovationtools.com. The list of links to these tools can be found here.They are free and include downloadable text-based tools and web-based creativity tools.

An example of one of the tools listed is Jump Start. This online tool, provided by Idea Champions, first asks you to state your problem or challenge. Next, it generates a list of random adjectives, and inserts them into questions to help you to generate fresh ideas and insights (example: “What insights or ideas about my challenge do I get from the word ‘unbreakable?’”). Next, Jump Start asks you to record the underlying principle that is embodied in your favorite idea from the previous step. It also asks you to record any new, actionable ideas are sparked by this underlying principle. Finally, this online tool asks you to enter the subject, e-mail address and name of someone to whom you’d like to send your new idea — someone whose support and collaboration you need to help make the idea a reality.

Forgive me if this is an existing mode of writing that I am unfamiliar with.

A Progressive/ Collaborative Literary Work would be developed by a group of writers. A subject would be agreed upon (or it could be looser depending on the intended outcome) and then the participants established. The first person would begin the work. Perhaps each person could write a chapter of a book for example.

After the worked was deemed complete (the last person added their part), the first person would make edits, then sequentially each contributor would make edits. The process could be repeated or changed as desired until the group agreed that the work was ready to be considered for publishing.

I think some key factors to the project’s success would be:

-Choose the group carefully (make sure you can work well with the group members and admire the quality of their work)
-Establish and stick to deadlines
-It will be what it will, you can’t control the outcome, it may take a while to get a rhythm going between the group members

Some Creative prompts from which to work in any creative endeavor that interests you:

-Is free really free?
-do the opposite of what you want to do
-make something that would appeal to a conservative older woman
-examine your thoughts about formally presenting artwork
-the letter “Q”
-6 variations of a human hand
-’I-centrism’ present in Western Culture

I think it would be great to see a blog dedicated to the origins of nicknames, specifiically detailing the process behind how someone gets a certain nickname.

For example my friend Jim’s nickname evolved as follows:

1. ‘Jimbo’

2. ‘Jimboat’

3. ‘boat’

I’m sure there are a plethora of other more interesting nickname stories and name process stories out there. For several years during my adolescence, this guy named Zeek called me ‘Chachi’. He came up with that nickname b/c I had longer hair and wore a bandana when playing basketball to keep it out of my face and he liked Chachi from happy days.

Would anyone care to share their nickname stories? Also, how did the name, nickname come into existence?

Work in your least favorite medium for two weeks, no matter how annoying it may be initially. Again, disequilibrium allows for increased learning and growth, see Exercises in Creativity #1.

-If you paint, take up sculpting
-If you write childrens stories, dive into sociological research
-If you are an actor, take on a character you despise or are indifferent towards
-If you aren’t anything (everyone is something, don’t worry, you can figure it out), consider involving yourself in a creative endeavor, who knows what you’ll discover along the way.

Take something that you really value, that you personally have made (a poem, a painting, a sculpture, what ever…) and break it. Discard it and don’t look back. You can always remake something (though you will need to learn to become comfortable with it being slightly different (for better or worse).

Often times I have found that clinging on to ‘a masterpiece’ (and most of the time it’s really not, though it may be a personal triumph, which is surely nothing to discount) inhibits you from producing 10 new things of which 4 might be to your liking. And maybe 2 are of equal or greater merit than the first object you parted with. That’s a 50% increase in masterpieces!

When we hold onto past ideas too tightly, it may very well inhibit us from coming up with new ones. Creativity involves a need to develop. Being creative involves an element of never being completely satisfied. That’s not to say that the process won’t be rewarding though. Nothing is ever really done in my opinion as far as art goes. But it can be developed enough to share with others. When that’s the case, finish out the body of work or move on to the next idea.

This idea was born out of experiences I had with Skip Sensbach of Green Dog Pottery in Dallas, Pa. He was the one who introduced me to breaking pots, sculptures, and a host of other things I liked. My favorite piece that I broke was a 2 foot tall wine cask that was shaped like a womans leg with fishnet stockings.

Variation:
To reduce the wasteful element of breaking something of value (which I’m personally OK with because of what it may yield) you can give away the object as well. Or you can break it and reuse those broken pieces to make something even cooler if your up for the challenge.

Of what use is it to apply the same thinking to creative problems all of the time?

Think of a creative problem you have been trying to solve for a while. Write it out and formalize a strategy. Then allow a friend, colleague, or someone you respect with knowledge about the subject to interpret the problem for themselves. Don’t tell them what your plan of attack was. Then, with their permission of course, implement their strategy instead of yours, despite your initial feelings about it.

Operating in unfamiliar territory can certainly be uncomfortable, but it can also produce great results in terms of creative development. And collaborating and dialogging with creatively oriented people and groups can certainly open you up to a whole new world of possibilities.

“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”
- Albert Einstein