How to be Creative Trying to make connections? Here are seven more research-based techniques to increase creativity. “Creativity can solve almost any problem. Following on from a previous article on how to be creative, which had a tremendous response, here are another 7 techniques for breaking through a creative block. 1. Conjuring up what might have been gives a powerful boost to creativity. Markman et al. (2007) found that using counterfactuals (what might have happened but didn’t) sometimes doubled people’s creativity. Analytical problems are best tackled with a subtractive mind-set: thinking about what could have been taken away from the situation.Expansive problems benefited most from an additive counterfactual mind-set: thinking about what could have been added to the situation. 2. People solve many problems analogically: by recalling a similar old one and applying the same, or similar solution. So don’t avoid complications, gather them all up; they may well help jog your memory. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
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Creativity for the Cautious The mysterious connection between need for structure and creativity. Do you like surprises? If you do, it may surprise you to learn that a lot of other people don’t. Our natural ability (or lack thereof) to deal with surprising situations and the uncertainty they generate may have an important role to play in our creativity. Psychologists call our natural way of dealing with uncertainty ‘personal need for structure’. Take a couple of social situations as examples. Throughout the evening the social structure of the situation is just like every other time you’ve visited a restaurant. The rituals are comforting. But let’s imagine we mess with this situation. And it turns out the whole things is free, sort of: apparently everyone is coming around to your place next Saturday and expects the same treatment. What kind of a weird restaurant has this system? The point is that those with a high personal need for structure would find the dinner-party-style restaurant highly uncomfortable.
Los 20 'packaging' más originales del mundo | Un anuncio y volvemos Publicado por Álvaro Anguita el ene 14, 2014 El packaging es el arte o la ciencia de incluir y proteger cierto producto en determinado envase para su almacenaje y venta. La mayoría de marcas comienzan muy fuerte con la promoción de un nuevo producto pero cuando llegan al diseño del packaging parece que se quedan sin fuelle… Y ahí llega el error. El diseño del envase es uno de los aspectos más importantes: Es lo que más comunica en el punto de venta y es lo que ven tus potenciales clientes cuando están en disposición de comprar, nada más y nada menos. Imaginemos que hay un producto de alimentación recién lanzado al mercado que, naturalmente, los consumidores todavía no han probado. 1. …O ésta otra, 2. Y es que… ¿Quién no se ha dejado llevar comprando un producto por el envase? El arte de hacer atractivo un producto es un tema que me encanta y por eso me he tomado la libertad de reunir y publicar mis 20 embalajes favoritos. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
The Psychology of Creativity Looking for inspiration? Start with PsyBlog’s articles on the science of creativity. Here’s a deceptively simple question: if we all have the potential to be creative, why is it so hard? Part of the problem is that so little attention is paid to the psychological research on creativity. Creativity isn’t just for artists, we all need it—at home, in our relationships and, for many of us, at work. For many of us, then, our incomes rely on our creativity. Collected below are recent PsyBlog articles which explore how to be creative: Image credit: Faith Goble
How to Evaluate a Startup Company | The Daily MBA What a startup is worth comes up a lot when looking for money. The worth or evaluation of a startup is a inexact science that combines rules of thumb, some simple math, years of experience and eventually what someone will actually pay (or invest in you). In order to come up with these evaluations, you should have a systematic approach that can be vetted, modified and compared to other similar companies. Some Terms and Definitions Throughout this post, I will use the following terms and definitions: Pre-money Evaluation: This is what the startup is worth before the money goes in.Post-money Evaluation: What the startup is worth after the money goes in. Different Kinds Of Companies Evaluating the worth of a startup depends a lot on the company. Different Kinds of Evaluations There are several different methods you can use to evaluate what your startup is worth. Method: Investment In At a minimum, your startup should be worth the amount of money that has been invested in it. Mix and Match
10 easy ways to instantly energize your creative powers Whether you’re a freelancer or employee, being a successful copywriter has a lot to do with your creativity. Creative thinking helps you solve problems, overcome obstacles, and find new and better ways to use your skills in a productive and financially rewarding way. You don’t think you have creative abilities? So it’s not a matter of “becoming” creative. Learn your craft. Get off auto pilot. Loosen up. Stop avoiding failure. Focus on important problems. Find new uses for old ideas. Learn about the creative process. Keep your head clear. Break down false barriers. Set the conditions you need to create. Are you starting to feel more creative? Here’s a little assignment to help this good feeling continue: Every day do something different. Over my desk, I have a little sign that reads, “Do one thing different.” Try these ideas and you’ll find yourself seeing things differently. Related posts: Smart Comments
In the Yard | Warner Yard Osper Building the worlds first bank for kids. Osper are creating digital tools to teach young people how to manage money responsibly Techstars Techstars provides $118,000 in seed funding, intensive mentorship, and an amazing network of mentors and alumni for 7-10% equity in your company. Quickblox Quickblox are masters at building a server-side backend think API, architecture, stability, scalability, authentication and security. Planvine Planvine are the first fully-automated event listings providers. Rummble Labs Rumble labs is a predictive analytics company that leverage big data, machine learning and social network profiles to build unique behavioral models and provide the most intelligent solution for personalization, recommendation and targeting. The Tab The Tab stirred up Cambridge in 2009 and their mischief has spread around the country faster than freshers flu with a million monthly unique readers. WeStore WeStore makes self-storage simple. Russell Buckley Hummingbird Ventures Ben Wirz
Top 10 Ways to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing I'm a programmer, so my creative is creative thinking, not artistic creative like most people view the term. I do two basic things. Keep a notepad and a pen on me or nearby at all times. At lest a single A4 sheet and a mini pencil. This way I can jot down anything that comes to mind. The notepads are virtual now for easier sorting and searching, but the actual ones are still knocking about in a box. Keep at it. Also, I never, ever stop mid thought. I don't dream, well, I'm one of those wake up and instantly forgot people. and not at all a morning person. When I sit back down to work, I'm better of fresh rather than trying to pick up the genius from the day before.
30 promesas de los negocios en México Foto: Reuters. Ser emprendedor no significa necesariamente tener una empresa pequeña. Aquí los hombres y mujeres cuyos (nuevos) negocios les generan ingresos superiores a un millón de pesos en México. Por Stephanie Lewis y Lourdes Contreras Fotografías: Fernando Luna Arce Forbes México presenta una lista de 30 emprendedores que, en su conjunto, facturaron cerca de 500 millones de pesos (mdp) el año pasado. Los seleccionados encarnan a empresas que vivieron días de gloria en 2013, cuyos ingresos rebasaron el millón de pesos, que innovaron con su proyecto en su sector y para las cuales el tamaño de su mercado objetivo les permite proyectar crecimientos acelerados en el mediano y largo plazos. Todos ellos han encontrado (y aprovechado) una oportunidad de negocio, a pesar de la lentitud con la que avanzó la economía mexicana. Metodología Te presentamos los 30 negocios más prometedores en México. Empresa: GAUDENA Pionero: Mario Reynoso JiménezFacturación 2013: 14 mdpFacturación 2014: 40 mdp
"Talent Is Nothing Without Focus and Endurance" I have to disagree in-part. Focus and endurance make talent. We understand the interplay between genetics and environmental factors enough to know that how we are raised, and the time we spend engaged in a thing, are many times more influential on 'talent' than raw genetics; genetics are not a blueprint, they exhaust their influence as soon as the amino acid chains are formed—the rest is entirely self-governed and highly influenced by the environment. Nevertheless, thank you for this point; people need to hear that hard work is fruitful. Related: "The Genius in All of Us" -David Shenk
Leadership Lessons You Won't Learn in a Book When I look back at the first three years of bootstrapping our startup NerdWallet, the lesson I wish I had figured out earlier is you can’t read your way out of a problem. When we first launched our company and needed advice, our tendency was to grab a book and go off in the corner to figure out how to scale our operations, hire amazing talent or motivate employees, among other queries. While these books did provide great insight, we soon learned a half-hour conversation with an expert of mentor provided invaluable leadership information we couldn’t get in a book. Here are leadership lessons for entrepreneurs that we wish we would have known right off the bat. Start leadership development early. Related: The Secret to Becoming a Better Manager When we started the company in 2009, management and leadership were not part of our thought process. Misunderstandings can quickly snowball and hurt morale. Keep asking for help. It is important to be proactive. How to do that? Hand it over.