A Crash Course on Creativity II Professor Tina Seelig, Stanford University

Stanford University

Esfandiar Khaleghi Research – Design Engineer

www.esfandiar.co

Assignment 2.II Observation Lab – Mind Map

Observation Lab at Southwark Bridge London Observation Reflections To maintain a sense of focus in our creating costs us something. If we want to understand what we’re trying to do and what is really going on, we have to “pay” attention to what is happening around us.

What are some of the costs involved? ¡  Discretionary time

When we are disciplined about paying attention to what’s going on around us, we will need to build time into our lives to think and make patterns. This means less gaming, TV and hanging with friends. (The time has to come from somewhere.)

¡  Opportunity.

We are only able to focus on one thing at a time. Sometimes the thing that keeps us from focusing on one idea or point of interest is the potential loss of another idea or point of interest. We need to make choices and be willing to cut potentially good ideas in order to get to the best ones.

¡  Ego.

We want to be right, and when we have an idea we tend to latch onto it and make it right. We will even backward-justify our decisions in order to prove ourselves right. This kind of rigid attachment to one idea or execution keeps us from noticing new ideas in our environment. We are closing ourselves off from new possibilities in order to preserve our ego.

¡  Self Understanding.

When we pay attention we learn things about ourselves. Some of these things will contradict understandings we have about ourselves. It’s easier to ignore these contradictions and continue to live with our false understanding of who we are. If we are honest and want to bring ourselves fully to our creating, we need to receive truth however it comes to us and never be afraid to apply it to our lives.

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These are just a few ways in which “paying attention” will “cost” us something. But it’s not really a sunk cost, it’s an investment. Any movement toward integrity is a movement toward full-engagement, which is what we’re looking for in our creating. We want to be able to bring ourselves – who we really are – fully to our creating and not self-censor because we’re “protecting” something.

References: - Accidental Creative [accidentalcreative.com]

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