lonsafko

Pattern Recognition – Batman Logo   What do you see?  A black swan?  A Batman logo?  A Ninja Throwing Star?  Something else? It’s actually a big white “?” mark.  If you didn’t see the “?” mark at first, don’t feel bad.  Nearly no one does.  Some people in my workshops can’t see it even after […]

Three Men And A Room   Here’s a brain teaser that should keep both sides of your brain busy for some time.  The problem is simple while the solution is difficult.   What we know…   Three men pay $10 each to rent a room or $30 as a group.   The clerk discovers he

Pattern Recognition – Bean Head   According to cognitive scientists:   If you can find the man’s head within 3 seconds, then your right brain is more developed than normal people. If you can find the man’s head within 1 minute, then your right brain is developing normally. If it takes you longer than 1

There are many processes innovators go through to get to that moment of inspiration.  It does; however, come down to two major categories; Trial and Error, and what I call Intellectual Innovation. I will share my actual process of innovation that is called The Three C’s later in this book, but here’s the foundational information.

When you put your mouse cursor over a button and a window (modal) pops up to show you what that button does?  That’s another invention of mine from March 6, 1987, and called it “Tool Tips.   It was a “necessary” invention, while I was working with quadriplegics, I realized a quadriplegic couldn’t hold a

Necessity & Invention    Some say that necessity is the mother of invention.  Sometimes that’s true, but it’s not.  Sometimes… Invention is the mother of necessity. Take Steve Jobs and the Macintosh, the iPod, and the iPad.  Everybody seemed content with DOS (OMG!).  No one said “You know what would make using a computer even

The Electric Flowerpot   At the turn of the twentieth century, Russian immigrant Akiba Horowitz (AKA Conrad Hubert), was working for Joshua Lionel Cowen selling electric fans and the Electric Flowerpot.  The electric Flowerpot was a flowerpot with a cylinder attached that contained a small bulb, two batteries, and a switch.  You would switch on

Give me some ideas! Get that pad and start listing all the things you can do with a newspaper.  Really!  See how big a list you can make and how creative you can be! “Don’t worry, a year from now you won’t even remember the details of the problem that has you worried.” Lon Safko

Perspective On Future / Past Innovation   Several years ago, I had lunch with Edward de Bono.  He is considered one of the greatest minds on creativity and what he calls “Lateral Thinking”.  It was a real treat for me.   We were discussing innovation and creativity and I said “When we look back on