10Apr11

Getting my hands dirty

We need inspiration to be creative.

Without inspiration and cultural context most people struggle to have an original thought. For me it’s about bringing two or more seemingly irrelevant things together to form a fresh platform upon which new ideas can be born.

Some people like to read books, others go to art shows, and many just google whatever subject they’re interested in. Maybe I’m a slow reader or just not that good when it comes to theory but I have to get out there and actually participate. I find it hard to absorb a subject from arms length.

My practice is immersion and it’s often about doing things that I don’t otherwise understand or like. I guess it’s a mind stretching technique. These are some of my recent experiences that I’ll share over the next few weeks:

- Mentoring inmates at a maximum security prison for young girls

- Hanging out with the Delhi flight club

- Participating in an advanced NLP course

- Teaching at a slum school in Mumbai

- Sinking my teeth it someone else’s profession

- Infiltrating the Church of Scientology

As always, feedback welcome.

Filed under ideas, travel | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Getting my hands dirty”

Did you bump into Adam while you were infiltrating the Scientologists? Must get crowded in there with all the cynical Philistines coming in to debumk them!
http://consumerpsychologist.blogspot.com/2009/08/forensic-shopping-investigation-ii.html

Comment by Brett on April 10th, 2011