Comments on: Warning: Success Hampers Creativity

By: mehdi hassan

mehdi hassan — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 20:33:48 +0000

May be it becomes a major problem for the inventor to get out of his previous ideas and search for a new one. Creativity is a very tough thing. A new idea is not created overnight. Also the inventor may get intimidated by new ideas. Who knows, so many things can happen. Human brain is very complex.

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:17:32 +0000

I read this post and thought of Arthur C. Clarke’s advice that if an old scientist tells you that something can be done he is almost certainly right, but that if he tells you something cannot be done, he is almost certainly wrong.

As Michael pointed out there is a natural, human tendency, to get comfortable with what we’ve been doing. It doesn’t have to be that way.

It wasn’t for my father, a pastor, who kept learning and trying new things until he died at 88. The last sermon he preached was called “Keep Moving” on the importance of testing limits and growing.

My mother-in-law has spent her whole life learning new things and growing and continues to do so.

I’m hoping I can live up to those good examples.

One more thought. Sometimes you really have to work at making change. When Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize, someone asked what you do next. His answer: “Change fields.”

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:51:30 +0000

Michael,
Some day I’m going to write a post about neuroscience and the future of business, but with the stuff you are doing, you are already ahead of the game. That stuff is great for your brain.

By: Michael Haberman

Michael Haberman — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:14:57 +0000

I don’t think this is an issue with just your R&D people. Many of our employees as they age, or after they have spent many years doing the same thing become less creative. They innovate less, they do things differently less.. they get in a rut. We as individuals to the same thing. We find comfort in doing things the same way.. call it habit, rut, whatever. Unless we have something or someone that pulls us out of the rut or forces us to do something another way we won’t do it. Is it a natural human condition? Is it a modern phenomenon? A sign that we are just tired? Personally I fear being stale and stagnent. That is why I read, write blogs, write comments, drive different ways, try new sports. At 55 I don’t want to be a comfortable old geezer. LOL.. any hope for me?

By: laurence haughton

laurence haughton — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:08:02 +0000

One of our best innovators, the great Thomas Edison, was a prime example of this. Check out his reaction to AC versus DC for electrifying America. Florescent lighting s another example. And he went further that just being less innovative. He became an obstacle to innovation.