Creativity and Innovation Can Be Learned

November 8, 2011 · Posted in innovation · Comment 

I make a distinction between creativity and innovation. I define innovation as “Profitably satisfying unmet desires.” Profitable doesn’t just mean money, it means better satisfying the desires of everyone involved. A new device or way of doing something won’t be accepted unless it makes things better for everyone who is needed to make it happen.

Creativity is newness without the need to satisfy a desire other than the maker. There is lots of creative stuff that is just horrible and no one likes it. This is why there is an expression “Starving artist”. There is a distinction between creating for no real purpose and creating to improve something. Another part of innovation is until you put the idea into use innovation has not occurred. You must actually do something to achieve innovation, not just have an idea.

The similarity between Creativity and Innovation is information. Both innovation and creativity start with an idea, information. The foundation of information is comparison. Two things are similar or different. Computers store and process information using a very simple comparison, same or different. All information can be encoded using that binary process.

The human mind doesn’t do this in a linear process, it makes hundreds or perhaps millions of comparisons at the same time. So what seems to be an idea “coming into your mind” is noticing a similarity or difference. You recognize some connection then put those things together and that is what we call creativity.

As is often the case, when you ask someone who is very talented how they do something, they can’t describe it. Often it takes someone else watching and recording each little step then asking “Why did you do that?” to figure out the process the talented person instinctively follows.

As an example how do you walk? You learned how to walk before you learned how to talk so you probably never thought about how to describe the process. How do you control the dozens of muscles to respond to your body shifting and falling forward then catching yourself and pushing off again? That natural “instinctive” behavior is something you learned how to do. And interestingly you can intentionally learn how to do it better.

The exact same thing applies to thinking and “creativity”. Everyone has some basic skill they acquired at an early age. You can develop and improve that skill through focused learning.

Predictive Innovation® teaches you the skills to be think so you are more creative and innovative.

Predict All Future Innovations

March 21, 2009 · Posted in abundance, innovation · Comment 

I’ve developed a method that allows you to predict all innovations for any product, service or entire industry.

Innovation is an information processing activity. To innovate you gather, analyze, organize, and then put information to use. Innovation is more than just thoughts and dreams. To make innovation real you must do something. To successfully innovate you must implement the right ideas at the right time in the right way. The Predictive Innovation Method helps you at each step of the way.

How does the Predictive Innovation Method work?

The method is based on a few basic premises, one is all possible concepts can be described, even if current technology can’t deliver them yet. Think of it like a library. There is a section and a shelf for everything. Sometimes the book has already been written and its there on the shelf when you want it. Other times you look and the book is missing. That is an innovation waiting to happen.

Another basic premise is there are consistent physical laws that govern the universe. Everything in the universe works within these laws. The interactions produce the tremendous variety we find. We see this all around us. Everything is made up of basic components following the same laws to create the variety we experience.

For example consider the common expression “the world is not black and white, it is shades of gray.” The intent is to say the world is complex and there are more than two choices. This implies decisions might be difficult or impossible.

When you examine it more closely you find something amazing. Starting with any two shades of gray you can never achieve the entire range. You can’t get darker or lighter than the two starting points. You are stuck moving to a dull point in the middle.

On the other hand if you start with black and white you can mix those two and achieve all shades of gray plus the extremes of black and white. The correct system produces infinite results with precision.

During my 25 years of experience analyzing literally thousands of systems the same basic elements and structures kept popping up. I discovered that by breaking down anything into 3 specific dimensions creating approximately 7 sets of 15 by 7 matrices I can describe anything with enough accuracy to be able to build it.

Anyone can quickly learn this method and start producing all the innovations they need. It makes innovation measurable and manageable.

My goal is to work with an organization that will support me promoting this method.
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What is Abundance?

January 22, 2007 · Posted in abundance, economics, innovation, strategy · 1 Comment 

Do you work, purchase, or consume anything? If so this new understanding of Abundance effects you.

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” The character Inigo Montoya from the movie “Princess Bride”

In 2000 I began a project to change the world. My partner in this project was The Shad0w, contributor to the BitTorrent protocol and creator of BitTornado program. Napster and other peer-to-peer file sharing systems were in full swing and BitTorrent was just starting to catch on. At that point we realized that it was impossible to stop people from copying information. Music, movies, books, or software programs are all just information. Any information can be digitized. Once digitized copies are basically free. But we also realized that if people weren’t paid to make new information the world would stagnate. The entire legal system of intellectual property was based on restricting copies and now that was impossible.

While Shadow worked on BitTorrent and other technologies I worked on business models for this new world we were entering. I began researching, doing experiments and reexamining everything I knew about information. The result of that were several profound discoveries. One of them was a completely different way of looking at economics.

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