Trawling The Net

Creativity is a nebulous, murky topic that fascinates me endlessly — how does it work? What habits to creative people do that makes them so successful at creativity? I’ve reflected on my own creative habits, but decided I’d look at the habits that others consider important to their creativity. I picked a handful of creatives, almost at random — there are so many that picking the best would be impossible, so I just picked some that I admire, who came to mind when I thought of the word “creative”. This was going to be a list of their creative habits … but in reviewing their lists, and my own habits, I found one that stood out. And it stands out if you review the habits and quotes from great creative people in history. It’s the Most Important Habit when it comes to creativity. After you read the No. 1 habit, please scroll down and read the No. 2 habit — they might seem contradictory but in my experience, you can’t really hit your creative stride until you find a way to balance both habits. The No. 1 Creativity Habit In a word: solitude.

Creativity is a nebulous, murky topic that fascinates me endlessly — how does it work? What habits to creative people do that makes them so successful at creativity? I’ve reflected on my own creative habits, but decided I’d look at the habits that others consider important to their creativity. I picked a handful of creatives, almost at random — there are so many that picking the best would be impossible, so I just picked some that I admire, who came to mind when I thought of the word “creative”. This was going to be a list of their creative habits … but in reviewing their lists, and my own habits, I found one that stood out. And it stands out if you review the habits and quotes from great creative people in history. It’s the Most Important Habit when it comes to creativity. After you read the No. 1 habit, please scroll down and read the No. 2 habit — they might seem contradictory but in my experience, you can’t really hit your creative stride until you find a way to balance both habits. The No. 1 Creativity Habit In a word: solitude.

As social networks proliferate, they are changing the way people think about the Internet, from a tool used in solitary anonymity to a medium that touches on questions about human nature and identity. If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populous in the world, just behind the U.S. Almost half of its users visit every day. Nielsen Online reports that social networking (and associated blogging) is now the fourth most popular online activity. Time spent on social-networking sites is growing at three times the rate of overall Internet usage, accounting for almost 10 percent of total time spent online. Social networks can lessen loneliness and boost self-esteem. But they can also have the opposite effect, depending on who you are and how you use these forums.

What’s missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee. No interactive multimedia display comes close to the excitement of a live concert. And who’d prefer cybersex to the real thing?

2010 marks 70 years since the closing of the 1939 New York World's Fair, a far more significant event than its opening. That was the year when a living vision of the future instantly became—to those of us born decades later—a myth. The day the Fair closed marks the end of the world of yesterday and the beginning of the postwar world we still live in today.

The Fair's story isn't quite over. Not to be out-futured, Westinghouse buried a time capsule to be opened in 6939. It's still down there, holding seeds, fabrics, microfilm, a Gillette safety razor, a dollar in change and a pack of Camel cigarettes. But they couldn't preserve the one thing we'd really want from the era: its inhabitants' sense of wonder and hope. That alien faith in man and his ability to build a world. That's buried somewhere deeper, forever irretrievable. I often wish I could travel back to 1939 and watch my grandmother and those other millions marvel at the World of Tomorrow, while I, in turn, marvel at the world of yesterday.

Last week I had the privilege of meeting Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. It's one of my favorite books about the Internet of Things and is still ahead of the curve, even though it was written in 2005 and published in 2006. Greenfield was in my city Wellington for the week, so I sat down with him at a local cafe to get his views on the current state of Internet of Things and where it's headed.

Murrine glass is an art form using glass that is formed by layering colors and stretching the hot glass into a cane. Then the cane is cut into cross sections, exposing the colors and patterns inside. Robert Wiener is revolutionizing Murrine glass art. Using a spectrum of layered glass and a artistic mind, he creates some of the most innovative and inspirational pieces. Link

Sea level rise creates new business opportunity and “green jobs” that we’ll see more of, borne from the effects of climate change, as sea levels rise. The first floating island has just been commissioned this week by the sinking island nation of the Maldives, from Dutch Docklands, whose past work includes part of  the artificial islands comprising The World off the coast of Dubai.

Of particular note is Windsor, Canada, which has been looking really bad in StreetView.

the city would help pay the bill for Google to come back and reshoot.

Steven Wright gems 1. Half the people you know are below average. 2. 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name. 3. 42.7% of statistics cited by people in arguments are made up on the spot. 4. A conscience is what feels bad when everything else feels so good. 5. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. 6. The early bird may get the worm, but it’s the second mouse who gets the cheese. 7. What’s the speed of dark? 8. How do you tell when you’re out of invisible ink? 9. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm. 10. Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now. 11. Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines. 12. My mechanic told me, “I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.” 13. If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. 14. A conclusion is the place where you get tired of thinking. 15. The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. 16. The sooner you fall behind, the more time you’ll have to catch up. 17. Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don’t have any film.