Kaizen Creativity: The Science of Creativity & Innovation

Meta-Cognition: Breaking Through Creativity Blocks By Thinking About Your Own Thinking ANNOUNCEMENT: Future episodes will come out on an irregular schedule until my schedule settles down. Make sure you're subscribed to get notifications on new episodes.  LINKS: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (Find Jared around the internet)

Your brain has an awesome survival feature that lets it focus on problems, but in the modern age it can trigger negative emotions and stress. Here's how negative moods affect creativity and how to get the most out of the creative process, regardless of mood. Support The Show: Become a Patron Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (Find Jared around the internet)

Your actions matter. You are a time-traveling badass. Here's why: Support The Show: Become a Patron Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (Find Jared around the internet) Vote On The Next Topic (June 2021): https://www.patreon.com/posts/52195467

Support The Show: Become a Patron Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (Find Jared around the internet) Vote On The Next Topic (June 2021): https://www.patreon.com/posts/52195467

Where does motivation come from, how can we get more of it, and how can we ensure that we don’t waste it? Motivation is all about being able to take action. But the question is… what action are we taking? We only want to take more action if that action is aligned with where we want to go. A belief system is a set of beliefs we have about what is right or wrong, what is true or false, and what things mean to us. It forms all our ethical beliefs about good and bad, it has all our assumptions about what will or won’t happen, and it’s our primary tool for interpreting the world around us. Support The Show: Become a Patron Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (Find Jared around the internet) Vote On The Next Topic (June 2021): https://www.patreon.com/posts/52195467 https://pod.link/1547164462 (Where to listen)

*** Support The Show: Become a Patron Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (more about Jared) Vote On The Next Topic (June 2021): https://www.patreon.com/posts/52195467

How are AI researchers avoiding a robot apocalypse? Discover how the Law of Unintended Consequences creates "Frankenstein Solutions" in our creativity. Vote On The Next Topic: https://www.patreon.com/posts/52195467 Support The Show: Become a Patron Part 1: The "Red Button Problem" (and different attempts to solve it) Part 2: The Law of Unintended Consequences - Why holistic solutions are so important to creativity. Resources: Red Button Problem (Computerphile): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TYT1QfdfsM Potential Solutions To The Red Button Problem (Computerphile): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nktr1MgS-A Show Links: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (more about Jared) https://pod.link/1547164462 (Where to listen)

How do we teach computers to be creative? Discover how an AI is trained to do tasks, both creative and otherwise.  Vote On The Next Topic: https://www.patreon.com/posts/52195467 Support The Show: Become a Patron Part 1: How AI is trained to complete non-creative tasks Part 2: How AI is trained to complete creative tasks Part 3: Adversarial Algorithms - How competing algorithms are used to create unique, useful ideas. Episode links: AI playing Mario: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6UVOQ0F44 Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (more about Jared) https://pod.link/1547164462 (Where to listen)

4C Model of Creativity Mini-C Creativity Small-C Creativity Pro-C Creativity (Professional) Big-C Creativity Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaredVolle Blog: https://www.jaredvolle.com/4c-model-of-creativity/

How personal values shape our creativity LINKS Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) JaredVolle.com/Support (Donate or sponsor a show) https://linktr.ee/JaredVolle (more about Jared)

Componential Theory

3 Strategies for Eureka moments: Semi-Automatic Activity Meditation Dreaming Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners) JaredVolle.com/Podcast (Find useful links) JaredVolle.com/Support (Donate or sponsor a show)

As your creating today, think about how this strategy for getting feedback could help you. Remember that how you ask for feedback influences the responses you get. If you want objective feedback, then you need to ask questions in a way that makes it comfortable for people to respond to you.  AdamMGrant on Twitter for more about organizational psychology Twitter: Twitter.com/JaredVolle FB Group: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners, ask questions, leave comments) Podcast Links: JaredVolle.com/Podcast Support The Show: JaredVolle.com/Support

Creative people are sensitive to problems, but that’s a good thing. Most people are confronted with a problem and they choose to ignore it. Others have smaller problems that they don’t even consciously recognize are problems. Creativity thrives when there are problems. They guide our creative behavior. They teach us what we need to do. They show us what needs or attention… and they inspire us to take action. What’s more, they effect every part of the creative process, from the creation of the initial idea, to to problem solving required to build it, to the marketing done afterwards. Creative people are problem solvers. A few weeks ago, my wife bought a trash can with automatic lid. The lid of the trashcan has sensors that know when you’re walking towards it so that it can open without you needing to touch the lid. I thought it was incredibly strange at first. It was solving a problem I didn’t have. I thought of it more as a novelty. Something that was unique, but not really useful. A few weeks later, I love that thing. It’s solved a problem so minor that I never really noticed it. I was happy to use a foot pedal to open the trash. It never even occurred to me that this was a problem. It was only after I got use to the high tech trashcan that I realized that I wasn’t happy with the old one. I’m not sure who invented a trashcan with laser technology… I’m sure their name will go down in history. Whoever it was, they were very sensitive to the problem. If they had been like me, they’d have been too satisfied with the current solution to realize that there was something better. I’m someone who’s very sensitive to seeing creativity and beauty in ideas. As weird as it sounds, that trashcan actually has deeper meaning to me. I use it several times a day, and I can’t stop thinking about how important it is to be sensitive everyday problems. Any one of us could have invented it. It was a problem that every one of us have faced several times a day. But we missed it. We weren’t being sensitive enough to everyday problems. We live in times where you can jump on Fiverr and get just about anyone to do just about anything. There is no longer an excuse to say you don’t have the expertise. The biggest barrier to using a freelancer isn’t finding them, it’s that you’d have to admit that you want to build a trashcan with lasers. As you’re creating today, think about the smaller problems you engage with everyday. Try to be sensitive to what’s going on around you. Be sensitive to the problems you might have in a project. You’re not going to notice every problem out there… nor would you want to. But you can guide yourself toward becoming a better problem finding. This isn’t to say that you stress yourself out. When you recognize a small problem, you can appreciate that its there. You can appreciate the opportunity to create a solution. Perhaps you’ll pursue that possibility or perhaps you won’t. You want to find problems, not emotionally react to them. Those are two separate processes, finding a problem and interpreting it. If you interpret problems as little more than an opportunity for you to be creative, you can enjoy the benefits of problem finding without feeling stressed.  FB Group: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners, ask questions, leave comments) Twitter: Twitter.com/JaredVolle Podcast Links: JaredVolle.com/Podcast Support The Show: JaredVolle.com/Support Review to raise money for Meals On Wheels: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/kaizen-creativity-1574982

How do you convince people to value your creation when they just learned what it is? Innovations are solutions to problems. Some solutions are wildly original, like the first Google algorithm or iPhone. These solutions violently shoved the industry in a new direction. Wherever Yahoo was going, wherever the Motorola Razor was going, it no longer mattered. Sometimes those solutions push an industry forward in the direction it was already heading. Every few years, a new gaming console comes out with more power than the last generation. The PS4 becomes the PS5. There are some new features here and there, but the general idea stays the same. This is linear augmentation. How you market a product depends on which group you fall into. By far, the easiest group to market is the linear augmentation group. It does’t take much work for Sony to explain why you need to upgrade your PS4 into a PS5. Whenever creativity is linear, it becomes very easy for consumers to place value on them. The brain uses a system called “Anchor and Adjust” to arrive at value judgements. To figure out how much you value a PS5, your brain takes the value of the PS4 (the anchor) and then scales it up or down based on what it knows about the differences between the 2 (the adjustment). This is how your brain takes guesses. It’s how customers figure out what your product means to them. The Anchor & Adjust strategy isn’t simply one tool in your brains toolbox, it’s THE tool. The more linear this process is, the easier it is for your customers to figure out how much value to assign your idea. When you market your idea, you’re essentially trying to influence this process. You want customers to anchor themselves to high-value ideas and you want them to use adjustment so that they arrive at high value. This is pretty standard when it comes to marketing. The more revolutionary an idea is, the more difficult it becomes to market it. You can choose between being wildly different, but difficult to market, or you can choose to be marginally different, but easy to market. Said different, the more unique an idea is, the more difficult it becomes for customers to relate to it. This says nothing about the value of the product itself. This deals solely with your customer’s ability to relate to and value your creation. The Anchor & Adjust strategy is the only tool in your brain for this purpose. But what happens if change isn’t so linear? What happens when Google puts out their first algorithm or the iPhone comes out and revolutionizes the industry? How do we value something wildly new when we have nothing to anchor and nothing to adjust? The best thing we can do as creatives is to focus on what’s in front of us and get it right. As you’re creating today, think about how you can help your customers interpret your creations. When your customers view your work, what do they anchor to? What metaphor or analogy are they using? How do they go from having little information about who you are and what your product does, to actually valuing it above your competitors? FB Group: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners, ask questions, leave comments) Twitter: Twitter.com/JaredVolle Podcast Links: JaredVolle.com/Podcast Support The Show: JaredVolle.com/Support Review to raise money for Meals On Wheels: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/kaizen-creativity-1574982

One of my secret passions is game design. I love watching YouTube videos about how games are made and why game developers made the decisions that they did. The topic for this episode was inspired by 2 YouTube channels that explain video game design really well. One is Adam Millard, who has the Architect of Games. The other is Mark Brown, who has Game Makers Toolkit. Even if you’re not designing a video game yourself, there’s a lot you can learn from how they’re designed. There are a lot of parallels between what game designers go through and what creatives in other fields deal with. If you’re interested, I’ll leave links to their channels in the description. It’s fascinating when it all comes together to form an amazing video game, but it’s also fascinating when a game collapses under its own weight. Video game design is incredibly competitive. It’s a high-risk, high-reward industry. As we talked about on the episode about hyper-segmentation (EP 10-11?), when there’s tons of competition, businesses tend to respond by trying to add more and more on top of their base offering. They tell themselves “I can’t simply give you X… I need to give you X, Y, & Z.” In game design, these additions come in the form of game mechanics. There are skill trees that give you special moves. There’s crafting, like in Minecraft, where you can combine items together to create new items. These are often so complex that you need to download an online PDF just to remember all the combinations. Games are super-complex. Let’s take another incredibly simple and popular game: 5 Nights At Freddy’s, likely one of the scariest, creepiest games out there. You play as a security officer. What can you do in the game? You can look at your security cameras and there are 2 doors that you can open or close. That’s it. Even more impressive is that there are almost no need for graphics in the game. When something moves, it moves while you’re not looking at it. So not only does the game create a creepy feeling that something is wrong, but it saves money on all the programming and graphics. Both of these games are incredibly simple. Anyone can pick them up and within the first few minutes have a complete understanding of all the mechanics. Their simplicity makes them easy to the company to create and for the player to enjoy. As you create today, try to simply your product. Instead of trying to add more bells and whistles to what you’re doing, focus on creating your masterpiece around 1-2 very simple ideas. Figure out how to pull the maximum value out of what you already have instead of adding more to it. This has the double-satisfaction of doing less, better. *** Adam Millard/Architect Of Games: Twitter & YouTube Channel Mark Brown/Game Maker's ToolKit: Twitter & YouTube Channel *** FB Group: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners, ask questions, leave comments) Twitter: Twitter.com/JaredVolle Podcast Links: JaredVolle.com/Podcast Review to raise money for Meals On Wheels: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/kaizen-creativity-1574982

When we deal with creativity blocks on this show, we’ve generally talked about procrastination because that’s an area where many people struggle. In this episode, I want to talk about another important way we block ourselves: Not being willing to put down the wrong tool. Relying on the wrong thinking strategy to solve a problem is a recipe for frustration. It seems like such an easy fix, yet it’s incredibly difficult to both realize your using the wrong tool and, when you do, actually put it down and try a new one. This has been shown by some fascinating studies in creativity research. Imagine your a creativity researcher. You’ve created 20 math problems that are moderately hard, but solvable. When you give a single problem to a single participant, it takes them rough 2-3 minutes to solve. The more problems you give them, the quicker they’ll get at solving the problem. This is to be expected. The first time you solve a math problem is much more difficult than the 2nd or 3rd. This is what’s true for the control group of the study. The control group are the people who get the boring placebo that lets scientist compare results. Here’s where things took a turn. While all 20 of the math problems looked roughly the same, there’s a dirty little secret under the surface. Half of the problems require one set of problem solving skills and the other half requires a different set. Said differently, 10 problems are “Group A” problems and you can only solve them using Strategy A. The other 10 problems are “Group B” problems that can only be solved with Strategy B. So the math problems look the same, but require different strategies to solve. As creative people, we must always be willing to put down our tools and try other ones. Every problem can be solved with the appropriate tool. There’s always a strategy or a path that leads to the breakthrough. When you feel frustrated, it’s often a sign that this is happening. Frustration occurs when you expect something to work but it doesn’t. You expect them to be easy, but they aren’t. We usually conclude that the problem is that we need to work harder. We need to double down, we need more motivation. If we only pushed harder against this brick wall, we could finally break through. But the problem isn’t motivation. The problem is that we’re attacking the problem with the wrong strategy. The breakthrough you’re after is as simple as finding the best tool for the job, but it requires that you first put down the tool in your hand. It requires you take a step back and question whether you’re doing the right thing. Life has taught you the best way to solve problems. Don’t solve today’s problem with yesterday’s tool. When a tool doesn’t solve our problem, we put the tool down and search for another. FB Group: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners, ask questions, leave comments) Twitter: Twitter.com/JaredVolle Podcast Links: JaredVolle.com/Podcast Support The Show: JaredVolle.com/Support Review to raise money for Meals On Wheels: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/kaizen-creativity-1574982

Long before he was the world’s most famous scientist, Einstein use to sit on the bus and imagine what would happen if the bus traveled at the speed of light. His curious nature was responsible for the bizarre thought experiments he loved so much, and his continued curiosity is what motivated him to keep playing with the ideas for long periods of time. Creative people are incredibly curious people. They’re always tinkering with ideas. They’re curious about how things work and about how old ideas can be repurpose for something new. Curiosity is one of the most important personality traits for creative people. It effects all three of the core components of creativity: It leads to uncovering new knowledge, it invites us to apply our creative skills, and it motivates us to take action. Curiosity is a surprisingly powerful motivator. Most people attempt to push themselves toward their goal. They think about all the reasons they should get out of bed or get off the couch and start working. Once they have enough reasons, they finally force themselves to get up. Curiosity doesn’t “push” you toward taking action. It pulls you. Curiosity never “forces” you to do anything. But it’s such a powerful motivator that something it feels that way. If you’re addicted to getting news or constantly checking social media to see what’s happening, then curiosity is what’s pulling you to do it. My curiosity often pulls me into my email box, even when I know that I’m opening a door that I’d rather stay closed for now. Curiosity is a tiny snowball at the top of a mountain. We can choose which direction we roll it. The longer it rolls, the more momentum it gets, and the less control we have over it. What was a tiny idea at the top of the mountain is now a powerhouse at the bottom. One that will likely shape your behavior in the future. When we use curiosity to our advantage, we feel pulled towards achieving our goals. When you wake up wondering what a creative solution might look like, you set your brain down a path of curiosity and exploration. That path can then pull you towards your goals and motivate you to take action. But motivation by itself doesn’t make you a creative person. It just allows you to take more action. When it comes to a person’s creative potential, nothing is more important than the knowledge and skills they’ve built up inside their industry. Before starting your creative work today, take a few minutes to get curious about all the great things that could happen today. If you’re a writer, think about the amazing ideas that you’d like to explore. If you’re an entrepreneur, think about how great it’d feel to breakthrough on a problem that’s been nagging you. Spend the first few minutes of your morning in a space of creative, constructive curiosity. Your curiosity can pull you toward social media or the news, or it can pull you towards asking questions that lead to creative solutions. You’re holding a snowball at the top of a mountain. The decisions you make at the top will shape the rest of your day. Guide your curiosity while it’s still small and manageable. FB Group: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners, ask questions, leave comments) Twitter: Twitter.com/JaredVolle Podcast Links: JaredVolle.com/Podcast Support The Show: JaredVolle.com/Support Review to raise money for Meals On Wheels: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/kaizen-creativity-1574982

As your creating this week, pay special attention to the parts of the process you love. This is one of the best motivational techniques you can use. There’s no better way to start your creative process then with a burst of positive emotions. Those positive emotions at the beginning of your workday become addicting. Procrastination is no longer a struggle when you know there’s a pleasurable experience waiting for you the moment you sit down to get your creative work done. This stands in stark contrast to what most people do to start off their workday. FB Group: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners, ask questions, leave comments) Twitter: Twitter.com/JaredVolle Podcast Links: JaredVolle.com/Podcast Support The Show: JaredVolle.com/Support Review to raise money for Meals On Wheels: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/kaizen-creativity-1574982

Daydreaming is fun. If you’re a creative person, it’s also surprisingly productive. So why don’t we do it more often? The short answer is ego. While daydreaming IS productive, it doesn’t FEEL productive. That’s an important distinction when it comes to motivation. The brain gives far more weight to how you subjectively feel about something than to cold-hard facts about it. This is why you can’t simply recite airline safety facts to a person who’s afraid of flying. Subjective feelings override objective facts. Why is daydreaming productive for creative people? Because daydreaming allows for a free flowing association of ideas and mental imagery. When you daydream, the association centers in your brain go crazy. This makes you better able to connect ideas together. At the same time, activity in the judgement center of your brain decreases. Daydreaming is like mental play-time. Play, by its very definition, has no outcome other than enjoyment. When children play, they’re not trying to get anything out of it. They’re just having fun. Because there’s no outside goal, there’s no need for judgement. Daydreaming works the same way. You’re having fun when you daydream. It’s not supposed to feel like work. However, as you keep playing with ideas, eventually you stumble upon something worth keeping. What’s great about daydreaming is how this happens naturally. Not only will you naturally stumble upon interesting ideas, but you’ll naturally recognize which ideas are worth pursuing. It’s as if a big, red flag pops up in your head and says “Wait a second! This idea looks promising.” Daydreaming is one of my favorite strategies when I’m writing comedy. If you were to watch me writing comedy, I wouldn’t seem very productive. My hands barely even touch the keyboard. The majority of my creative process is spent playing with ideas in my mind. When I daydream, I can imagine a wide variety of situations that could be useful in my writing. Daydreaming helps me not only generate a larger number of ideas, but those ideas have more variety as well. When I stumble upon an idea I like, that play around with it for a few more minutes. By the time I touch the keyboard, the vast majority of my writing is already complete. My job is to translate my mental movie into words on the page. Today, try incorporating daydreaming into your creative process. Allow ideas to freely move around. Don’t setup any goals for yourself and don’t require any outcome other than the simple enjoyment of the process itself. FB Group: Facebook.com/KaizenCreativity (Interact with other listeners, ask questions, leave comments) Twitter: Twitter.com/JaredVolle Podcast Links: JaredVolle.com/Podcast Support The Show: JaredVolle.com/Support Review to raise money for Meals On Wheels: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/kaizen-creativity-1574982