6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus

Creative Think

Home
Today 's “Creativ e Whack”
Roger's Products
Speaking/Seminars
Contact
Subscribe
Heraclitus
The Sun Is New Each Day
Let's check in with Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher whom I consider to be the world's
first creativ ity teacher. His thought for today is:

"The sun is new each day."

Like just about all of Heraclitus' insights, this one can be interpreted in a v ariety of way s. But
today , the creativ ity strategy I see in his words is:

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 1/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus

Think Again.
Life continually surprises us.
Problems spring up in places that were trouble-free only just y esterday . Opportunities arise in
long stagnant arenas. Routines that y ielded predictable results stop working.
Heraclitus reminds us that nothing is permanent and we shouldn't become slav es to our
assumptions.
We should also remember that like the sun in Heraclitus' epigram, our own state of mind is also
continually changing.
Some day s y ou may be alert and lucid, while others y ou may be angry or mentally ex hausted.
Sometimes y ou're optimistic about what's just around the corner, and sometimes y ou're filled
with melancholy about the past.
A ll of these states of mind "color" the way we think about the problems and opportunities before
us.
What issue do y ou need to rethink? Is the idea y ou reacted against y esterday really so bad? Does
the idea y ou fell in lov e with last week still shine? What would benefit from a fresh look?
Posted on 1 2 May 2008 | Permalink | Comments (7 ) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Heraclitus, New Perspectiv e, Think Again

Beware of "Moreness"
It's been a while since we'v e checked in with Heraclitus (the ancient Greek philosopher who was
the world's first creativ ity teacher). His words of wisdom for us today are:
"The way up and the way down
are one and the same."

What does this mean? Well, it's pretty enigmatic.

But I think there's a creativ e strategy implicit in this insight, and
I interpret it to be:

"Beware of Moreness."
When things are made larger, they take on a complex , new life of
their own, and unex pected — ev en undesirable — things can
happen.
Here's an ex ample.
Let's say that y ou hav e a recipe for strawberry shortcake that
serv es four people.
One day y ou inv ite ov er sev en friends to eat this desert. To make it, y ou simply double the
recipe's proportions.
On another occasion, y ou make it only for y ourself and a friend, and y ou halv e the
proportions.

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 2/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus
Now, let's suppose that y ou inv ite 50,000 people ov er for strawberry shortcake. A t this
point, the biggest challenges confronting y ou hav e nothing to do with the recipe. These
include buy ing strawberries on the commodities market, making deals with the teamsters to
deliv er enough cream, traffic-flow coordination, and large-scale renting of tables, chairs,
bowls, and spoons.
The same things can happen when situations become larger: issues come up that weren't ev en
thought about in the original plans.
Two questions to ask y ourself as y ou contemplate a current problem or issue:
Where would y ou be better serv ed with "less" rather than more?
What problems might hav ing "more" create for y ou?
Posted on 05 February 2008 | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Heraclitus, Less, More

What's Your Creative Thinking Style?

It's time again for some inspiration from Heraclitus, the world's first creativ ity teacher (he liv ed
around 500 BC). Today 's insight is: “I searched into my self.”

Heraclitus felt that consulting our own knowledge and intuition is a wonderful way to gain
insight. Unfortunately , some of us nev er learned this lesson. Much of our educational sy stem is
an elaborate game of "guess what the teacher is thinking," and we come to believ e that the best
ideas are in someone else's head rather than our own. Heraclitus reminds us that there are good
ideas within ourselv es if we are willing to dig deeply enough.
I believ e there's a creativ e strategy in Heraclitus' insight, and it is:

Discover your own creative style.

We can emulate Heraclitus by searching for own creativ e tendencies. Here are six of mine:
1 . I get my ideas either when I'm under a lot of pressure — "the ultimate inspiration is the
deadline" — or when I'm away from the problem altogether. I rarely get them when I'm

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 3/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus
doing routine tasks that require some attention.
2. If I'm mentally blocked in try ing to solv e a problem, it's usually because I'm in lov e with a
particular idea — so much so that it prev ents me from looking for alternativ es. Only when I
force my self to become detached from it and "kiss it goodby e" do I find new answers. Letting
go of a prev iously cherished idea can be one of life's great pleasures.
3. I try to pay attention to small things: how much frowning takes place in beer
commercials, what sorts of patterns dead leav es make around a storm drain, and so on. I do
this partly because I'v e trained my self to do it, but also because I'v e been forced to. I'm left-
handed, but the world is designed for right-handed people — something most "righties" don't
ev en think about. I'm constantly being made conscious of how things are put together. For
ex ample, telephone booths are designed to make right-handed people feel comfortable and
at ease, but lefties can feel clumsy using them.
4. My own ego can get in the way of discov ering new things. Howev er, if I allow my self to
lower my resistance to those ideas that I ty pically dismiss as irrelev ant or unattractiv e, I
find that they can become doorway s to solutions I'v e been ov erlooking.
5. I don't know what I don't know. I'v e got a big blind spot, and the only way to get access to
what's lurking out there is to put my self in a humble, receptiv e frame of mind (not alway s
easy to do) and ask others to point out what I'm not seeing.
6. Rejection of my work in the early phases of the creativ e process doesn't bother me. I'm
not afraid of taking one of my less than stellar ideas and asking complete strangers what
they think of it. I find their responses frank and refreshing.
Questions: What's y our creativ e sty le? What are y our strengths and weaknesses?
Posted on 29 Nov ember 2007 | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Creativ e Thinking, Heraclitus, Roger v on Oech

Disrupt Success

"Every walking animal is driven

to its purpose with a whack."
In my prev ious post, Embrace Failure, I prov ided one interpretation of the abov e epigram from
Heraclitus, (the enigmatic ancient Greek philosopher whom I consider to be the world's first
"creativ ity teacher").
Like all of Heraclitus' epigrams, this one can be interpreted in a v ariety of way s. I believ e there's
another creativ e strategy here, and it is: "Disrupt Success."

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 4/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus

Success can make us complacent. We think,

"Ev ery thing's fine; things are working — why change them?"
So we stop try ing new approaches. Often it's only when our success is threatened that we seek to
make improv ements. A s I'v e mentioned before, sometimes we need a good "whack on the side of
the head" to get us focused on our purpose.
A n ex ample is the "sailing ship sy ndrome," named after the burst of innov ation in the mid-1 9th-
century sailing-ship industry . Only after it became obv ious that the steamship would dominate
the commercial sailing ship did the sailing ship reach its peak of efficiency .
Faced with the challenge of steam, sailing ships reduced the av erage westward crossing of the
A tlantic from fiv e weeks in 1 840 to three weeks in 1 860. Many of the changes that made this
increase in speed possible could hav e been made decades earlier, but it was only when faced
with elimination that the motiv ation was present to do so.
Moral: to remain successful, sometimes we need to oppose or destroy the v ery things that
enabled us to be successful in the first place.
Question: What prev iously successful assumptions can y ou challenge?

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 5/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus
Posted on 1 4 September 2007 | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Heraclitus, Motiv ation, Roger v on Oech, Success

Embrace Failure
It's been a while since we'v e checked in with Heraclitus, the enigmatic ancient Greek philosopher
whom I consider to be the world's first "creativ ity teacher." Let's do so now. His thought for
today is:

"Every walking animal is driven

to its purpose with a whack."

Like all of Heraclitus' epigrams, this one can be interpreted in a v ariety of way s. I believ e the
creativ e strategy Heraclitus is adv ocating here is: "Embrace failure."
Like other walking animals, sometimes we need a good "whack on the side of the head" to get us
focused on our purpose. One thing that "whacks" our thinking is failure — it jolts us out of our
routines and forces us to look for fresh approaches.
Think about it: our error rate in any activ ity is a function of our familiarity with that activ ity . If
we are doing things that are routine for us, then we will probably make v ery few errors. But if we
are doing things that hav e no precedence in our ex perience or are try ing different approaches,
…creativethink.com/…/index.html 6/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus
then we will be making our share of mistakes. Innov ators may not bat a thousand — far from it —
but they do get new ideas.
Errors serv e a useful purpose: they tell us when to change direction. When things go smoothly ,
we generally don’t think about them. To a great ex tent, this is because we function according to
the principle of negativ e feedback. Often it is only when things or people fail to do their job that
they get our attention. For ex ample, y ou are probably not thinking about y our kneecaps right
now. That’s because ev ery thing is fine with them. The same goes for y our elbows: they are also
performing their function — no problem at all. But if y ou were to break a leg, y ou would
immediately notice all the things y ou could no longer do, but which y ou used to take for
granted.
Negativ e feedback means that the current approach isn’t working, and it’s up to y ou to find a
new one. We learn by trial and error, not by trial and rightness. If we did things correctly ev ery
time, we would nev er hav e to change course, and we’d end up with more of the same.
Indeed, most people don’t change when they “see the light.” They change when they “feel the
heat.” A friend of mine who had been fired from a job told me: “Y eah, getting fired was really
traumatic, but it turned out to be the best thing that ev er happened to me. It forced me to come
to grips with who I was as a person. I had to look at my strengths and weaknesses with no
delusions at all. It forced me to get out of my box and scramble. Six months later, I was in a
much better situation.”
The same is true for large institutions, associations, and organizations. A fter the supertanker
Ex x on Valdez broke open off of A laska in the spring of 1 989, thereby polluting the coast with
millions of gallons of oil, the petroleum industry was forced to rethink and toughen up many of
its safety standards regarding petroleum transport. The disintegration of the Challenger (1 986)
and Columbia (2003) space shuttles caused a similar thing to happen at NASA . Similarly , the
sinking of the Titanic (1 91 2) led to the creation of the International Ice Patrol, and legally
mandated iceberg reporting. The September 1 1 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center
forced architects to significantly raise their fire retardation standards in new high-rise building
construction. The catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami forced world seismic monitoring
authorities to change how they disseminate and share warning information.

We learn by our failures. Our errors are the "whacks" that lead us to “think something different.”
Question: Where hav e y ou benefited from a recent failure?
Posted on 1 1 September 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1 4) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Errors, Failure, Heraclitus, Roger v on Oech

Donkeys Prefer Garbage to Gold, Part II

In a recent post, I introduced the following enigmatic epigram from the ancient Greek
philosopher Heraclitus:

"Donkeys prefer garbage to gold."

Like most of Heraclitus' ideas, this epigram can be
understood in a v ariety of way s. I think the
creativ e strategy here is:
…creativethink.com/…/index.html 7/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus

Recognize that things change their value.

Heraclitus is say ing is be careful what y ou striv e
toward because it just might change its v alue.
This moral is brought home in a prov ocativ e
episode of the early 1 960s telev ision series The
Twilight Zone, entitled "The Rip V an Winkle
Caper."
A fter robbing a bullion train from Fort Knox , four
thiev es stow their fortunes in gold bricks in a cav e
and enter suspended animation for one hundred
y ears, certain that they will ev ade all pursuit.
When they awaken a century later, they find that
their plan has worked perfectly ex cept for one
problem: when they try to spend their precious
metal, they discov er that it doesn't hav e the v alue
they thought it would.
Because of adv ances in industrial chemical
engineering in the interv ening y ears, gold has
become a ubiquitous commodity and is actually
worth less than its weight in water.
A few questions to think about:
Will what y ou're striv ing for still be v aluable
in the future?
Under what circumstances might its v alue change?
Might something y ou now consider worthless on take on v alue in the future?
Posted on 07 June 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1 )
Technorati Tags: Creativ ity , Heraclitus, Roger v on Oech, The Rip V an Winkle Caper, Twlight
Zone

Donkeys Prefer Garbage to Gold, Part I

It's been a while since we'v e checked in with Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher whom I
consider to be the world's first "creativ ity teacher." Let's do so now. His thought for today is:

"Donkeys prefer garbage to gold."

Like just about all of Heraclitus' enigmatic
epigrams, this one can be interpreted in a v ariety
of way s. Here's one "take" on it:

Realize that people value different things.

What's important to one person can be of little
consequence to another. For ex ample, how well
the Y ankees perform this weekend matters
…creativethink.com/…/index.html 8/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus
greatly to a New Y ork baseball enthusiast but
hardly at all to a Helsinki accountant.
What's sacred to one group can be profane to
another. For ex ample, a hamburger
establishment on Michigan A v enue will attract
customers: on the banks of the Ganges it will draw
outrage.
What's unthinkable in one culture can be as
natural as breathing in another. For ex ample,
candy manufacturers in dev eloped countries use
special color agents to av oid staining the tongue;
in dev eloping countries some people prefer
hav ing a candy -stained mouth because it boasts
of hav ing disposable income.
Thus, y our "golden idea" may be just so much
garbage in someone else's estimation — and v ice
v ersa.
Some questions to think about:
Do other people v alue y our idea the way y ou do?
How can y ou help them understand y our perspectiv e?
In what way s do y ou need to educate y ourself about other points of v iew?
What are y ou ov erly concerned about that's really not such a big deal?
What's y our blind spot about not seeing cultural differences?
A lso see: "Donkey s Prefer Garbage to Gold, Part II."
Posted on 06 June 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Creativ ity , Heraclitus, Roger v on Oech

Forgive
Let's check in with Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher whom I consider to be the world's
first creativ ity teacher. His thought for today is:

"The sun is new each day."

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 9/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus

Like just about all of Heraclitus' insights, this one can be interpreted in a v ariety of way s. But
today , the creativ ity strategy I see in his words is:

Forgive.

The act of forgiv ing can help us let go of past assumptions and also open our minds up to new
possibilities. Here's an historical ex ample.
After World War I, the v ictorious countries, still smarting from their huge financial outlay s,
demanded reparations from Germany . This was the most costly political decision of the entire
World War I era. It undermined Germany 's enfeebled economic political sy stem, and fostered
the conditions that led to the rise of Hitler.
A generation later, after World War II, Europe again faced economic and political chaos. But
instead of demanding reparations from the v anquished A x is powers, the Allies took the opposite
approach. Through its massiv e Marshall Plan aid, the United States helped to build much of the
continent's infrastructure, including Germany 's.
In doing so, it created conditions that encouraged economic health and political stability . By
not perpetuating past griev ances, they broke the cy cle of war and pov erty that had cost the
world tens of millions of liv es in the first half of the twentieth century .
Question: What can y ou forgiv e in a current problem or situation? What new assumptions can
y ou bring into play ? What solutions does that now make possible?

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 10/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus
Posted on 30 March 2007 | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Creativ ity , Forgiv eness, Heraclitus, Marshall Plan, Roger v on Oech

Be Willing to Be Led Astray

It's been a while since we'v e checked in with Heraclitus (the ancient Greek philosopher whom I
consider to be the word's first world's first creativ ity teacher). Let's do so now and see what
adv ice he can offer us. His words for today are:

“Expect the unexpected,

or you won’t find it.”

A s alway s, Heraclitus can be interpreted in a v ariety of way s. The creativ ity strategy I see here
is:

“Be willing to be led astray.”

When we ex plore for ideas and information, sometimes we find things that are better or more
ex citing than what we were originally looking for. Thus, we need to keep our minds open to
unsought-for possibilities.

For ex ample, in the 1 930s phy sicist Karl Jansky improv ised a new antenna to study the effects
…creativethink.com/…/index.html 11/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus
of telephone static. Instead, he discov ered radio wav es from the Milky Way galax y , and in the
process helped create the science of radioastronomy .
In 1 856, chemist William Perkin searched for a sy nthetic quinine to combat malaria. Instead, he
discov ered a dy estuff (he called it “Mauv eline,” which the public shortened to “mauv e”) that was
the first practical sy nthetic color.
In 1 984, biologist A lex Jeffrey s studied the gene for the muscle protein my loglobin, hoping to
gain an understanding of how genes ev olv e. Instead, he stumbled on a stretch of DNA in the
middle of that gene that v aried greatly from one indiv idual to another. This led to his pioneering
work in the creation of “DNA fingerprinting,” which has rev olutionized not only forensic science
but also other disciplines such as anthropology and epidemiology .
Think of the times in y our own life when one thing has led to something entirely different. How
did y ou get interested in y our line of work? How about the times y ou’v e gone to the library in
search of a particular book, and then found something ev en better on the shelf behind y ou?
A s writer Franklin A dams put it,
“I find that a great part of the information
I hav e was acquired by looking up something
and finding something else on the way .”

Here's my question for y ou: What mindset do y ou adopt when y ou want to see and take
adv antage of the unex pected?
This is what I do (sometimes it works fine, and sometimes less so):
1 . I try to loosen my preconceptions about what I ex pect to find in a situation;
2. I pay special attention to the anomalous things I come upon rather than ignoring them; and,
3. I try to use what I discov er as stepping stones to something v ery different.
When I’m in a hurry or narrowly focused on a task, I hav e a hard time adopting this mindset.
That's because I tend to filter out information that strikes me as irrelev ant. Conv ersely , when
I’m relax ed or play ful, there’s a greater probability that unex pected things flow my way .
What works for y ou?
Posted on 25 February 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1 0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: A lex Jeffrey s, Ex pect the Unex pected, Heraclitus, Karl Jansky , Roger v on
Oech, William Perkin

Use Your "Forgettery"

It's time for some wisdom from Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher whom I consider to be
the world's first creativ ity teacher. His words today are: "Knowing many things doesn't teach
insight."

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 12/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus

A s with all of Heraclitus' ideas, there are many way s to interpret this. What stands out for me,
though, is this creativ e strategy :
Practice forgetting.
I think what he's getting at is this: forgetting what we know — at the appropriate time — can be an
important means for gaining insight. This is illustrated in the story about a creativ ity teacher
who inv ited a student to his house for afternoon tea. They talked for a while, and then it was
teatime. The teacher poured some tea into the student's cup. Ev en after the cup was full, he
continued to pour, and soon tea ov erflowed onto the floor.
Finally , the student said, "Y ou must stop pouring; the tea isn't going into the cup." The teacher
replied, "The same is true with y ou. If y ou are to receiv e any of my teachings, y ou must first
empty out the contents of y our mental cup." His point: without the ability to forget, our minds
remain cluttered with ready -made answers, and we're not motiv ated to ask the questions that
lead our thinking to new ideas.
For ex ample, one day on his regular walk past the local blacksmith's workshop on the island of
Samos, the ancient Greek philosopher Py thagoras temporarily forgot that the banging sounds
produced by the smith's hammering of iron bars were "noise" — his usual reaction — and instead
v iewed them as "information." He soon discov ered that musical pitch is a function of the length
of the material being struck — his first principle of mathematical phy sics.
Remember: ev ery one has the ability to forget. The art is knowing when to use it. Indeed,
nov elist Henry Miller once stated:

"My 'forgettery' has been just as important

to my success as my memory."
Some questions to think about:
What conv entional wisdom are y ou rely ing on? What would happen if y ou forgot the
obv ious answers that spring to mind and searched for new ones?

Posted on 1 5 January 2007 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 13/14
6/7/2009 Creative Think: Heraclitus
Technorati Tags: Forgettery , Heraclitus, Roger v on Oech

…creativethink.com/…/index.html 14/14