Category Archives: Ideas

How ideas happen: Half a can of soup

Posted on 14 September 2011 by

My eldest daughter and son-in-law joined us for a good old-fashioned mid-west family supper last night: meatloaf, baked potatoes, and green bean casserole. Son-in-law commented about how much he loved green bean casserole, but they seldom made it, and daughter … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideas | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Heating homes and offices with computers?

Posted on 29 July 2011 by

Speaking as a life-long resident of the Northern Great Plains, I like this idea: A new paper from Microsoft Research The Data Furnace: Heating Up with Cloud Computing suggest a radical but slightly mad scheme for dealing with some of … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Approaches, Ideas | Tagged , | Leave a comment

New uses for old inventions

Posted on 7 January 2011 by

So, some egg-headed bureaucrats in the EU decided that incandescent light bulbs are EEEEVIL™ and must be banned. Never mind that many people prefer incandescent bulbs over compact fluorescent bulbs (those odd-looking ones that Mark Steyn has dubbed “curly-fry” light … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Ideas | Tagged | Leave a comment

When Ideas Have Sex – Matt Ridley

Posted on 3 August 2010 by

Here’s a great talk by Matt Ridley on what happens when ideas meet and mate:

Posted in Ideas, Video | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Evolution of an Idea

Posted on 28 July 2010 by

The Google home page, 1998 to 2010.

Posted in Ideas | Tagged | Leave a comment

Good ideas must die

Posted on 19 July 2010 by

If you’ve every had an idea, you’ve wrestled with this. We love our ideas. Even the ones that suck. Most of us understand that we should kill off our bad ideas. (If you don’t understand that yet, you will after … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideas | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ignorance is innovation fuel

Posted on 22 June 2010 by

In one of his recent Monday Morning Memos, Roy H. Williams offered some excellent advice for people who are seeking to “think outside the box:” Talk to someone who doesn’t even know what box you’re talking about.

Posted in Ideas, Inspiration, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What color is creativity?

Posted on 9 June 2010 by

Gregg Fraley asks “Why are we sometimes color restrained?“ Walking down a street in North London last week, I spotted this chair in a store window. Ice cream for the eye!  It had me wondering why we “hold back” on … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideas | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Ideas alter the balance of power

Posted on 27 May 2010 by

What kind of push-back do your ideas get?

Posted in Ideas | Tagged , , | Leave a comment