Aptly named Folklore.org is a web site devoted to collective historical storytelling. It captures and presents sets of related stories that describe interesting events from multiple perspectives, allowing groups of people to recount their shared history in the form of interlinked anecdotes. The site is structured as a series of projects containing related, interlinked stories. The stories -- so far based on only one central event, the development of the original Macintosh -- are indexed by their characters and the topics they cover, and may be sorted by various criteria.

 
CREAX presents this somewhat thorough (40 question) Creativity Self Assessment Scan. Profile your personal creativity against the global average in eight different areas.

 
Here's a fine example of two creative worlds colliding to form something new and energizing: the Oakland Ballet meets Depeche Mode.

In an intriguing bit of programming, the company has acquired a solo from Robert Moses' "Lone Woman," which is performed to the industrial pulse of "Breath Control" by Recoil (DM's Alan Wilder) and danced at Thursday's opening night by the ubiquitous Jenna Johnson.

 
To follow-up on a comment Meandering Generalist posted in response to Psycheldelic Tourist's observations on generalism in the marketplace...

A shortage of creative generalists in business.

When was the last time you saw a business job posting for a generalist position? Common, no, but not unheard of. Now let me rephrase that. When was the last time you saw a business job posting for a junior generalist position? Now we’re in rare air.

There is an underlying myth that general knowledge and true synthesis skills can only come from experience. This basically means that a junior generalist can only be an oxymoron, and that the best thing a company can do is eventually give one of its younger specialists broader duties and “wean” him or her into a more generalist mindset. I would argue that this is a faulty way of approaching this, that generalist thinking is now a specialty unto itself and that a naïve perspective is no less valuable and illuminating than an experienced perspective – and, if anything, the two need to cross paths much more often than they do.

The reality is though that the business world does little to support these important divergent-thinking minds. Further to that, North American schooling makes it extremely difficult for any young mind to adopt a generalist mindset, especially with post-secondary education programs so in line with highly focused career tracks (heck, even high school students now have immense pressure on them to already be pursuing a specific career well before they graduate). Specialization is being institutionalized. There is little in the way of financial career incentive for students of everything. As a result, those with either the fortitude to avoid overspecializing in any one area or those who have the aptitude to be serial specialists will be in short supply and, increasingly, in high demand.

 
I would say something clever here, but I didn't get much sleep last night...

German scientists say they have demonstrated for the first time that our sleeping brains continue working on problems that baffle us during the day, and the right answer may come more easily after eight hours of rest.

The German study is considered to be the first hard evidence supporting the common sense notion that creativity and problem solving appear to be directly linked to adequate sleep, scientists say. Other researchers who did not contribute to the experiment say it provides a valuable reminder for overtired workers and students that sleep is often the best medicine.

 
Oooh, here's a sizzling rant against the excesses of marketing media placements.

Oh hell. It's not really a big deal. It's just another dumb ad in a vast teeming unrelenting sea of dumb ads. Right? Of course it is.

But is there no threshold? This is the question. Is there no point when we all collectively recoil at the savage parade of schlock and awe, and we all raise our hands to the sky and scream our collective agony just before slumping down on the couch for 19 minutes of beer commercials interspersed with 11 minutes of "Frasier?"

You'd think we'd have reached saturation. You'd think that there simply cannot be a single person existing in modern American popular culture today who has not been so inundated, so completely drenched and hammered and pulverized since birth by the never-ending jackhammer of brands and logos and slogans, that therefore there is simply no way they would be open to any "new" attempt to sucker punch their last unsuspecting synapse.

You are, apparently, wrong. There are more ways. There are always more ways.

(via Adland)

 
The Psychedelic Tourist offers some very kind words to CG - thank you - and adds a nice viewpoint on the whole generalist sentiment.

"Jack of all trades, Master of none"

It's a derogatory term, it's meant to point out that knowing a little about a lot is second-rate to knowing a lot about a little. More specifically it points to the dilemma of generalization versus specialization. Currently, in today's world, our society tends to look up to those specialists, the ones who know a lot about a little. Society admires the person who is ultra-driven, dedicated, to an almost obsessive nature about one thing. It tends to bring material wealth and recognition to the individual. It brings adulation, envy, it gives them power. It provides a status in society which I don't feel is necessarily warranted. Ultimately, it's narrow-minded, it reeks of arrogance.

On the other hand, to be a generalist is to keep one's eyes open. To see all, or much, of the world. To attempt a synthesis of divergent thoughts, divergent realities, to attempt a holistic view. It means that one can feel comfortable with many varied topics, but not necessarily to be the expert in any one thing. Are times changing? Is the generalist about to receive their due? I can't really say, but it's worth a thought. It keeps the dream alive, that it is good to dabble in many things, to think about many different topics, to keep oneself fresh by constantly searching for new and unseen horizons.

 
And all it takes is a sidewalk and some chalk to change your perspective.

 
Strategy + Business offers up this light article about how leadership styles today combine the classic values of discipline and execution with the contemporary values of openness and natural expression.

[M]any of the companies led by such [New Economy] executives discovered that you can’t be innovative and effective if you’re always at the mercy of your passions. Creative free spirits must also be productively guided by discipline, purpose, and accountability.

 
A lot of very relevant and provocative thoughts presented here by Dave Pollard in a January 14th post titled simply The Future of Business. Adapted from a presentation that Pollard is making this week at the World Congress on Intellectual Capital & Innovation at McMaster University, he deftly predicts what is to come in the next 11 years in the areas of technology, business organization, socio-political influences and trends in outsourcing.

 
You gotta love a TV program that describes themselves as "the most important television show ever, with the most important guests, hosts, and news – current event news, pop culture news, sports news, entertainment news -- of all time". The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

 
The Corporate Design Foundation put together a 25-point list of random factoids collected on the net that have to do with consumer market research. Some mildly interesting nuggets:

2. At supermarkets, 66% of all buying decisions are made after the consumer enters the store.

6. A 26% increase in single-person households in America is projected between 1995 and 2010, compared to overall household growth of 18%.

15. Two-thirds of women shoppers feel distracted when men accompany them to the grocery store.

17. Teens, aged 12 to 17, influence on average $58 per week in grocery purchases – totaling over $50 billion per year.

25. 6 in 10 U.S. shoppers find it very difficult to change to a less expensive store brand once they find a national brand they like.

 
Recent events have shown us that intelligence about the world at large can be, to put it politely, malleable. If the people responsible for operations provide and shape their own intelligence, they will tend to produce information and analysis that fit their preconceptions. The same is true for corporate intelligence. Especially as companies and industries mature, they may face decisions that their operating executives find difficult to confront. These companies--indeed, all companies--need a chief knowledge officer, someone who provides honest, unbiased intelligence about the world around a company and where the company stands in that world.

In our increasingly knowledge-based economy, every company will eventually have such an officer, and those that get there first will have a competitive edge. Just what this person will do is still being invented and will differ from industry to industry. The CKO's duties may be as varied as recommending whether a company should buy, sell, or make its technologies, or determining where technology is going and where new competitors may arise. But there is no better example of the need for a chief knowledge officer than the necessity for some companies to manage decline skillfully.

Help Wanted: a Chief Knowledge Officer

 
Who would have known that the process of directing a laser beam onto the floor to amuse a cat is patented (US5443036)? Or that someone took the time to register a Santa Claus detector (US5523741)? Well, it's all catalogued at the Gallery of Obscure Patents - from the clever (inflatable rug, motorized ice cream cone) to the strange (apparatus for simulating a 'high-five', greenhouse helmet).

 
Chris Corrigan's Parking Lot is host to a rather lively discussion about the role of improvisation in strategy and innovation. Flowing from a (December 23rd) post about improv in jazz, the comments touch on some sharp ideas. My favorite is this one by Andy (of Older and growing...):

No system works in isolation, and the external stimuli to any system are largely unpredictable, so any strategy that is based on predicting the future is likely to be working with erroneous or irrelevant assumptions. I reckon the best strategies are meta-strategies - having a strategy that is about creating a structure that will allow effective responses to emerge, without pre-defining what those responses should be. And that is likely to be a structure that is heavily cross-linked (i.e. subverting hierarchy) with plenty of space for experimentation and play.

 
The Eyes Have It. Harvard professor in the History of Landscape John Stilgoe takes a novel approach to education by encouraging his students to simply look around and discover the constructed world around them. He teaches the art of exploration, and discovering the built environment - everything from architectural history to advertising and design. Stilgoe introduces his students to a method of discovering a hidden world that's always been right in plain view.

“It takes me a very long time, and I've started out in perfect confidence to drive to California and I've wound up in Tennessee because things were interesting along the way,” says Stilgoe, laughing. “And if you just kind of wander along like that, following your nose, I mean, you find all kinds of neat things.” Even if all of this stuff is a world that nobody sees or nobody thinks about.

“I think people see it. But most people, when they learn to read, stop looking around,” says Stilgoe. “I try very hard in this university, which selects students based almost entirely on how well they do with words and numbers, to teach them that there's another way of knowing.” This "other way of knowing" is simply using your eyes. The power of acute observation is one of nature's most useful tools for learning.

 
It's about time really. Taxi's have finally adopted GPS technology and harnessed it with the ubiquity of cellular telephones. Zingo, a service in London that allows passengers to dial directly to the nearest available (licensed) black-cab, launched last year by Manganese Bronze and appears to be gaining momentum. It's even easier than sticking out your arm and shouting 'taxi'.

The convenience of the service should eliminate the need for lengthy waits at taxi ranks, or on street corners waiting to see a taxi with its orange light on. London cabby Harry James, who has been driving taxis around the capital for 28 years, said: "For 300 years now the only way to hail a cab has been to stand out on the street or go to a rank. Considering our cabbies are probably the best in the world it's a poor show that passengers haven't been able to phone us until now.

 
[Fear not, loyal CG readers! RSS and a few other improvements to the site are forthcoming in the near future. Thanks for your suggestions and support. _S]

 
EnRoute laments the death of Cool in its latest cover story.

Neophilia and non-conformity, not to put too fine a point on it, is the early 21st-century mainstream, a fact of abiding interest to University of Toronto philosophy professor Joseph Heath. He argues (in person and in his upcoming book There Is No Alternative: Style, Rebellion and the Myth of Counterculture) that we (the so-called mainstream) consume rebellion and individualism, just as in the 1950s, we consumed products that made us appear wealthy.

"Cool has merely replaced conspicuous consumption as the status hierarchy of contemporary urban society," he tells me. "The desire for distinction now drives consumerism."