Thinking about Thinking, Creativity, Innovation and Design
What are Social Innovations? According to Wikipedia social innovations are new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet the social needs of different elements which can be from working conditions and education to community development and health — they extend and strengthen civil society. Social innovation includes the social processes of innovation, such as open... Continue Reading →
Nowadays, innovation is very in fashion. As a person, you should be innovative (creative?). A product should be innovative to tempt you to buy it (why?). Research should be dedicated to innovations (instead of discoveries?). Or even worse, boards of directors feel compelled to proclaim a "year of innovation" or ask their employees for... Continue Reading →
Most people think in words. When asked to imagine a traffic accident they come up with not very detailed descriptions, in comparison with people who are thinking in pictures. It became even worse if the words are becoming more and more abstract. Words as society, market, law, inflation etc. stay for them just words; they... Continue Reading →
Concepts occur in solid form and are often not questioned. After all, they have proved their worth and value. Concepts as an abstract or generic ideas, conceived in the mind, are generalized from particular instances. The more "solid" a concept appears the higher the chances are that the concept was conceived in the collective mind... Continue Reading →
There are several ways to design a new concept deliberately. But what is a new concept? Not many people have a quick answer to this question, other than "differently than expected", "something else as normal", "not seen before" or just "interesting". One of the easiest ways to design a new concept is to escape from... Continue Reading →
The West Wing of the Thinkibility University - our exciting recent project - is dedicated to thinking patterns in sciences. At the West Wing, scientists dissect the basic thinking patterns in a scientific discipline. Although philosophers of science will work there, the research agenda will not be philosophy of science - roughly this discipline is... Continue Reading →
Can you design something so that people stay politically engaged? How would you design a fabric that is made out of waste? What if it was possible to design a spot where people feel safe? Or a game that provides people suffering from Alzheimer game with a channel of communication? The artist and innovator Daan... Continue Reading →
According to a Dutch report, the number of people with intellectual disabilities getting paid care, increased between 1998 and 2011 fivefold (the figures for other Western countries will not be much different) The large increase is not because more people have a disability, but because the diagnosis is now made more often by changing demands in... Continue Reading →
Key Performance Indicators are meant to keep an organisation on track. By measuring the performance over time, you are able to look at deviations and to take measures. As Wikipedia defines it: A key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. An organization may use KPIs to evaluate its success, or to evaluate the... Continue Reading →
Look at the photo above. What is your first thought? Lots of ideas flashed through my mind when I saw the organic shape but bicycle was not one of them. Arion 1 was designed by a team of engineering students from the University of Liverpool. The bicycle is more aerodynamic than most cars and the... Continue Reading →
Recently we came across a handsome book by Jodie Newman called Business Creativity. In the chapter about Creative Toolkit, we found five tools that we clustered around the theme Change Point of View, because basically they come all down to the same principle. As we earlier pointed out each of us looks at the world... Continue Reading →
Is more innovation needed in the social sector? Or is it better to play it safe and not take any risks? Innovation carry risks and how risky an innovation proves to be depends partly on the choices people make in using new ideas or products. A great example of how the choices we make influence... Continue Reading →
In times past there was a barter economy. Goods were exchanged for other goods. Yet the exchange did not have to take place at the same time, it could be up to a year later. A major economic innovation was the invention of money in form of silver, pearls or any other valued, but scarce... Continue Reading →
In a Reversal the usual supposed cause-effect relation between objects or subjects are turned upside down. For example, it is supposed that the establishment of a permanent observation post increases the safety of recreational sailing. A Reversal could set up that the establishment of a permanent observational post rightly effective decreases the safety of sailors. The... Continue Reading →
Moscow Subway Ticket Machine Accepts Physical Exercise As Payment To promote exercise and the 2014 Olympics, Olympic Changes installed a very special ticket machine at the Moscow subway station. Instead of accepting money as payment, the high-tech ticket machine only accepts exercise. Riders could receive a free ticket by standing in front of the machine’s camera. We... Continue Reading →
Design has been used throughout history to control our behavior. Hausmann designed the broad avenues in Paris with the aim to better control riots and revolutionary uproars. There are designs that prevent you from lying on a bench, so called anti homeless benches. Citizens have built low viaducts to prevent buses going into the town to... Continue Reading →
What if: you are stuck in a narrow track, needing to find a job to pay off $27,000 in study debt and there are no jobs at all? colleges doesn't provide good education to succeed in a job? sacred institutions like university ceases to exist? you are allowed to join the real world before getting... Continue Reading →
Design thinking has become part of contemporary design and engineering practice. Whilst it used to be a professional niche where a designer was asked to create something attractive, a better looking widget, it is today a more collaborative, human-centred approach that is used to solve a broader range of challenges. Design thinking is used to... Continue Reading →
In our recent post A Thinkibility Home Trainer we said that we found a home trainer for thinking. A site that strives towards: Thinkers arrange facts and experience to see more clearly. Thinkers surprise themselves with new insights. Thinkers like discipline and focus rather than drift. Thinkers like to change their minds. Thinkers can be of any age. Thinkers never think their thinking is... Continue Reading →
What do you do when you open a parcel and see an instruction? Do you read the instruction before you try to assemble the parts? Do you try first yourself and only read the instruction after you have failed to assemble the parts? Or do you change the instruction and build something else? Envisioning what... Continue Reading →
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Thinking about Thinking, Creativity, Innovation and Design
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