the challenge
The first challenge in the second volume of Habit Zero takes us back to the core of creativity: creative exploration. Our goal is to look mindfully around us and capture Insights inspired by the Click Seed.
Click is a sound, an action, and also a metaphor for a connection or a relationship. Let’s try to address more than one aspect or interpretation of the Seed in our Insights.
Ready? Be creative!
my insight
I found this switchboard in an open street cabinet. I can’t say if it is operational or not, or why it was visible to passersby, but it looked so unnatural and mysterious in this context that I had to stop and take a closer look.
This is when the association to the Click Seed was ignited. I thought of an even older switchboard and someone creating the physical connection between remote people by wiring and plugging strange devices. I could hear the Clicking sound in my mind.
But that was just the first step in the associative journey. The visual Insight I captured triggered a different kind of exploration: one that happened only inside my brain.
This enigmatic switchboard which is essentially used to allow people to communicate, suddenly seemed cold and dark. I thought of how we are gradually replacing real interactions with something that can be routed through such devices.
And suddenly, this switchboard looked like a poorly maintained skyscraper in which hundreds of people live, each in their small apartment, so close to each other but barely having any interaction. I imagined a world in which having a click with someone becomes an impossible mission because we rely so much on mediated, cold, and often public, communication.
In a world where we are always connected, we never really connect.
reflection
Creative exploration has this fractal quality: if you give your brain a chance, you can always flow into another level of association, or take a different path in your imagination. We often stop this process too soon. We often fall in love with the first Insight we find and settle with it, ignoring the potential it has for more amazing insights and discoveries. Sometimes you just need a mindful exploration of what you already have at hand to make these discoveries.
When to stop the exploration process is not a trivial question when it comes real-world challenges. At some point we need to zero-in on an Insight and execute. There is probably no way around doing an ongoing sanity check: are we satisfied with the idea we have at hand or do we need to explore some more? Asking this question yields better results than not giving it any thought even if we don’t have a formula for producing an accurate answer.
mental notes
- Creative Exploration has a fractal quality.
- Challenge yourself with the question: am I satisfied with the Insights I have, or can I benefit from further reflection and exploration.
now it is your turn… be creative!