Brainstorm

My mind has been more on the creative process lately.

While it can feel that way now, we are not helpless. As humans we solve problems, we invent, we coordinate, and we generate a thing from no-thing.

We invent makeshift respirators, non-electrical pumps, new methods, technologies, and we share them with others. This creative process is what builds wealth for us as humans.

And sometimes the problems we solve are emotional.

And sometimes the problems we solve are psychological.

We solve these problems with new technologies as well, as John Vervaeke likes to call them, "Pyscho-technologies."

And so the most powerful gift we have is our creativity. That ability to think about a problem and come up with something new to solve it.

You can do this all on your own, but you can also do it with others.

You could go for a walk… no music, no podcast, no phone calls, and just think.

You can just think up an idea, or a solution, or something to share. And more often than not when you give yourself true space ideas will come to you. And you can work them out in your head and work through them if you continue to let that flow.

Yesterday I took the afternoon off to brainstorm with myself. I went on a walk, and I used Otter.ai to record my thinking. Anytime I felt I had worked out a note worth sharing I could just speak it out loud (I was wearing Airpods) and Otter transcribes and records the speech.

Most people probably thought I was on the phone.

It's both fun and fruitful to brainstorm with other people, too, but I would think about doing it with yourself.

You'd be amazed at how many ideas are there, and how you can work through them if you just put in the focus…

Challenge:

• Go on a 45 min walk without any distractions, purely to think. You can have an idea ahead of time of what you want to ponder.
• Consider different sides of this idea, different approaches, and different creative solutions.
• Quiet the logic part of yourself, if you feel yourself thinking "but how will that…?" stop and move back to open ideas without the need to know everything or have it be perfect.
• Use Otter.ai to record any thoughts you have both via audio and transcribed text, it will timestamp it for you as well so it looks like a conversation.

If it feels awkward or weird pretend you're on the phone and telling someone about your ideas, invent the other person in the brainstorm and you can even hear their ideas and replies.

xx David