The Creative Confidence Podcast

IDEO's Creative Confidence Podcast is here. Topics covered include Storytelling for Entrepreneurs.

In the above podcast, the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath, is referenced.

Creativity is the Highest Calling

There are philosophers and creators who believe creativity is the highest calling.

On the philosopher side:

• Nietzsche - argued that self-creation is the highest human act
• Joseph Campbell - saw creativity as the path to personal myth-making and meaning
• Ken Robinson - argued that creativity is as important as literacy

Overcoming Writer's Block

Creative Writing and Creative Thinking

Creative writing and creative thinking are important skills. Both require the exercise of the imagination. 

We live in a world where we constantly consume the output of others' imaginations, and our own creative powers are not always cultivated to the full.

Creative writing must absorb readers in an entertaining way. In some philosophies, there is no greater goal than entertainment. You must write in a way that is individual to you and compelling to read.

Entertainment is the most accessible form of meaning-making.
If you can entertain, you can teach, persuade, inspire, or transform.
If you can’t entertain, you lose the audience before you begin.

There is a technique called the "Five Seeds" method, which uses "seed prompts". Start your piece by first developing the following:

1. A title
2. A metaphor
3. A question
4. A contradiction
5. A sensory detail

The Parasympathetic Nervous System

The PSNS (parasympathetic nervous system) is part of the autonomic nervous system that promotes "rest-and-digest" activities, calming the body and supporting energy conservation and internal homeostasis. It promotes glandular secretion including insulin production for glucose metabolism. By contrast, the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for stress and rapid action.

Field Lane

Field Lane was the southern end of Saffron Hill, now demolished, where Dickens based Fagin's den in Oliver Twist (1838).

The Tornado of 1091

The tornado of 1091 destroyed the church of St Mary le Bow when it was being built.