How To Come Up With Good Ideas | Mark Rober | TEDxYouth@ColumbiaSC
Summary
TLDRThe speaker candidly discusses the common query about generating creative ideas, debunking the myth that creativity is an innate gift. Drawing from personal experiences, including a viral Halloween costume and a YouTube channel, the speaker outlines three steps to foster creativity: cultivating curiosity, embracing the iterative process of hard work and prototyping, and acknowledging the role of luck in the creative journey. The talk encourages viewers to be persistent, observe keenly, and trust the process to unlock their own creative potential.
Takeaways
- 🤔 The importance of curiosity in fostering creativity: The speaker emphasizes the need to be curious and observe the world around us, much like children do, to generate creative ideas.
- 🎭 The myth of innate creativity: Creativity is not a fixed trait but a skill that can be developed, similar to a muscle that can be strengthened with practice.
- 📚 Learning from history: The speaker draws a parallel to the ancient city of Alexandria, highlighting the value of accumulating knowledge as a foundation for creativity.
- 👶 Embracing a childlike approach: The speaker admires the creativity of children and suggests that maintaining this perspective can lead to innovative thinking.
- 🏗️ Building and testing: The 'marshmallow challenge' example illustrates the value of constructing and experimenting early and often to achieve a successful outcome.
- 💡 Observing the unexpected: The story of the microwave oven's invention shows how observing unusual occurrences can lead to significant discoveries.
- 🛠️ The necessity of hard work: Creativity involves a lot of trial and error, and the willingness to work hard and persevere through failures.
- 🎨 The iterative process of creation: Great designs, like those from Apple, are the result of numerous prototypes and refinements.
- 🦄 The role of luck in creativity: While skill is important, there is an element of luck or serendipity in the creative process that should be acknowledged.
- 🌟 Trusting the process: The speaker encourages trusting the creative process, even when it involves many failures, as it increases the chances of success.
- 📈 The power of persistence: The speaker concludes by asserting that everyone has more creativity than they might think, and that persistence is key to unlocking it.
Q & A
What is the main question the speaker attempts to address in the script?
-The speaker attempts to address the question of how to come up with creative ideas, which they often find difficult to answer.
What was the speaker's Halloween costume three and a half years ago that went viral?
-The speaker's Halloween costume was an iPad attached to the front and back, making it look like they had a hole in their body when using FaceTime.
What was the concept the speaker developed while working as a NASA engineer?
-The concept was a product from a company called Digital Duds, where a video played on a phone could be slid into a shirt to create a cheap and simple augmented reality experience.
What did the speaker learn from their experience with Digital Duds?
-The speaker learned that they enjoyed the feeling of putting something creative out into the world and receiving feedback, which led to the idea of sharing a creative idea on YouTube every month.
How many views and subscribers did the speaker's YouTube channel have at the time of the script?
-The YouTube channel had over 42 million views and around 100,000 subscribers.
What is the 'marshmallow challenge' mentioned in the script?
-The marshmallow challenge is an activity where participants are given spaghetti, tape, string, and a marshmallow, and are tasked with building the tallest tower with the marshmallow on top within 18 minutes.
Why do kindergartners often outperform adults in the marshmallow challenge?
-Kindergartners often outperform adults because they start building immediately, without a power struggle for leadership, and they test their structures with the marshmallow early and often, allowing them to iterate and improve their design.
What is the speaker's view on the nature of creativity?
-The speaker believes that creativity is not an innate gift, but rather a muscle that can be developed through curiosity, hard work, and the willingness to get lucky.
What historical example does the speaker use to illustrate the importance of curiosity in creativity?
-The speaker uses the example of the ancient city of Alexandria, where soldiers would forcibly copy books from incoming ships, leading to a vast accumulation of knowledge and fostering an environment of curiosity and innovation.
What advice does the speaker give for increasing one's creativity?
-The speaker advises being curious, working hard by building and testing ideas early and often, and understanding that there is an element of luck involved in the creative process.
What is the significance of the speaker's experiment with rubber snakes and turtles by the roadside?
-The experiment demonstrates the speaker's curiosity and the importance of testing hypotheses, as well as the unpredictable nature of people's reactions, which can be a source of creative inspiration.
Outlines
🎭 Embracing Creativity: From Viral Video to Invention
The speaker shares their journey of creativity, starting with a humorous Halloween costume that went viral, leading to the realization of the joy of creation and public appreciation. They recount their experience as a NASA engineer and the side project that became Digital Duds, a cost-effective way to play videos on clothing. This endeavor sparked the beginning of a YouTube channel, which has since garnered significant attention. The speaker also briefly introduces several creative ideas featured on the channel, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and creativity in their process.
🔍 The Curiosity Catalyst: Observing for Innovation
This section delves into the importance of curiosity as a foundational element of creativity. The speaker references the ancient city of Alexandria's voracious appetite for knowledge, which led to significant advancements by scholars like Euclid and Archimedes. The narrative continues with the story of Percy Spencer's accidental invention of the microwave oven, illustrating how observation can lead to innovation. The speaker encourages maintaining a childlike sense of wonder and questions the common belief that creativity is an innate gift, suggesting instead that it is a skill that can be developed.
🏗️ Building Through Failure: The Marshmallow Challenge
The speaker discusses the 'Marshmallow Challenge,' a creative exercise that highlights the benefits of early and frequent testing. They contrast the approach of adults, who often delay testing until late in the process, with that of kindergartners, who test continuously, leading to more successful outcomes. The speaker emphasizes the value of hard work, iteration, and learning from failure, using examples from successful inventors like Thomas Edison and James Dyson, who had numerous failed prototypes before achieving success.
🎰 The Role of Luck in Creativity: Trusting the Process
In the final paragraph, the speaker addresses the concept of luck in the creative process, drawing on the Roman interpretation of 'genius' and the modern understanding of creativity. They argue that while skill and hard work are essential, there is an element of fortune that cannot be controlled. Citing examples from 'Good to Great' and personal anecdotes, the speaker encourages trusting the creative process and persevering through failure, as it increases the chances of encountering luck and achieving breakthrough ideas.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Creativity
💡Curiosity
💡Innovation
💡Prototype
💡Iteration
💡Luck
💡Observation
💡Experimentation
💡Feedback
💡Patent
💡YouTube Channel
Highlights
Started a YouTube channel after a viral Halloween costume video.
Created a $20 shirt with a phone video to simulate a digital effect for Halloween costumes.
Discussed the value of receiving feedback and appreciation for creative efforts.
Gained over 42 million views and 100,000 subscribers on the YouTube channel.
Demonstrated innovative ideas such as ghetto bullet time using a GoPro on a ceiling fan.
Showcased a thermal signature trick using an infrared camera to see keypad inputs.
Explained a no-mess watermelon smoothie idea using a coat hanger and drill.
Used the front-facing camera on a phone to capture monkey reactions at the zoo.
Highlighted the importance of curiosity and observing the world to generate ideas.
Mentioned historical practices like the Library of Alexandria copying books for knowledge.
Referenced the invention of the microwave by Percy Spencer as a result of observation.
Emphasized the importance of maintaining a child-like curiosity.
Quoted Johnny Ive on always questioning design and looking at objects differently.
Described how Apple steps back to find new solutions and innovate.
Shared a personal invention of a microwave with an infrared lens for visual cooking.
Described the Marshmallow Challenge and how kindergarteners consistently outperform adults.
Emphasized the importance of early and frequent testing in the creative process.
Mentioned the iterative process of successful inventors like Thomas Edison and James Dyson.
Shared an experiment testing driver behavior towards snakes and turtles on the road.
Highlighted the randomness and luck involved in the creative process.
Discussed hindsight bias and how humans create narratives from random events.
Encouraged trusting the process and persistence in creative endeavors.
Concluded that everyone is more creative than they believe, with emphasis on curiosity, hard work, and luck.
Transcripts
so I'm going to attempt today to answer
a question I get asked a lot and I
always just sort of have a sucky
response to it and the question is this
how do you come up with your ideas so
disclaimer I'm not claiming to be some
amazing creative genius right I am one
data point but maybe something I can say
from my experience can maybe help you in
something you do in your life and the
reason I could ask this as mentioned was
three and a half years ago this was my
Halloween costume and I had an iPad on
the front and back if you do a FaceTime
chat it looks like you have a hole in
your body which is cool right my
favorite part of the costume was that at
the Halloween cut pot party you're at is
a little bit lame could always play
Angry Birds so as we kind of have this
mic so basically put that video out it
went sort of viral three million views
overnight front page of CNN the main
complaint though is like cool idea bro
but I don't have $1200 for Halloween
costume so basically my challenge was to
come up with like a cooler Halloween
costume that wasn't quite as expensive
right and so while working my day job as
a NASA engineer on the Curiosity rover
that was like three months before we
send it to Mars at night I was working
on this this concept right and so I
called the company digital duds and so
this is kind of how it works so you play
a video on your phone and you slide it
into like a shirt so it's a really cheap
it yeah sorry it's kind of big it's a
really inexpensive implementation of
this concept right you buy $20 shirt and
it's a free app yeah apologize that's
very large and so the thing that I
learned basically from this experience
is that I like this feeling of putting
something out there and having people
see it and sort of getting that feedback
and making it feel like you know your
creative efforts were appreciated so I
decided every month I would try and put
out a YouTube video about a creative
idea and so we started a YouTube channel
and now it has like it's way more than
we first thought it's like 42 million
views on the site and like 100
thousand subscribers which is supercool
certainly no cutie pie but it's but it's
an exciting opportunity and so here are
just a couple of real quick ideas that
we put on the channel so this is like
you put a GoPro on a ceiling fan upside
down it's like ghetto bullet time from
like the matrix right so this is just a
GoPro that's spinning around you play
the footage back it has this really cool
looking effect or this is if you put the
FLIR like an infrared on the front of an
iPhone I'm actually stealing this
woman's pin here because I figured out
that certain keypads if you touch the
keypad it leaves behind a thermal
signature so you can see where they
touched right and so I put this video
out saying like dude bad guys can use
this simple solution is just rub your
hand across all the keys when you're
done and then it leaves like a
meaningless thermal signature another
idea is a no-mess watermelon smoothie
right so you just get a coat hanger to
drill it's really refreshing and
slightly creepy
stumbled upon that one
and finally this idea if you use the
front-facing camera on your phone and
then take it to the zoo and put it like
in front of the monkey exhibit the
monkeys see it and they're really
interested so you get this really cool
footage with just a dumb phone right and
before you get all smug and laugh at the
monkeys I actually repeated this
experiment on higher order primates as
well so some of the videos have sound
too so if we could just turn the sound
up a little bit it's fine but in the
future thank you um so going back full
circle how do you come up with your
ideas I think what people are really
asking when they ask this is how can I
come up with more good ideas like how do
I be more creative because there's this
there's this myth and I like it because
it's tackles of Smith head-on that you
know people are either creative or
you're not like it's some gift bestowed
from on high either you have good ideas
or you don't and that's not true in my
opinion curiosity or creativity is sort
of like a muscle you develop so for the
next couple minutes I want to just talk
about like how you develop that muscle
basically so there's three steps that
I've kind of feel like I figured out for
step one we're going to go to the
ancient city of Alexandria 300 BC they
did something interesting here whenever
a ship went into their port they would
board it forcefully but the soldiers
weren't looking for gold or spices and
one of their books they would take the
books in the library and they would copy
them and as a result they got this
amazing knowledge this database it's
like you know Wikipedia of 3300 BC of
just all these experiences of people
across the world and we had people like
Euclid and Archimedes who study there
and they had incredible advancements
because of this approach they were
really curious about the world around
them they observed it and they try to
solve these you know these problems
there's this this quote that I really
like the most exciting phrase to hear in
science the one that heralds new
discoveries is not Eureka but that's
funny and and the and the key to all
good adventures if you think about it
even the scientific method
first step is observation it starts with
observing the world around you a great
example of this is the microwave oven
this was first invented by a guy named
Percy Spencer and he was working on a
radar tube
he had a mr. Goodbar in his pocket and
all the sudden the thing melted which
seems incredibly dangerous now that we
know about microwaves but he saw this
thing melt and he's like well that's
weird like that's funny he had that one
of those that's funny moments and so he
observed that and went back and did some
research and figured out what was going
on and from that we got the microwave so
the first step I think in the way to be
more creative is to be curious and if
you think about the most like creative
group of people on earth I think it's
probably kids like my son could take a
bucket and just play with it for like
three hours and that's amazing with kids
is because they're always questioning
and looking and observing and making
connections about the world around them
I think that sort of gets beat out of us
like in the school system somehow and by
the time we're your guys age a lot of
people like oh I'm just not creative
right that's not what you said when you
were in kindergarten I think the most
creative people that I know that I
respect are those who've been able to
maintain that kid-like approach and view
of the world Johnny I've is the head
designer at Apple brilliant guy and he
says it's for him it's almost like a
curse when he looks at objects and
designs and stuff he's always asking
like well why is it that way and not
this way it's like you can't turn that
off he's always asking that question an
Apple has this amazing way of making
products there you go that just seemed
different right and this is a great
quote about that the difficulty lies not
so much in developing new ideas as
escaping from old ones and a lot of
times you know you pictured almost like
there's a hill and everyone's trying to
optimize and get to the top of this hill
and Apple sometimes can step back and
just be like well there's another hill
over here that's really big right and so
the hallmark of good design is when
people can look at it and be like wow
like how did how did nobody think of
that before when the design in hindsight
seems really obvious I had an
opportunity like this about a year ago I
was cooking a frozen burrito in my
kitchen and I'm like microwaves have not
changed it felt like
for 40 years I'm like like what could we
do differently as humans rely primarily
on our sense of sight and so I figured
since infrared my infrared lenses are
pretty cheap now it'd be awesome if you
could put your burrito in the microwave
and you could see it cooking right so
you get a heat map on the front of the
microwave you could visually tell what
it was done but it gets better because
you could like put your bowl of soup in
the microwave and then you could like go
upstairs and be working and then after
four minutes it's not quite done you
don't see all white you just like add 30
seconds so it's like a different
approach right and this one actually has
a happy ending because I got a patent on
this and I'm working with like a couple
the big guys to get it into a Walmart
near you so at some point if you ever
see this just buy it I don't care how
much it costs all right just buy it so
that's step one
being curious right so step two I think
look to this thing called the
marshmallow challenge this guy named Tom
Wu Jack does this he's done it over like
70 times and what he does is he gives
people a challenge he's some spaghetti
some tape and some string and a
marshmallow and he says in 18 minutes
why do you build a tallest tower you can
with the marshmallow on top and the
fascinating thing about this he's done
it a bunch of times and there's one
group that consistently beats CEOs
lawyers and businessmen and that group
is kindergartners seriously and the
reason why explains is because you know
the adults look at the situation and
first of all the first three minutes is
like a power struggle who's going to be
the leader right and then once they sort
of figure that out they start building
something but they don't actually put
the marshmallow on until the very end at
like minutes 17 and marshmallows are
deceptively heavy and so then the whole
structure buckles and I'll I have
nothing with like a minute left
whereas kindergarteners by contrast they
just start building right away there's
no power struggle right and
kindergarteners instead is putting
marshmallow on ones on average they put
it on four to five times so about four
minutes into it they're already putting
the marshmallow on top and sort of
testing it and so because of that
because they're sort of testing early
and often they're able to get to a
solution that actually works and it
literally consistently
the board they do better so step two I'm
calling a sort of work hard and for
every like design you see from Apple
right behind the scenes there's like
forty devices prototypes that you never
seen Thomas Edison said he came up with
you know ten thousand light bulbs before
he found one that worked James Dyson the
vendor of like the cyclone thing said he
had five hundred five thousand one
hundred twenty seven failed prototypes
before he had a mic you know a vacuum
that actually sucked like sucked like in
the sense that like it sucked it was
good right that was like a success right
the point is it's like whatever you do
do it like if you're like a sculptor
just sculpt if you if you you know paint
paint a ton if you like photography
don't say I'm just not a creative
photographer just go out and take a ton
of pictures and fail and learn for
basically what you're doing and you know
by doing this you sort of discover you
know you fail and you learn and you get
better it's interesting to know that the
guy who invented the microwave you know
other people had actually had the the
chocolate bar melt in their pocket but
he was the first person to actually do
something about it and actually have
that like kindergarteners approach of
curiosity and trying to figure out what
was going on there
so I actually had an experience where I
kind of implemented steps one into a
little a little while ago where I
remember reading as a kid that if you
know people will swerve more on the road
to hit turtles than they would snakes
which always seemed interesting to me so
I actually ran an experiment so I had
the curiosity and I went out and I
placed by the side of the road
alternating like snakes and turtles
right and then I collected data
in a lab coat so it looked official and
it turns out my hypothesis was wrong so
like actually people did swerve to it
snakes more than turtles but there are
turtle turtle killers amongst us that
got messed up but what's interesting is
that some people really cool like this
lady was really nice she started
throwing plums at my rubber snake you
encouraged it to like get off the road
it didn't move it didn't move in the end
or this guy this guy yeah he was like I
thought he's trying to get the tarantula
safety that's cool but then he just when
he got this car just ran it over anyways
or this guy he was cool like he was
saving the snake I was like that's cool
and he's like oh it's fake I'm gonna
take this home and like give it to my
wife or something and so hey
that's my snake I'm right here trying to
do some science so in hindsight I think
I think my mistake was trying to appeal
to his love of science that was the
disconnect but this is a great example
of like when I told people I did this
that I've released a video of it you
know people who like wait so like you
use you crouch in the bushes for like 10
hours like videoing cars and stuff and
I'm like yeah and for a lot of people
are like you're weird you're crazy but
that's sort of the point like part of
the creative process is just putting in
you know the elbow grease putting in the
time so for step three this is supposed
to be blank you guys so for step three I
think it's important to think about our
concept in general in society of what
creativity is back in people have noted
this but with the Romans we actually get
the word genius from them but to them
what a genius was was like a troll that
lived in your walls and at night when
you like had your piece of art you were
working on it would come out and like
sprinkle like creative dust on your work
of art and this had an interesting
impact because if you were really good
you're kind of humble about it cuz
you're like well I just got a really
good genius you know that lives in my
wall but if your work it's kind of
sucked then you know it's like well what
could you do my genius is kind of lame
right so it's like there's what could
you do and the sort of benefit of
thinking about it this way is it sort of
takes it out you know takes you a little
bit out of it and I think that's the
truth lie somewhere between the way we
think of genius and the way the Romans
did you know I don't believe you know
even partially that there's like little
trolls living in their wall in your
walls but there is important to know
that the part of the creative process is
just about getting lucky there's an
interesting book called good to great
and this author interviewed a bunch of
CEOs and ten of them like supposedly
these companies that will never fail
awesome ones and she tried to find her
he tried to find the common like thread
the thing that connected all of them and
what I appreciated is all ten of them
mentioned that you know
a lot of what happened they just got a
couple lucky breaks like they got some
they got lucky getting certainly there
was some skill involved but a lot of it
had to do with luck and as humans we
don't like that like we try to assign a
reason for stuff there's a there's a
fancy term called hindsight bias which
is when we look back at points that are
actually random we try to connect them
and create a narrative as an example
like if there was 1,024 of us in this
room and I gave each one of you a
quarter I said flip that ten times
statistically one of you would get 10
tails in a row and what happens usually
is the media swoops in and then you know
it's like let's look at Kevin like you
know he got ten tails in a row look at
his flip technique you know and his
fingers and the way his wrist was and
how his elbow and his posture like
that's what we do
it's funny even returning on that point
with good degrade of the ten companies
two of the CEO she profiled for the CEOs
for Circuit City and Fannie Mae because
the book was written like ten years ago
right which we know or I didn't work out
so well so whether you call it like luck
or karma or blessings I think it is
helpful to think there's some part of
this process that's a little bit out of
your control because then if you're
Thomas Edison you've build 9999 you know
light bulbs you don't say I give up
because you realize you trust the
process review james dyson you build
5,000 vacuums it's like trust the
process and keep going and i'm not
saying don't misinterpret of that being
creative is just it's all luck but my
point is is as you are creative and you
observe and you you know question your
world as you work hard and you you build
early and often you increase your
chances of getting lucky you're
basically giving yourself more quarters
to flip so you can get 10 tails in a row
and so my punchline today is that i
believe we are all more like way more
creative than we give ourselves credit
for it's just about understanding the
process so returning full circle how do
you come up with your ideas for the
first time ever the most unsecured
response i've ever given i'm proud to
say the key is to be curious to work
hard and to get lucky thank you
you
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
The Art and Science of Creativity - [English]: Tom Kelley at TEDxTokyo
The shape of ideation | Stefan Mumaw | TEDxLawrence
Unit 2: Creativity and Ideas
How to be creative "THE SECRET OF CREATIVITY"
Are children really more creative than adults? | Elisabeth McClure | TEDxAarhus
What Is Innovation? | Tina Zita | TEDxSacredHeartCHS
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)