As I’m sure people have guessed, I’m not from here.  Here, of course, being Houston, Texas.  I moved here back in ’98 and, well, just stayed.  In fact, I like to say that I’m nothing but a damn Yankee carpet-bagger who’s only here for your money and your women!  But, all that aside, I’ve learned to…
Read More

Have you ever wondered just how much you’re worth?  And, I don’t mean that old thing about how much the various chemicals that make up a human body are worth, but how much are we worth, as assembled?  You know, on the basis of our individual parts.  I’ve often joked about paying off debt by selling a kidney, but, sometimes, I honestly wonder just how much I would get if I could actually…
Read More

And, clearly, I’m a “gadget guy”.  I mean, who in IT isn’t obsessed with gadgets, at least to some degree, right?  And, you may not realize it, but, well, I sometimes like to play with fire.  Nothing too huge, but, well, boys will be boys, I guess, right?  And, what boy hasn’t played with a campfire before, eh?
So, taking all that into consideration, you can imagine how cool I…
Read More

It’s no secret that I love science-fiction and fantasy.  In fact, once upon a time, I used to write it.  Quite a bit of it, actually.  In fact, at one time, I was writing at what might be considered a professional level.  At least, I would have been published, if the magazine I submitted to hadn’t folded a few days after they received my story.  But, then life intervened and I more or less stopped writing.  All…
Read More

My day started with a phone call from someone at the office who told me that the power was out.  It was out because a transformer literally exploded.  Then, when the fine folks from the power company came out to fix it, they managed to blow at least one more transformer.  When we left the office this morning, we were told it might be back up sometime after 2:00pm, but, no one really knows for…
Read More

I’m an amateur photographer.  And, I’m good at it.  Not great, but good.  I know a lot of photographers who are at all levels of skill and accomplishment.  Many of them are in a totally different place with their photography than me.  I do it because I love it and I find it relaxing.  It’s totally different from what I do to make money, even though skills from my professional life…
Read More

No, seriously, infographics are fun.
Now, I’m not a guy who has to track and record and quantify every aspect of his life.  I know people like that, but I’m not really one of them.  On the other hand, I am one of those guys who likes to look at log files and statistics and trends.  It’s kind of a contradiction, I’ll admit, but, well, there it is.    And, I’ll tell you what else, I’m very aware…
Read More

I’m also, oddly enough, a fan of architectural models, too.
There’s something weirdly science-fictional about the conjunction of those two things, too, that I really enjoy.  The kind of retro-future that they were trying to manufacture in the 60′s is just so, well, so quaint.  It’s not that they’re actually what I think the future would look like, but there’s something appealing about them in any case.  Something about clean lines and the long, smooth, “swoopy”…
Read More

And, it got your attention, so it worked!
One of the things I’ve been obsessed with over the years is thinking.  Specifically, thinking more creatively.  For a long time, I thought that we all had a built-in limit to our creativity.  What we were born with was all we were ever going to get.  As it turns out, thankfully, I was wrong about that.  There are a number of things we can do to encourage our creative thought.  One researcher suggests this method;

1.  Saturate yourself with as much information on your creative subject as possible.
2.  Let all that information incubate in your brain while you do something else, preferable physical.
3.  Distract yourself a bit more with every day tasks, while staying open for any sudden insights, which inevitably come if you’ve done enough of the first two steps.
4.  Go back and check the creative results of your sudden insights for usefulness.

I’m not sure that’s really all there is to it.  At least, not for me.
I do use that method, naturally.  In fact, I think almost everyone who’s job involves solving new problems does it in some way.  But, for me, the most important part is taking the break.  For my day job, for instance, I live in a sort of super-saturated information state most of the time, so taking a creative break often results in a workable idea.

For my creative life, the problem is sometimes picking ideas that are worth pursuing.  So, how do we pick good ideas?  Well, again, according to some recent research, it’s that creative break.  Having another project to work on, for instance, while setting aside the current project, before tackling a particularly difficult step may help us make better creative choices.  I am also a believer in doing the work regularly.  Many writers recommend writing every day, no matter what.  According to Cory Doctorow, “Write every day. Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write every day small (100 words? 250 words?) but do it every day.”  And I tend to agree.  The more I work at creative things, the more creative I feel, especially when writing.  Call it forced inspiration or habitual inspiration, if you will, but half the battle is putting yourself in front of the work, getting started and following through.

So, what do you do to get more creative?  How do you solve your creative problems?