Too often, we hit obstacles that prevent us from exploring and creating, especially in unfamiliar mediums. The best way to create is to start creating. Teenage Engineering knows this all too well, and they design products that seem to open infinite paths to creativity despite their restrictive designs.

The Rubik’s Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer.

What if we actually had to pay for our mistakes? This idea sounds silly but think of everything you returned (or wanted to return) last year. Everything you overbought with "free shipping" now needs to travel back to the vendor (and not get damaged in transit). Then, since you decided you didn't want it and would prefer the money, you half-pack it up and send it back. 

On November 1, 2007, Sufjan Stevens premiered a mixed-media work of art at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The show consisted of an original film directed by Stevens, accompanied by an orchestra performing a live soundtrack. Sufjan is known for combining unexpected sounds and mediums, so having three hula-hoopers adorning the performance was almost a given.

When we play, we discover. Too often, our creative work becomes crippled by the expectations we impose. The purpose of Play is not to ponder but instead to start excavating through the mundane. The medium itself is less important than how we choose to use it. Our explorations are often met with failure but can lead to uncovering the extraordinary. Recording these explorations can be expensive, so invest proportionally to your strategy.

Love Hultén is an audiovisual artist and woodworker working in Gothenburg, Sweden. He produced one-of-a-kind pieces of Art that take the form of synthesizers, noise-makers, and arcade games. Hultén’s work combines a wide range of disciplines; woodworking, user interface design, sound engineering, and most of all, good taste.

An alley-oop in basketball is an offensive play in which one player throws the ball near the basket to a teammate who jumps, catches the ball in mid-air and slam dunks it before touching the ground.

The alley-oop combines elements of teamwork, pinpoint passing, timing and finishing.

– Wikipedia

Some mashups just work. Despite being an unlikely candidate, Charles Martinet decided to read for the role of Mario, the popular character from the Nintendo video games. His impromptu goofy take on an Italian Mario cut through and won over the hearts of Nintendo.

Jules Davidoff, a neuropsychology professor, studied people in the Himba tribe who could not differentiate blue from green. Davidoff faults the language. He points out that our ability to see color is dependent on having a word to describe it, "When we decide to put colors together in a group [and then a name], what happens is that now that there's a category for that thing, the thing in that category jumps out. It gets louder and louder to your eyes. The category actually feeds back on your perception, so you notice it more.”

John Cage was an American composer, music theorist, artist, and philosopher. One of his most notable performances is his 1952 composition, 4'33". It is an arrangement for any instrument, performed by not playing the instrument for four minutes and 33 seconds.

Some music can transcend genre and time. I used to trade music (.mp3’s) around with friends via our hard drives filled with our collected catalogs back in the day. In 2005 my college roommate, Ryan, gave me the album, The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004) by Joanna Newsom. It begins with a harp plucking polyrhythms. I was hooked instantly. Next, Joanna Newsom’s voice comes squeaking in. Jarring at first, but then the creaky tones start to make sense as you realize you’re spelunking a treasure.

When we approach a conversation to share our knowledge, it can quickly turn into a lecture no one signed up to hear. The alternative is to listen. Listening takes more calories. When we listen, we are removing the friction from culture, and we can begin to collaborate. This approach is difficult, and it will always require more work than publishing our reactions. Identifying problems is a good start, but that is not a solution. It merely gives us a target to direct our efforts. Attempts to solve problems are what we as a culture continually underdeliver. 

The yoyo leverages two contrasting behaviors; unwinding and rewinding.

The act of unwinding is releasing tension. It is a weekend vacation, evening walk, or kayak ride with a close friend. Unwinding is the easy part.

Rewinding, on the other hand, leverages tension to pull everything back together. It requires more skill and creates an opportunity to redo.

Infinity is a balancing act, not a setting. If we sense we are fading from our disciplines, we must dial-up to recover, and if we become too obsessed, we erode out the rest of our life. This realization can sound defeating, but finding balance between them is a challenge worth accepting.

Always be generous. Always be generous. Always be generous…