By Mark McGuinness | 7/1/2009 | 4 Comments
Creativity guru Roger von Oech recently listed his choice of 10 Blogs to Stimulate Your Creativity at Blogs.com. It’s a great list, featuring several of my favourites plus some new discoveries:
Althouse
Bad Banana
Belmont Club
Idea Sandbox
Innovation Tools
Lateral Action
Logic + Emotion
Philosophistry
Wishful Thinking
Click to Continue Reading »
By Mark McGuinness | 6/29/2009 | 17 Comments

Photo by dr_vaibhavahuja
It doesn’t matter how good you are.
If your face is unknown and your name doesn’t ring a bell, success will be a struggle for you.
Click to Continue Reading »
By Rajesh Setty | 6/24/2009 | 24 Comments

Activity is not productivity - we all know that.
But why do we keep engaging in activities that are not productive?
One answer: Simply because it is easy to engage in activities that are not productive.
Click to Continue Reading »
By Mark McGuinness | 6/22/2009 | 16 Comments

Photo by Simon Blackley
A few months ago a psychologist and conductor collaborated on an unusual psychological experiment - using a full symphony orchestra.
In an article for Miller McCune Online Magazine, Tom Jacobs reports how members of the Arizona State University Orchestra were asked to play the Brahms’ First Symphony twice. The first time, they were given the following instructions:
Think about the finest performance of this piece that you can remember. Play it that way.
The second time, these were the instructions given to the orchestra:
Play this piece in the finest manner you can, offering subtle new nuances to your performance.
Before reading on, stop and think about the likely effect on performance of the two sets of instructions. Do you think there would be any significant difference between the two performances? Would you expect either performance to be better or worse than the other?
Click to Continue Reading »
By Brian Clark | 6/18/2009 | 31 Comments
When I was young, I wanted to be a rock star.
Not a pseudo-celebrity social media rock star…
A real rock star.
I didn’t become a rock star because I didn’t try.
Click to Continue Reading »
By Mark McGuinness | 6/15/2009 | 24 Comments

Photo by jcoterhals
Imagine I could show you a simple technique that would take just 20 minutes out of your day and was scientifically proven to boost your productivity by 34%. Would you try it?
Sounds like a no-brainer, right?
Click to Continue Reading »
By Mark McGuinness | 6/12/2009 | 4 Comments

Hugh MacLeod’s book Ignore Everybody has just landed.
Not content with giving Lateral Action a terrific interview about his work, Hugh was kind enough to send me an advance copy of the book a few weeks ago - it arrived on Friday afternoon and I didn’t go to bed that night until I’d finished it (as well as an unspecified number of beers).
If you are serious about creativity and making a living from your passion, you need to get this book. It’s also the perfect present for the creative entrepreneur in your life.
Click to Continue Reading »