

The Best Way To Improve Your Creativity - stanley
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/08/the_best_way_to_improve_your_c.html

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10ren
The categories of animals reminds me of the small world/seven degrees of
separation thesis, that you'll know a lot of people who are in a tightly
connected group, but you'll also know a handful of people who are distantly
connected. These distant connections allow you to (theoretically) reach anyone
in the world in seven steps. The people are the animals, the tightly connected
groups are the categories of animals, and the distantly connected people are
associations to another category.

He missed the entire class of categories that are based on the name of the
animal (e.g. starting with the same letter). I think his multiple-personality
technique is a neat treat for bringing different kinds of associations to the
fore. That's assuming that you have the (now-meta) connection to the
appropriate person in the first place. For example, he didn't think of
imagining he's a lexicographer.

BTW: I wish he'd leave some white-space to separate hints that he doesn't want
you to read.

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tripe
> _Students were asked a series of brain teaser questions. One group of
> students was told that the questions were invented at their university; the
> other group was told they were invented in a far away university. Thinking
> that the test came from far away somehow raised the creativity of the
> subjects. They answered more questions correctly._

Sheer tripe. Out of two groups, one is going to do better. If the first group
had just happened to do better, we'd be reading an article about how thinking
something is "close" makes it more "concrete" and raises your creativity,
because it's easier to think of things that are tangible -- or whatever other
Just-So story they'd invent. The second group didn't have its creativity
"raised"; it just happened to be the group that won the coin flip.

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xsmasher
Are you saying the difference between the performance of the two groups wasn't
statistically significant, or that their methodology is flawed, or that their
results were not reproduced in other studies?

It's possible that their theory is bullshit, but it seems like you're
discounting the data it is based on without cause.

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nopassrecover
He is saying that in one single test of two groups, one of the teams has to
win. Deciding that they won because of 'x' after the fact is not science.

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philh
They decided to see if X would help one team win before they collected
results.

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nopassrecover
Oh okay I missed that. I still question the statistical significance of a
single experiment. Still interesting though.

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olliesaunders
The best way to improve your creativity? Read books by Edward De Bono. He's
the daddy of this area. He invented the term lateral thinking.

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jdp
Even after reading the whole thing I still couldn't figure out how Jack used
the rope to escape from the tower.

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jibiki

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Lame, I know.

~~~
10ren
In your interview at a rope pyrochronography factory, they ask you how to time
45 minutes given two ropes that each take an hour to burn.

(The ropes burn uneveningly and unequally. That is, half a rope won't
necessarily burn in half an hour, and it won't necessarily be same amount of
time as half of the other would take to burn - all you know is that the total
time for one rope to burn is one hour.)

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whatusername
Okay - I'm stumped. Care to share the answer? (maybe in a day or so -- to
allow others to attempt to puzzle it out?)

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thisrod
(Encoded with rot13.)

Yvtug ebcr 1 ng bar raq, naq ebcr 2 ng obgu raqf. Nsgre guvegl zvahgrf, ebcr 1
jvyy ohea bhg. Gura, yvtug gur bgure raq bs ebcr 2. Ebcr 2 oheaf bhg svsgrra
zvahgrf yngre.

~~~
nopassrecover
Well I think you mean: (rot13) Yvtug ebcr 1 ng bar raq, naq ebcr 2 ng obgu
raqf. Nsgre guvegl zvahgrf, ebcr 2 jvyy ohea bhg. Gura, yvtug gur bgure raq bs
ebcr 1. Ebcr 1 oheaf bhg svsgrra zvahgrf yngre.

But even then: (rot13) Guvf nffhzrf gung Ebcr 1 ohearq svsgl creprag va gur
gvzr vg gbbx ebcr 2 gb ohea. Vs ebcr 1 bayl ohearq bar dhnegre, gura vg jvyy
gnxr gjragl-gjb naq n unys zvahgrf, abg svsgrra, nsgre yvtugvat gur bgure
fvqr.

~~~
roundsquare
(Rot 13)

Anu, vg qbrfa'g nffhzr gung. Vs ebcr 1 gnxrf 1 ubhe gb ohea, naq lbh ohea vg
sbe unys na ubhe, gura vg unf unys na ubhe yrsg bs ohea gvzr. Vg qbrfa'g
znggre vs gur svefg unys ubhe gbbx hc 10%, 50% be 90% bs gur ebcr yratgu, vg
jvyy fgvyy svavfu oheavat va nabgure unys ubhe.

~~~
nopassrecover
Oh yeah :-)

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DanielStraight
This is really good stuff. Interesting topic. Good writing. I like it.

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voidfiles
take notes, on everything, review often.

~~~
roundsquare
Some people would argue that this reduces creativity... by drilling things
into your mind you might lose the ability to think of new things.

I'm not sure which answer is correct, but just a thought.

