
Kids build great things. - sahillavingia
http://sahillavingia.com/blog/kids-build-great-things/
======
javanix
Or, you know, ask the same thing to a bunch of traditionally-educated children
and you'll get the same answer: a black dot.

Montessori kids have been rewarded over the years for giving out-of-the-box
answers and that's probably what their mind jumps to first. Their ignorance
isn't what gives them the creative answers - the years of being taught to look
for something different is.

If you want to start getting better answers out of your
employees/coworkers/own mind figure out how to reward them for random ideas
instead of pounding them down.

------
akg
A lot of creativity is stemmed from asking is the right questions. Children,
as a result of their lack of knowledge, make connections with the few things
they do know and thus interpret questions in ways that adults might not think
of. Their unique associations may come simply from the lack/disregard of
common knowledge.

------
langsamer
Ignorance definitely can be bliss. I think there needs to be healthy disregard
for the impossible; it's what makes you do things that others normally would
not dare to do or even think about. Most innovations come from either
disregarding what they already know or not knowing better.

------
Jun8
I'd like to differentiate two thoughts that this post points to: the
"effectiveness of randomized search" and "ignorance is bliss", as they are
pointing to different types of creativity, I think.

The second case is one where the common wisdom is _wrong_ or the conditions
that made it right are no longer true. This is where courage is more important
than creativity, other people have also come up with similar ideas but either
thought it was impossible or didn't push it far enough. Entrepreneurial
examples abound but this happens in science, too, e.g. see Poisson's Dot
(Poisson predicted it but thought it was impossible, so was discovered by
someone else), the discovery of Neptune, etc. This sort of
ignorance/naivete/gonzo attitude generally fuels startups. Of course, when the
common wisdom _is_ correct, then the startup fails, so there's some evidence
bias here, too.

Now, the second one is more interesting. Let me tell you a story I read some
time ago:

The hunters for a certain village were much better than their neighbors in
bunting bison. This was due to the fact that their shaman each year gave them
a map drawn on a piece of hide that predicted where the bison would be, and it
would generally be right. One year, a hunter sneaked into the shaman's tent to
see how he created these accurate maps. He say that that the shaman just
treated the hide and did nothing else. When he asked him about it, the shaman
said: "When I treat the hide, lines appear on the hide, guided by the Gods,
that predict where the bison will be". These random lines were the secret of
the hunters' success.

That sort of random search of the idea space is hard to do but can work
wonders when it works.

------
Karellen
"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible,
he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he
is very probably wrong."

    
    
      -- Clarke's first law.
    

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarkes_three_laws>

------
systemizer
So true: 1\. Some of the greatest inventions were found out by mistake. 2\. If
you don't take risks, you will never know what is possible. 3\. If you always
follow the rules, you constrain your domain to what is already discovered and
understood.

------
RyanMcGreal
This is related to the oft-heard saying, "No one told me it was impossible, so
I did it."

~~~
goatforce5
A boss/mentor of mine from years ago would say (paraphrasing) "I don't think
it'll work, but you should try to do it".

It's worth trying to do the impossible, right?

~~~
RyanMcGreal
That sounds like a very good mentor.

------
camworld
The chalk dot on the wall story comes directly from a 1983 book called "A
Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative" by Roger VonOech.
A proper credit or footnote would be nice.

------
billpatrianakos
I like the author on a personal level. This was a great post that's really
deep despite its brevity and simplicity. I remember he posted something on HN
a few months ago about Gumroad - something about the problems involved in
launching or something if I reme,bet right. I'm impressed that this young guy
is doing do much. We can all learn from people like this. I'm just a few years
older and I envy him. He seems like an old soul and I'm so impressed with how
much he's accomplished. I know it's off topic but I was so impressed I had to
say this.

