Thinkies: Introduction

Habits for creativity

“How did you think of that?” I frequently get this question. We’re in the middle of some conversation. I have an idea. I put it out there. “How did you think of that?”

Here’s the thing—I can often tell you exactly how I thought of it. There’s some trick I learned a long time ago. I took the context of the conversation. Performed this trick on it. 💡

About 5 years ago I started collecting these moments. What was the trick, the maneuver, I used to generate the idea. Here are my notes from this project:

Once I had a list of these “tricks for creative thought” I could start organizing them. Here’s my current “big picture” (it’s actually big—big paper for big ideas folks).

Please don’t try to read all that. As you can see, this is a work in progress. I’ll get to it all in good time.

Hypothesis

My big question is—can these habits be learned? I mean, obviously, because I’ve learned them. But can bright folks like you learn a habit as an adult & become more “creative”?

(I often put “creative” in quotes because people seem to treat creativity like some gift from the Muses that you either have or don’t have access to. That’s not my experience of it at all. I have thoughts. Some of them are judged “creative” by other people. That judgement seems to be more about the person judging than about the thought or about me.)

As with all my ideas, I tried this one out on myself first. It seems to work. Now I’m in phase 2, try it out with safe people.

What’s Next?

I have collected 40-ish Thinkies to date. I plan to write them up briefly & publish them, one a week, to you, my supportive patrons. I’m doing this because:

• I hope it will benefit you.

• I hope it will benefit me by validating or invalidating The Hypothesis, & by helping me refine how I teach Thinkies should they prove valuable.

• I feel such gratitude for the financial, emotional, & informational support you provide. I want to give something back that’s uniquely valuable.

Please don’t expect polish or completeness. I feel comfortable speaking to this group more casually & unguardedly than I do the general population of programmers. You’ll get a short Thinkie description every week for the next year or so. Try it. Comment. Discuss. When you get used to the idea of Thinkies, please share your own favorites.