MOMOKO MASHUPS

An Afterthought on Experience and Creativity

Bob McKim is a Professor of Design at Stanford University, heading the Joint Program in Design, one of the most prestigious design schools in the world (since its creation in 1958, the program has only had about 300 graduates).

McKim highly researched creativity, the process and nature of it, and one of his most famous experiments was deceptively simple.

He gave a group of adults a pencil and paper and asked them to draw the person next to them in about 30 seconds, as best they could.

After they were finished, they were told to share their results with the person they drew. In almost every session, the adults would be embarrassed, apologizing to the person they drew for the drawing.

Bob would do the same exact test on a group of children, with much different results. The children weren’t embarrassed about their drawings one bit and didn’t apologize. They were proud of their drawings and would boastfully show it to everyone in the groups.

Our experiences as we grow into adults makes us sensitive to the opinions of others, and this is what stops us from pursuing our desires.

Lets not forget what it means to be a kid.

(Source: ted.com)

via theessentialman

Infographic on Sex

transparency: how kids are having sex

Once upon another lifetime, I was a sex ed counselor at an inner city highschool in Pasadena, California. Fresh out of college, it was an awkward yet fun experience. Somebody had to teach these highschoolers about sti’s. Anyhow, I don’t think I was good at giving advice on those things so I bonded with some of the students on things like comic books, web design, and the rules and etiquette of facebooking in highschool. Evenutally, I led a career day presentation about design and communication arts that led to a field trip to the Art Center.

This infographic summarizes my experience well. Back in 2004 Bush decided to cut all sex ed programs centered on contraceptives, and instead decided to allocate 100% federal spending on abstinence programs. Our program was at risk, but thankfully due to California’s state funded sex education program, the funding was only reduced to about 89%. Good produced this great infographic that communicates how adolescents are having sex. It’s my ah-ha moment of the day because it summarizes my first-job-of-college experience. (Later, I went on to study consumer and social behavior on millenials in Japan and North America.) I also love it beautiful design that communicates social statistics well.Oh, I’m super happy about the section titled “condoms and culture” because it seems like inner-city kids are receiving the proper sex ed that actually (works) is a bit more realistic.

Among 14- to 17-year-olds, 80 percent of boys and 69 percent of girls say they used a condom the last time they had sex, compared to well under half of sexually active adults.

I’d like to know the sample size and the geographic location of sample.

via good

Fatal Injection

It’s interesting that swine flu was recently declared red flag alert, a pandemic, and a state of emergency, when the AIDS still stand as more fatal.

Information is Beautiful | Fatal Infection

Imagining the Future

A cartoon explains some neuropsychology, the brain, and how we perceive time. If only human behavior was that simple.  [via Bud Caddell]

Inside the Minds of Innovators

We know them all–the visionary entrepreneurs of today such as Steve Jobs of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Pierre Omidyar and Meg Whitman of Ebay, A.G. Lafley of P & G.  How do they guide their innovation teams and how do they make it happen?  In an interview conducted by Harvard Business Review, we find out what we learned in school by associating, asking questions (even dumb ones), and experimentation are all valuable to innovation.

Fryer: You conducted a six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and conducting an additional 500 individual interviews. During this study you found five “discovery skills” that distinguish them. What are these skills?

Dyer: The first skill is what we call “associating.” It’s a cognitive skill that allows creative people to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas. The second skill is questioning — an ability to ask “what if”, “why”, and “why not” questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture. Continue reading…