Successful Blog

We’re All Creative 3: Three Year Olds Are the Masters

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Creative Curiosity

Creativity at Work

It’s true. It’s hard to get highly creative folks thinking inside the proverbial box. Curiosity gets us looking at the box inside, outside, and from every direction. Creativity motivates us. Curiosity nurtures and energizes us. “What ifs” drive our vocabulary. Put those qualities together and you have Jean Luc Picards going forth where no one has gone before and enjoying every minute immensely.

It had to be a caveperson’s creativity that got us fire. The wheel is surely an example of human creative thinking. Yet, the best example of creativity is any three-year old. [Read more…]

Net Neutrality 8-3-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding these links to the Net Neutrality Page.

Stevens Scrambling for Anti-Net Neutrality Votes

Stevens is still trying to force a vote on his inaptly titled telco give-away bill, the Communications, Consumers’ Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 (S. 2686). But he’s not having much luck so far. . . .

he article singles out Santorum, DeWine, and Chafee as resisting efforts to push the bill to the floor before the elections. Not only are they hearing from constituents on this issue, they are raking in some serious cash from moneyed interests on both sides of the debate. They really don’t want to have to vote on this before the election. . . .

AT&T’s Whitacre: ‘Nobody Gets a Free Ride’

“This thing is growing at a rate that nobody would imagine,” [AT&T CEO Ed] Whitacre said of the market demand for bandwidth. He said AT&T networks are now handling 5.6 Petabytes of data every day. “There’s more and more content, and you need more and more bandwidth, and somebody’s got to build it.”

“If you build it, you have to make a return on that,” he continued. “Nobody gets a free ride, that’s all.”

This kind of language, of course, leaves open the possibility that AT&T will (or already does) offer some of its customers a better ride across its access networks in exchange for fees. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the provider would block content that it disagreed with, which is a fear that most net neutrality backers discuss the most.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Interview 7.2: Cat Wentworth Becomes a Blogger

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Crusader Cat

Cat Wentworth

If you read the beginning (7.1) of this interview you know that Cat Morley has been a few places and done a few things in her career as a World Designer. If you came to this week’s open comment night, you also know that Cat had a major role in Wizard of OZ written just for her.

Tonight a little more about the many things Cat has had going on in her life.

Cat, how did you end up as a blogger?

I’m a crusader with a hot spirit. When LogoWorks started showcasing logos that were remarkably similar to many, many other designers’ logos, I was swept into blogging along with others. Of course there were some bits that had to be in place first. I just happened to be test driving blogger for a client when it all came about.

Cat tells the story of how she started to blog on Creative Latitude. It’s called Blogs, Podcasts and all that stuff.

Here’s how the story starts . . .

If you asked me a month ago about spending my precious time updating an industry or personal blog, I’d say, “Never!” Sure, I have a business blog (now sadly ignored) which I’ve spent time on, but I’ve always pooh-pooed jumping in and keeping a blog just for the love of it.

Many times on “The About,” (About.com’s graphic design forum) I’ve passed a verbal grin in Chris Gee’s direction when he went on and on about the wonders and power of blogging on his blog thepreparedmind.com. Not for me. I felt I had better things to do with my spare time.

I’m really glad she changed her mind.

Next: wait until you hear about Cat and the Queen of England!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
Interview 7.1: Meet Cat Wentworth, World Designer

Digg This! A Post Born in OZ

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Open Mic Night Collaboration

Somewhere around comment 180 last night, the conversation turned to writing a post about bad customer service people. Titles for Doug’s idea were tossed around between quite a few commenters including Brian Clark, Chris Cree, and the Advice Librarian.

Today that post is a reality.

Why not go over to digg.com and digg it?

Who Else Wishes There Were No Moronic Idiots in Customer Service?

Go on. Support Doug, Open Mic Night, and living social media.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Here’s Doug’s original post at Service Untitled:
Who Else Wishes . . .

OZ Is Hit with Link Leak Virus

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Tueday Comment Night in OZ

Open Comments was held in OZ last night. The conversation opened with a musical number and went from black and white to color in a matter of two comments. At some point in the wild forest, the flying monkeys dropped the evil link leak virus on the fair citizens of Successful Blog. Perhaps it was as we traveled through the poppy fields right before the Emerald City. Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes edged its way in.

Cool links were shared.

Precious Moments

There were scads of precious moments and funny response that read particularly well taken out of context. [Read more…]

Think You’re Not Creative? That Could Cost You Your Job

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Balderdash and Piffle

Creativity at Work

Creativity comes from the sum of one’s life experience. It pulls from knowledge, abilities, and skills. It uses neural pathways in the brain made by everything a person has learned and makes new ones as new connections form. It calls upon an ability to get beyond the ordinary, automatic response—to explore the inside and the outside of that darned proverbial box.

Still think you’re not creative? Maybe your definition of creative is too narrow. Some folks, who call themselves “creatives,” would have you believe that all creativity lies only in artistic endeavor. That brings me back to balderdash and piffle. Those folks aren’t creative in how they define creativity.

Ordinary folk have the power for creative thinking.

Creative thinking is essential to most every career on the planet. Businesses need creative thinkers to innovate, to manage risk, to meet ever-changing customer needs, to build efficient processes and solve complex problems.

If you argue for your lack of creativity, that could cost you your job. [Read more…]