Creativity Brain Training Games

XKCD is a popular web comic. It is both funny and intelligent.  The name was chosen by the author as they liked the fact that that collection of letters is phonetically unpronounceable.  Letters were made to represent words which are naturally pronounceable.  We wouldn't normally think about how we could arrange them otherwise.  So let's dive in and do the opposite of what we would normall do.

We have hit the pinnacle.  It's all downhill from here.  It may seem like we are on the verge of a creativity explosion what with technology allowing all manner of new freedoms of expression yet I predict it is going to go the other way, very quickly.  It all has to do with entropy and the idea that all systems will eventually settle on an equilibrium.  There is a huge push for creativity going on, but at the same time there is also a huge amount of greed in the world.

This week we're defining.

Game:  There is 1 random word below.  It's the starting word.  Leave a comment with a single word. It must relate to the previous comments word but its first letter is the next in the alphabet from the previous comments word.

• arithmetic

Well here we are and it's Friday 13th.  Unlucky for some but what a great day for some creative cunning.  Did you know that the longest time it is possible to not have a Friday 13th is 14 months (I think it would have been funky if it was 13 months but not to be)?  How about that friggatriskaidekaphobia is a fear of Friday's that happen to fall on the 13th?  Nobody knows why exactly we consider Friday 13th to be unlucky but there are a few theories floating around.  Let's have some fun.

When you are being creative with the aim of solving a problem or finding a better way to do something,  where do you look?  Like most people, do you straight away start to think about what is currently wrong or broken?  The weak spots that need work on them.  This seems perfectly logical, and indeed we are programmed to generally focus on the negatives, but is this actually the best approach?  I would like to propose another angle.

This week we're surviving (again).

Game:  There are 5 random words below.  How would you use these items to your advantage in a zombie outbreak?  You don't have to use them altogether, your idea could use just one or a few of them.  You can also use them in conjunction with other items.

• paper bag
• crutch
• shorts
• chocolate
• puppet

Perpetual motion is a goal that people have been striving for for centuries.  Wouldn't it be cool to have a device that produced motion forever whithout the need for any external help.  Alas, it would seem that the first two laws of thermodynamics suggest stuch a device is impossible.  But why should we let that stop us.  After all, many things have been deemed unpossible before only for some bright spark to find a way.  It's that creative spirit that takes us forward.

Our perceptions of things play a large part in our ability to draw inspiration from them.  The problem is that what we see is not what we should ideally be seeing.  When something is unknown to us, we have a tendency to believe that it's functioning must be complex and scary.  This is the habit we need to break if we want to see more opportunity when we go looking for it.  Most of the time, the complete opposite is the case if we get the right perspective.

This week we're comparing.

Game:  There are 2 random words below.  Your aim is to suggest a value (see below) for which one is greater than the other.  The word that is greater must be opposite to the word that was greater in the previous commenters post.

• fish
• encyclopedia

Acronyms are interesting things.  Just about every area has them but one area that particularly likes them is the IT sector.  You may have heard of a TLA or Three Letter Acronym.  The computer world is full of them and some of them are bordering on the realm of silly.  For instance have you ever heard of an AMD?  An Air Movement Device (or fan for short),  Or FUBAR - Fouled Up, Beyond All Repair.

You can't cross a gorge with a series of small jumps (unless you're Wile E. Coyote that is).  You have to take a big leap, with enthusiasm and trust that you'll make it.  Same goes if you want to be highly creative.  Small increments can only get you so far.  Eventually you either stagnate, and remain in mediocrity, or you have to jump and take a risk.