I just read an article on the Scientific American website called “An Easy Way to Increase Creativity. The article correctly points out that creativity has a great deal to do with context and outside factors influencing the individual. If you can identify the factors that increase creativity you might be able to increase your chances of finding creative solutions.

The article points out that one factor contributing to creativity is “psychological distance” which they define as ” anything that we do not experience as occurring now or here. In other words, if you can take yourself out of your current mindset you will be more likely to think creatively. That isn’t groundbreaking research, but it is interesting nevertheless.

Unfortunately, the article ends with some terrible advice when it comes to the practical application of the scientific studies. The article says,

“…there are several simple steps we can all take to increase creativity, such as traveling to faraway places (or even just thinking about such places), thinking about the distant future, communicating with people who are dissimilar to us, and considering unlikely alternatives to reality.”

I think that is a pretty bad summary of some relatively intriguing research. Let me take it one point at a time.

1. Travel to faraway places.
This suggestion completely misses the point of the scientific research. Traveling to a faraway place is not the same as “psychological distance.” The point is to get your mind thinking differently, not to actually travel. Granted, a trip to a foreign country might inspire you, but traveling alone isn’t going to make you more creative.

2. Think about the distant future.
In the study, people are asked to think about themselves a year from now. Then they are asked to think of themselves solving an insight problem. This is a much more subtle way to think about a question than just saying, “Imagine how you would solve this problem in the distant future.” I guarantee if the question was phrased like that the answers wouldn’t be creative they would just involve people in silver suits and flying cars. That isn’t creativity, sorry.

3. Communicate with people who are dissimilar to you.
First of all, I can’t see where this suggestion is getting pulled from anywhere in the article. Maybe this one is just phrased badly. If it said “collaborate with people outside your normal circles,” it wouldn’t sound so bad. It feels condescending to me for some reason to assume that I would be surrounded by clones of myself.

4. Consider unlikely alternatives to reality.
Creativity requires that you do more than consider alternatives. You need to throw reality out the window and live there for a while. If the answer was reality then you wouldn’t need to be creative in the first place. I think it is funny that they added the word “unlikely” to that sentence to make it a little more redundant. I feel like this is saying “consider the unlikely, then get back to reality where you are more comfortable anyway.” Good luck with that.

The next sentence in the article says,

“Perhaps the modern environment, with its increased access to people, sights, music, and food from faraway places, helps us become more creative not only by exposing us to a variety of styles and ideas, but also by allowing us to think more abstractly.”

The result of our modern times is that creative thinking is increasingly rare. The research cited shows that by default most people find it hard to think about problems from anything but a very literal point of view. They have to be “tricked” into being creative with scenarios that inject psychological distance into the question. More music, food, people, and vacationing isn’t going to make you more creative.

There is a bird in a cage. It can reach its head out of the bars far enough to peck away at the wood of the door. After year’s of pecking it has finally broken through the wood and is free to escape. As the bird leaves its cage it realizes that it no longer remembers how to fly and falls to its death.

There is another cage with a mouse in it. One side of the cage has no bars, just a ledge. The mouse can’t see how far below the ground is and is afraid to jump. After year’s of living in fear of making the leap of faith the mouse dies in its cage.

This story came to me in a dream a couple nights ago. I find this story to be one of the most interesting that I have documented at Dream Feedr. I feel sorry for both the bird and the mouse and can relate both situations.

It isn’t that much of a stretch to see our lives as a constant struggle to escape our cages. Sometimes our cages are comfortable, like the mouse’s, and we would rather endure the discomfort than take the risk of jumping into the unknown. Other times we strain our necks and toil for years for something better only to find that things outside our cage are the same or worse than life in the cage.

Do you see yourself as the mouse or the bird in this parable?

I have been documenting my dreams at dreamfeedr.com for a couple weeks now and I wanted to share some tips that may help you remember your dreams better. I have no idea if these suggestions will actually work, but if you are serious about trying to keep a dream journal, it can’t hurt. So here are ten ways to improve your dream memory:

1. Sleep in a dark and quiet place. This seems obvious, but even the smallest noise or light could disturb your sleep. Even if you don’t fully wake up you may be pulled out of a dream.

2. Sleep alone. This could be hard to do if you share a bed with someone, but trying to dream with a person next to you is harder than if you can sleep alone.

3. Don’t drink anything but water before you go to sleep. Caffeine, sugar, and alcohol could potentially affect how you sleep and perhaps it could interfere with your dreams.

4. Before you go to sleep make a conscious effort to think about dreaming.

5. When you awake, try to think about any dreams you had. The sooner you can capture your dreams when you are awake the better chance you will have of recalling them later.

6. During the day you may have “flashes” or deja vu that reminds you of a dream. Pause and focus on that thought and see how much you can recall of the dream.

7. Keep a notepad and paper by your bed and write dreams down when you wake up. This one doesn’t work for me, but that’s what experts tell you to do.

8. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. If you want to create a habit of remembering your dreams, it might help to create a habit of sleeping the same way every night.

9. Turn on a fan or some other appliance that creates white noise while you sleep. This noise covers up the small noises that might wake you up. Even in a quiet house, there are noises that can be softened by white noise. Floor creeks, pet sounds, heaters and air conditioners, street sounds, and even the smallest sounds can bring you out of a dream.

10. Practice. It seems funny to try to learn how to dream, but practice will actually help. The more you practice remembering dreams the better you will get at it.

Like I said, I am not an expert on dreams or dreaming, and these are just some thoughts I have had recently. If you have some suggestions for improving your dream memory please add a comment to this post.

I while back I made a post talking about the relationship I have found between how many hours of sleep I get and the quality of my creative output. I try to monitor myself constantly to see if I can find patterns to how I work. When am I at my best? When do my best ideas come? If I can recognize the factors that help boost my brain then maybe I can improve myself.

One of the things that I have been paying attention as I search for ways to be more creative is my dreams. Every once in a while I will wake up with answers to questions that I couldn’t answer the day before. Sometimes I will see things in my dreams that I can use when I wake up. Am I dreaming these things? It is safe to say that our brains are doing much more than resting when we sleep, but how can we capitalize on it?

I have never used drugs, but I can relate to artists who think that mind altering substances increase their creativity. Creativity could be defined as the ability to uncover the seemingly hidden solutions to situations. A creative person has the ability to see things that other’s would miss, no matter how long they look at the facts. It makes sense that someone who is extremely creative must have some “mind altering” abilities that other people don’t possess. How do they do it? Another word that creative people often get labeled as is “dreamer.” Maybe there is something to that stereotype.

Sleep allows our minds to do things that we can’t do when we are awake. In dreams we are not constrained by the rules of reality. Anything is possible. That is exactly the state that a person’s mind needs to be in if they are going to create something that doesn’t yet exist! It is a shame that so many of us dismiss our dreams as bizarre annoyances that prevent us from enjoying a good night’s sleep.

So how do we harness the power of our dreams? How can we optimize our sleep to maximize our creativity? That’s a tough question, but I have some ideas that I will share in my next post. Right now it’s bed time and I feel like dreaming.

It is relatively rare for me to go ego surfing, but last night I spent some time checking on my various web projects to see where the traffic is coming from. Font Burner is quickly gaining on my Lego camera as one of my biggest hits. Here’s some of the places around the internet sending praise my way:

Font Burner
Smashing Magazine lists Font Burner among their list of 50 Useful Design Tools For Beautiful Web Typography.

Six Revisions lists Font Burner as one of their top 20 Useful Typography tools.

TripWire Magazine lists Font Burner among their picks for 60+ Typography & Font Mega Toolbox.

Speckyboy Design magazine praises Font Burner as one of 21 Typography and Font Web Apps You Can’t Live Without.

Font Burner WordPress Plugin
The Font Burner WordPress plugin has about 1500 downloads from the WordPress Plugin directory.

iPhone Control Panel Plugin
Over 250 downloads so far.

Found Photography
Listed as one of 87 Great Photography Blogs and Feeds by Epic Edits

Phone Feedr
Phone Feedr has been added to the web app section ofApple’s website. I can’t say that has lead to a flood of traffic, but 18 sites have signed up so far, so that’s something.

(First of all, if you are on Twitter, my handle is ade3. If you are on Twitter let me know so I can follow you.)

It is kind of silly to put the weight of the world on the shoulders of something as trivial as Twitter, but that’s what I am going to do. Unlike Facebook where you only interact with people you already know, your Twitter network is farther removed. You follow friends of friends and people you are interested in but don’t know personally. In general, I am not very trusting of people outside of my safe circle of friends. Part of this is just general insecurity, but the other part is from observations about how strangers interact with each other online. For example, take a look at Digg or YouTube and follow almost any comment thread. The comments are filled with hateful arrogant people that tear people apart for no reason at all. Read enough of the negative threads and you seriously start to question what has become of the human race.

So I guess that was part of my hesitation about joining Twitter. Why would I expose myself to people I don’t know and another source of negative comments? As a blogger my experience is that the most vocal group of commenter isn’t the people that liked your posts. The people who comment are the ones who don’t like your ideas. That negativity is a big part of the reason I stopped writing for Be A Design Group and its audience of designers.

Once I started tweeting and following people on Twitter I was surprised by the tone of everything people wrote. Tweets are generally honest and trusting. Conversations are helpful and sincere. People are grateful when you follow them and generous in their interactions. This was the opposite of what I was expecting. Maybe my perception of humanity was a little off.

Despite evidence to the contrary, people are generally good. Most people will help you when you are in need. Twitter proves how much each of us craves friendship and how quickly we can let our guard down and invite people see behind the walls we construct. That is good news for people like me who were beginning to wonder where all the good people had gone.

Yesterday Rian snuck past me as I worked in the basement with an envelope in his hand. When he reappeared without the envelope he told me that he had a surprise for me, but I had to find it. “Daddy, you are cold. Warmer. Warmer, hot, hot, hot!” I picked up the envelope and opened it. “It’s a picture of you!” Rian said proudly. I opened the envelope and enthusiastically praised his drawing skills.

I have very fond memories of drawing when I was a kid. My parents had me drawing in a sketchbook at a young age, and they were very supportive of the artist in me. I remember dictating to my mother who would patiently write out the stories to accompany my illustrations. When I was in grade school my mom helped me organize an art club and invite my friends over for an afternoon of drawing and learning about art. We only met once or twice, but it helped me establish an identity at an early age of being an artist. My friends knew that was my “thing” and they respected it.

If you ask any successful person to point to people that influenced them when they were young, I bet most of them can quickly identify some key people. We all remember that one teacher who inspired us and encouraged us. When you think about these people you realize how life changing a few words of encouragement can be. A little praise of a kid’s math skills may send them on a lifelong journey into engineering. Praise a person’s singing and they may love music for the rest of their life.

Seeing my son’s drawings brings back great memories and makes me really proud of him. I gave him a sketchbook today and we had a fun time drawing pictures of his R2D2 toy. I hope he enjoys drawing in his sketchbook as much as I enjoyed mine. I don’t know if he will grow up to be an artist or an astronaut, but I know that being supportive of whatever he is interested has the potential to shape his future.

As I finish writing this Rian snuck past me again. He says he has something for me because “You are my best friend, and I love you.” This time he has a stack of about a dozen envelopes. I bet each one contains a drawing of me. I guess that just proves my point that a little positive reinforcement goes a long way!

I have always been a bit obsessive about my writing instruments. For one thing, I love calling them instruments. A good pen or pencil has more in common with a musical instrument than most people would realize. Good handwriting or skilled draftsmanship is an art. If you take writing or drawing seriously then you need a good tool to help do the job.

The problem is that while I treasure my mechanical pencils like beautiful instruments most people are content to use ten cent ballpoint pens. When the average Bic user has misplaced their pen they automatically turn to the person closest to them and ask to borrow a pen. It seems the most of the world has an attitude that pens and pencils are part of the public domain. It is common courtesy to offer up your pen willingly regardless of how much you treasure your pencil or pen. I have always struggled with that social norm. I carry a high quality mechanical pencil with me almost everywhere I go so I am never forced to use an inferior writing machine.

If you ask me for my pen you better not walk off with it. At my desk at work I have a pencil holder full of crappy pens and pencils that I don’t mind if people use or steal. Actually I have several in there that don’t work. I get a kick out of watching people take a pen out and walk away only to return moments later after they find out it is out of ink.

Last week my wife commented on my pencil. I told her that I have had it since 5th grade. She seemed surprised. Somehow I have managed to keep my pencil fetish secret from her all these years. But the truth is that I have kept the pencil for so long because it is a great machine. I have come across very few pencils that stand up to my high expectations for a mechanical pencil. As I was thinking about this pencil that I cherish I started thinking about all the things that can be wrong with a pencil. Before I knew it I had a list of 12 things that can make or break a good pencil. So here’s the list of 12 things to consider when you are decide to upgrade your writing instrument…

1. What size of lead does it take?
The size of lead that you use comes down to personal preference and the mechanics of how you write. If you have a heavy hand you probably want a thicker lead like .7mm to avoid breakage. If you like a thinner line then go for something thinner. I have always been a fan of .5mm but there is lead even thinner than that. Also keep in mind that lead comes in different hardnesses. The local office store probably only carries HB, but with a little searching you should be able to find harder or softer leads.

2. What does the click feel like?
You want a nice click. This is a little hard to explain, but you will know when it is wrong. When you press the button you want it to resist and then spring down and back. Cheap pencils don’t have the click right. It’s too loose and springy. Did I mention I am obsessive?

3. How far does the lead advance with a single click?
This is critical if you want to avoid breaking your lead. If the lead comes out too far you have to press it back in manually with your finger. If it’s too short you have to click it three times to get the lead far enough out and you have the same problem. A good pencil will push the lead out to a perfect length with two clicks. This is so that when you are writing and need to advance the lead you only have to click it one more time to get a perfect length.

4. Does it have solid construction?
When you press does the lead to the paper is there any movement? When you shake it do you hear anything? A good pencil is solid and should feel well made.

5. What is the lead sleeve like?
The tiny metal tube at the end of the pencil that protects the lead is a critical part of the pencil. Drop the pencil wrong and the tip will get bent or jammed in. Either way your pencil is toast. Higher quality pencils will have a sliding sleeve at the end. When you aren’t writing you can advance the lead and push the lead and sleeve into the pencil where it is safely protected.

6. What is the eraser like?
I never understood why most mechanical pencils come with a tiny little eraser that is almost not worth using. Isn’t that why we are using a pencil instead of a pen – to easily erase mistakes? I like having a fat white eraser at the top of my pencil. It seems that the majority of mechanical pencils have a cap that covers the eraser. While this helps the aesthetics of the pencil it makes it inconvenient to make mistakes.

7. Does it have a good clip?
Plastic clips will eventually break. Metal clips that snap on are fine but they give the pencil a sense of cheapness and lack of design. I good clip will be a part of the pencil extending naturally off the pencil giving you a simple way to attach it to your notebook or pocket.

8. What does it weigh?
Again, this is a personal preference but it can affect how you write. I like the feel of steel over plastic, so I am willing to sacrifice light weight. The weight should be equally distributed or slightly bottom heavy.

9. How does the grip feel?
My preference is for a solid rubber grip and I am amazed how many rubber grips are loose. I can’t stand a grip that slips up the pencil or rotates easily. It’s like riding a bike with a flat tire. The pencil is unresponsive and less accurate. Another mistake is if the grip is too soft. If you need a pillow to grip onto so your fingers don’t get sore then you need to write more.

10. How thick is it?
There are some fat pencils out there that I can’t use. If it is too wide I feel like I can’t control the pencil. The same problem happens when the pencil is too thin. For me the perfect circumference is a little fatter than a normal wooden #2 pencil.

11. How much lead can it hold?
I like to fill my pencils with as much lead as they can hold. I never want to be caught without lead. What do you do in that situation? Ask to borrow someone’s ballpoint? No, I would rather stop everything and find some lead.

12. Is it cool?
The final thing I look for is whether or not it has something unique about it. Is it a unique color? Is the design clean and beautiful? Is it covered in ugly logos and text?

So did my list persuade you to upgrade your writing instrument or just convince you that I am crazy? If you are looking for a great pencil check out jetpens.com. Happy writing!

I was visiting Phoenix for my sister’s wedding earlier this month. I leave our hotel and start walking in the direction of a shopping area hoping to find a place to get a quick cheap haircut. I found a Great Clips and put my name on the waiting list. I sit down and start playing a game on my iPhone.

In waiting rooms I am a people watcher. Even when reading a magazine or playing with my phone I am pretty aware of the people around me. And yet even though I am aware of people I almost never talk to someone I don’t know. I wish I was more outgoing, but I guess I am just inherently shy.

A guy a little younger than me comes into Great Clips and sits a couple seats away from me. We don’t make eye contact or acknowledge each other. I notice he is wearing a blue shirt with a logo on the front that kind of looked like the Sesame Street sign. I go back to playing with my phone and pretty soon my name is called and I am under the clippers.

That afternoon I meet the other groomsmen at the tux shop where we tried on our tuxedoes. We are chatting and I notice the best man’s t-shirt: blue with a logo that reminds me of Sesame Street. I must have had a confused look on my face because he asks me what’s wrong? I was trying to remember where I saw him earlier that day. He asks me if I got my hair cut earlier that day. Finally we put it together and are amazed by the coincidence.

For some reason this encounter has stuck with me. I wonder how often I am sitting silently next to someone who I could be having a fascinating conversation with. If I struck up a conversation I wonder how long it would take to find something in common with a complete stranger. I bet it isn’t very long.

Facebook and the like have made it so easy to “make friends” without having to go through the uncomfortable tradition of meeting someone. With our mobile devices wouldn’t it be cool if we could point our phone at someone and it could give us a list of possible similarities between us? Discreetly point your phone at a stranger and it could give you a readout like:

Similarities: You are both Lutheran, enjoy science fiction, and you both own Toyotas.

Differences: Avoid talking about music, art, or politics.

Friends:You are both friends with T-dog97. You also have a friend that is connected by 2 degrees of separation.

When you start thinking about it, technology could actually make real social interactions even harder. You can’t just walk up to someone and say, “So you like Toyota’s, huh?” Kind of awkward. No, it’s probably better not to know too many details about a stranger. I guess the easiest thing to do is just to politely try to start talking to someone and hope the conversation blossoms. If not, at least you tried. It’s so easy and yet so hard.

We are in Arizona for a few days to celebrate my sister’s wedding. Rian pretty much summed up my plans for the vacation when he said, “Daddy, I got a good idea. After our nap we can go swimming again, okay?” I don’t miss winter in Colorado in the slightest…