firstly, what is a paradox? according to wiki, our smartest and knowledgable friend, paradox is “a contradiction or puzzling result, that the premises themselves are not all really true or cannot all be true together.” Really, paradox is confusing!

There are 10 paradoxes based on Mihaly research. This blog will analyze as well as give constructive comment on those 10 paradoxes.

#1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest.

Well, to my understanding, creative people may have a great deal of physical energy, however, they may spend their energy into their brain, mental and thinking as well as finding ideas and looking for insights from their surrounding (FYI, to think about something so hard spends a lot of physical energy as well as mental energy). Most creative people thinks overboard though, and that is why most of them was at rest and quiet, because they are thinking for creative ideas, to focus on that is quite hard when they are doing something else. As we can see, when we are studying, mostly we focus on that and stay sitting on a chair, it is because we need to focus. Same thing with creative people seeking creative ideas, they are expressive at one time, but when they need to focus, they are quiet and perservere.

#2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.

Well, yeah creative people are smart, maybe their smart is above common people’s imagination. We can see some creativity are so out of the box, even I can not really see and understand it. however, they are so naive that they still express and show their artwork to everybody although I’m quite sure that most of that everybody couldn’t really understand the smartness inside their art. For example, fashion (esp. in france), I couldn’t even understand a bit of beauty in that weird dress worn by several very skinny women. I see it as weird, maybe attractive, but not a “beauty” attractiveness, however, those other fashion designer will think that some dresses there are masterpiece. so, well… smart AND naive explain this.

#3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.

Simple. Playfulness are needed to generate creativity, and discipline are needed for putting that creativity into action. Most creative people act playfully to enjoy what they are doing and also to search for ideas at the same time. When the ideas come, with discipline, those creative people will start to do what they have to do, to get their ideas into a piece of art. The playfulness and discipline may also lead to responsibility and irresponsibility as most of creative people acts lazy, take a look at painter near ITB, they only wear kutang, they have huge kribo hair, and they act lazy, that’s the part of the irresponsibility i guess , but they sell their arts, so that made up for their laziness

#4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.

How do creative people be stamped as creative? easy, they craeate things that is out of ordinary, that is surreal, that is unrealistic and extraordinary. Creative people use their imagination and fantasy and combine it to the root, which is reality, so they create a somewhat unrealistic reality that looks like a reality, but different in some ways or some aspects. That is what made their art creative and different.

#5. Creative people trend to be both extroverted and introverted.

From my analyzing, creative people are both extrovert and introvert by what they are doing. They are introvert when they are thinking about their ideas, how to differentiate their things with others, and mostly thinking stuff. However, the extrovert part is when they put their ideas into action, they express their action throughly and made for everybody to watch and see the creativity that they create. Therefore, they introvert and extrovert based on the activity that they do.

#6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time.

Yes, most creative people are humble, they do not really say that they are creative, or they are the source of massive idea generation. No. Most of them will say that they are a simple ordinary guys, or they got lucky, or they are glad that their ideas are stamped as creative. However, within those humble opinion, they are proud that the ideas that they generate and actualize are called creative. Who doesn’t?

#7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping.

Well, creative people is without any hesitation in writing this, have no relation with gender role especially those of stereotyping. Creative people can be male and female, without any further fact of which is more creative or which gender is creative in term of population (how much man is creative compared to how many woman). Creative is very general, and somewhat relative, therefore there is no exact way of saying how much creativity level does this person have or how many creative people out of 10 people in this world. therefore, there is no really stereotyping especially the gender part in becoming a creative person

#8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.

What is rebellious? is to do differently, what is conservative? is one who preserves from ruin, injury, innovation, or a radical change. Well, these are two opposite things, and from #1 – #7, we should already know that creative people are well-balanced (extrovert-introvert, humble-proud, etc). What can be analyzed from this is that while creative people do things differently, they will still adapt it with their conservatism, making their work understandable by common people. This are needed for getting their name up because even how remarkably they work, if no one can understand it, then that work is in vain.

#9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.

Absolutely true, they are really into their work and they can see into the public eyes if the work they are doing is good enough or not. It is again, the well-balanced emotion that those creative people have. Objectivity are important to get others respect and getting feedback into our head.

#10. Creative people’s openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment.

Well, to be creative they have to be open, expressing their creativity through their work. Often, when sensitive, some opposing opinion may hurt their feeling, or even hurt them physically. However, when it is praised, it will become an enjoyment that will motivate them to work even harder. Therefore, sensitivity in a creative person is good, as long as people keep support and give positive feedback to their work.

As a conclusion, these 10 paradoxes are somewhat true. well, they are called paradox that is why some of them have some balanced feeling, opposing one feeling with another. However, it is what making creativity continue, because if they only have one part of the feeling, only see coin from one side, only see the black, not the white, then they can not be called a creative person since they need to see everything from more than just one point of view. They are creative, that is why they see things from several point of views, and even outside the box.

IDEO (“eye-dee-oowh”) is a consultant company that takes care about design, innovation and creativity.  IDEO helps companies in need about their design products, services, environments, and digital experiences. Also, the company is also becoming more interactive to help the management too.

IDEO has created many innovative products. Through its clients, IDEO has provided several big companies with breaking through ideas, such as: Apple’s first mouse, Microsoft’s second mouse, the Palm V PDA, and Steelcase’s Leap chair. IDEO’s major client included P&G, Pepsi company, Microsoft, Apple, Eli Lilly, Steelcase, and many more.

Not only that, IDEO has won more BusinessWeek awards and the Industrial Design Excellence Awards by IDSA than any other firms. IDEO has been ranked in the top 25 most innovative company by business week, and has maintained the place ever since. What’s interesting though, is that IDEO does the consulting work for the other 24 companies in that very top 25.

We consult all your design and innovation needs

According to Business Week, there are 5 steps in order for us to be just like IDEO, innovative and expert. IDEO redefined good design by creating not just products, but also experiences. The 5 steps are called the IDEO way, it is the steps that changed the way companies innovate:

1. OBSERVATION - IDEO’s cognitive psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists team up with corporate clients to understand the consumer experience. Some of IDEO’s techniques:

• Shadowing – Observing people using products, shopping, going to hospitals, taking the train, using their cells phones.
• Behavioural Mapping – Photographing people within a space, such as a hospital waiting room, over two or three days.
• Consumer Journey – Keeping track of all the interactions a consumer has with a product, service, or space.
• Camera Journals – Asking consumers to keep visual diaries of their activities and impressions relating to a product
• Extreme User Interview – Talking to people who really know—or know nothing—about a product or service, and evaluating their experience using it.
• Storytelling – Prompting people to tell personal stories about their consumer experiences.
• Unfocus Group -Interviewing a diverse group of people: To explore ideas about sandals, IDEO gathered an artist, a bodybuilder, a podiatrist, and a shoe fetishist.

===============

2. BRAINSTORMING – An intense, idea-generating session analyzing data gathered by observing people. Each lasts no more than an hour. Rules of brainstorming are strict and are stenciled on the walls:

• Defer Judgement – Don’t dismiss any ideas.
• Build on the ideas of others – No “buts,” only “ands.”
• Encourage wild ideas – Embrace the most out-of-the-box notions because they can be the key to solutions.
• Go for Quantity – Aim for as many new ideas as possible. In a good session, up to 100 ideas are generated in 60 minutes.
• Be visual - Use yellow, red, and blue markers to write on huge 30-inch by 25-inch huge Post-its that are put on a wall.
• Stay focused on the topic – Always keep the discussion on target.
• One conversation at a time -  No interrupting, no dismissing, no disrepect, no rudeness.

3. RAPID PROTOTYPING – Mocking up working models helps everyone visualize possible solutions and speeds up decision-making and innovation. Some guidelines:

• Mock up Everything – It is possible to create models not only of products but also of services such as health care and spaces such as museum lobbies.
• Use Videography - Make short movies to depict the consumer experience.
• Go Fast – Build mock-ups quickly and cheaply. Never waste time on complicated concepts.
• No Frills – Make prototypes that demonstrate a design idea without sweating over the details.
• Create Screnarios – Show how a variety of people use a service in different ways and how various designs can meet their individual needs.
• Bodystorm -  Delineate different types of consumers and act out their roles.

4. REFINING – At this stage, IDEO narrows down the choices to a few possibilities. Here’s how it’s done:

• Brainstorm in rapid fashion to weed out ideas and focus on the remaining best options.
• Focus prototyping on a few key ideas to arrive at an optimal solution to a problem.
• Engage the client actively in the process of narrowing the choices.
• Be disciplined and ruthless in making selections. Focus on the outcome of the process—reaching the best possible solution.
• Get agreement from all stakeholders. The more top-level executives who sign off on the solution, the better the chances of success.

5. IMPLEMENTATION – Bring IDEO’s strong engineering, design, and social-science capabilities to bear when actually creating a product or service.

• Tapp all resrouces Involve IDEO’s diverse workforce from 40 countries to carry out the plans.
• The Workforce Employees have advanced degrees in different kinds of engineering

Well… That’s THE IDEO anyWAY!

==========BONUS ==========

Stuffs that IDEO help to create:

Prototypes are important. Always.

Aquaduct. Even cycling can become healthier!

PALM V PDA. Don't you see a lot of this everywhere, nowadays?

Yes! Today I’m gonna talk about my favourite TV series. These are recommended highly by me. Watch them and you will have several hours of enjoyment and fun, also educational and are a great way to waste your time.

1. HEROES

Who don’t know this series? either they have to get internet connection, cable TV, or do less studying and have more fun. Heroes, a series about poeple with superpowers, some use it for good, some for evil. Good VS Evil? NOPE, not just about that. There is also the third party called “The organization”, consisted of one of us, one of them (a team of two: one normal human, one superpower) that takes care about the “wild” superpower guys. The story rotate about how good are not always good, and evil can be good sometimes. YES, it’s very complicated but that’s  what make it interesting. Awesome story, awesome theory, just.plain.awesome!

"Yes, we are awesome. Watch us or you'll regret it ur entire life!"

2. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

We rocks dudeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Wanna talk about awesome funny movie? then this one is your choice. It’s a drama comedy about how relationships are like.. 5 friends, 4 journeys, 3 different relationships, 2 things to learn per episode, 1 title. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. It tells us a story about how Ted Mosby (the middle guy) is telling his kids about how he met their mom. A funny, sometimes thrilling and tear-dropping, romance movie. Single guys can learn a lot about this, you couples can also be educated by it.

3 different relationships is showed in here:

1. The average relationship: you get girl/boyfriend, you love him/her, you break up, you go back to step #1. This is what Ted and Robin (the girl in green) experience. Most of you guys probably experience this, that’s why you can learn and enjoy lots from this movie
2. The one shot wonder relationship: ever chose the right one with only one chance? no breakups, straight to marriage? then this is the relationship you’re in, just like Marshall and Lilly (2 guys on the right). This tells a story about how couple deals with stuff, ups and downs, goods and bads.
3. The one-night-stand relationship: Yes. The kind of relationship that most of the guys dreamed of. You chill, you thrill, you have sex, you’re out. This one, you must learn from the great “Barney” the “bro” aka the “wingman” aka “SUIT UP!” (the guy on the left).

WATCH IT. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (funnier than friends, everybody loves raymond, and even southpark! imho)

3. THE OFFICE

"Dunder Mifflin Paper Company at your service"

YES. Another comedy, I know u like it. This tells a story about an office, its manager (starred by Steve Carell from 40 years old virgin), and the staffs inside. It’s DAMN FUNNY, it requires better hearing and understanding of american jokes though rather than HIMYM, but same level of comedy nonetheless. A managers that treat his staffs like friends and love to joke around (which actually has the biggest sales among the other brances!). A somewhat competitive sales division, 1 LOVE his job, 1 LOVE the receptionist, and the others.. LOVE to have breaks and getting lazy. A cute fiinance division, each has their own personal characteristics that others like to make fun of. An annoying HR division.. this division seems to be the somewhat normal ones. AND MANY MORE!

Love happens in The Office

The office always explain to us the right thing, but with the wrong way.. Take one episde from season 1 for example, when the staffs there learn about how racism is BAD and hurting. Michael Scott, the manager (Steve Carell) gave each of us a paper and placed it on our forehead so we couldn’t see, the paper had a race written on it. We have to treat the person as the race in the paper.. so in JEWS, they say “hey, can u give me a loan?” LOL! and a conversation between two guys:

“(ASIAN on his forehead) hey, tell me who I am”

“ok… you have weak eyes for driving..”

“HOLY COWW AM I  A WOMAN?!”

ROFLLLLLLLLLOLLL

OK, the movie is 90000x more funnier than how I told you above, yeah my storytelling sucks… so watch it guys!!!

SCORING!

Heroes: 9/10

HIMYM: 9.5/10

The Office: 9/10

Well.. from what I heard and found, I stumble upon several companies that I listed as most innovative:

1. Apple. Blablabla yeah everybody knows this.. macbook, ipod, iphone, snowleopard, etc
2. Sony. Walkman lol, label, consoles, STUFFS starting form TV to a Karaoke player
3. RCTI. Yepppp! the master, dasyat, BAIM (tarzan boy, baim anak sholeh).. good stuff
4. 4chan. not really a company, but inside it lie the most creative and innovative people.
5. 3M. Yeah, that “think of ideas” hour per day really needs to be respected.
6. Microsoft. Complicated stuff… computers, databases, hardwares, even XBOX
7. Marco’s (my own) company. Not released yet, but in the near future you will see and be amazed!!

What about yours?

21 – www.21cineplex.com

21 Cinema: cheap, everywhere, and cozy enuff

21 is an old and well known for its strong branding and many locations. It also provides somewhat cheaper rates (insignificantly) and many movie selections. 21 also has a child company called XXI (21 in latin). The XXI, is a targeted to the higher income customers with its better sound, seats, and visual. it’s your average movie teathre and it’s pretty much good

Not gonna tell you about the glamorous and expensive class, since I never have been there, and probably will not in a very long time

Scoring!:

• Location – 8/10
• Movie – 7/10
• Coziness – 7/10
• Strictness aka. Forcing people to buy their food – 6/10 (damn those checkers.. and lockers..)

Final mark…… Awesome!

Blitz – www.blitzmegaplex.com

Blitz Megaplex: Very Comfy (look at those people, some of them are SLEEPING!), Worldwide movies, and modern

Blitz megaplex is a newer teathre. It looks stylish and very modern, as well as classy. Very comfortable and the chair, visual and sound effect are better than those from 21. It is located only in several places though.. so far 4 in Jakarta and 1 in Bandung, nowhere else. However, Blitz provide its customers with movies not only from blockbusters, but also movies from thailand, china, europe, and many more (A huge advantage I must say), but the PRICE. GOD, when I’m in jakarta, I will think twice about going to Blitz. That’s darn expensive… especially on weekends..

Scoring!:

• Comfy: 9/10
• Sound: 8/10
• Location: 2/10
• Strictness aka. Forcing people to buy their food: 3/10 (they only checks cameras.. even if you have food inside your bags. haha!)

Final mark…… Almost Awesome!!

Facebook: Currently my main SNS. The great SNS created by bunch of boys from harvard. Damn, I wanna go there… Great innovations such as apps, tags, and many more. Add me! http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=marco+gamal&o=2048&init=ffs#/marco.gamal

Friendster: Not as good as Facebook, but a nice pioneer well, since I’m off from friendster, you can just look me up by searching “blahblehngomel@yahoo.com”

Twitter: Actually, have made this long time ago, but forgot the password.. meh I’ll tell you guys later on

Myspace: Friendster for American? hmmm not interested. Besides, too much drama.

Hi5: Myspace for European.. or at least latin-ian… hmmm I joined but quickly quit from it, not my taste :p (too much SPAM for GOD’s SAKE!)

My answer is……… A TIME MACHINE

YES. TIME MACHINE. A machine that let us travels through time and space continuum. Yes, it  exceed teleportation device since that’s just one of what this babe is capable of.

Do you know that some people from today’s society is actually from the future? Hah. You’ll never know. Also, how do people achieve to innovate fire? how do people learn the strategy of cultivation? some people says it’s because of habits or an incident. Well.. I beg to differ, sir.

Yes, that is the most innovative thing…. for this century. But if we wanna talk about the time before this, then.. I will say… the INTERNET.

Why? Simple. Creating Internet (interconnected-networking) is like creating a world. therefore, the person that created it is like a GOD, and I, a creator of this blog, is like a building owner, and the blog itself is the location I own. Look at the Internet, many MANY things happen: Social networking going easy, seeing videos whenever and whatever video we want, downloading everything such as images and musics, chatting and webcamming with people we love, talking to strangers to fill our loneliness, seeking travel plans, commercials for businesses, and many many more. Don’t we all love it? <3

The world is like one little home because of the Internet. Interacting and spreading of information and media is very easy now Thanks ARPANET and especially Mr. Leonard Kleinrock!!

Leonard: "You're welcome Marco!"

PS. if you haven’t realized or known it, Leonard and his teams inside (and maybe some outside) the ARPANET are the creator of the internet and the world wide web (WWW)

]]> http://doingsomethingfun.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/most-innovative-stuff/feed/ 0 marcogamal Time machine, as sold in Ebay (its real! - google Time machine ebay if you dont believe me) Leonard: Youre welcome Marco! http://doingsomethingfun.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/getting-to-know-the-blogger/ http://doingsomethingfun.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/getting-to-know-the-blogger/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:50:30 +0000 Marco http://doingsomethingfun.wordpress.com/?p=7 ]]> Hellow thar!

Who am I? That’s a secret.

However, I will TELL you my REAL name and its MEANING!

I am Marco Salman Gamal, a 20 something years old gentleman from Indonesia. Well, that’s it. You might find something more about me as time goes by, but for now: The meaning of my name. To make the long story short, a.k.a. tl;dr (too long; don’t read), I’m gonna make it less blocks of words and more of the content :]

MARCO - the average name in Italy perhaps. My father named me based upon “Marco Van Basten” a very famous soccer player and coach. Why? because he’s successful, and that’s what my parents hope I will become. AMIN.

Marco Van Basten holding one of many trophies he earned

SALMAN - this one is an arabic name, based on my religion’s prophet’s friend. Muhammad SAW. had a friend, he’s called “Salman Al-Farisi” a rich person from Persia who travels the whole way to the Emirates to seek for the right religion for him. He always share his prosperity properly and was even ADMIRED by the prophet himself! WOW. Who wouldn’t want that!?

Is this the real image of Salman Al-Farisi? dunno, but he's close enough :p

GAMAL - Long story short, it’s my father’s name. However, he got his name by a egyptian president called Mr. Gamal Abdul Nasser. He is a respectable man that took effort to find peace between countries. He’s da man!

Egyptian former president: Gamal Abdul Nasser

There. 3 great-men name combined. Hopefully, I can become like them, and even exceed theircontributions to the world. Both in this world, and the afterlife world. AMEN.

=========== Other Meanings ===========

M = Masculine
A = Awesome
R = Romantic
C = Cool
O = OH MY GOD HE’S SO GENIUS!!

S = Sangat
A = Amat
L = Lentur
M = Mempunyai
A = Aneka
N = Nikmat (apa coba?)

G = Great
A = Aggressive
M = Macho
A = Ade Rai
L = Lewat!!!

Therefore.. today marks the “real” beginning of…. ~ DOING SOMETHING FUN!~

This blog will tell a story about myself.. my experiences about stuffs, my opinion about things, and my assignment matters, ALL FUN THINGS

disclaimer: all I write here may or may not be true.. they’re only according to my own opinion, I also take complaints and critics whether they’re negative or positive, but I will take care of things my way. Also, I will write in english mainly. Why? just because… I’ll do it with Indonesian occasionally. Also, please forgive me if I offend anyone or any institutions, wether I seemed to do it on purpose or not, please remind that all in here are my own opinion and critics. Thanks all!