Use Metaphors and Boost Creativity
Look, learn and apply.
"A key aspect of creativity is the process of finding great metaphors" Ray Kurzweil
Constantly, people try to discover the best techniques to speed and stimulate people's creativity. All sort of methods and frameworks are available but, what is the core element that links all these approaches? In my opinion: Methaphors.
Think about it. One of our greatest differences between other species is our ability of "creating" new ideas (due our capacity of recognizing and link patterns). In other words…good news: It's not a "hardware" matter. We all have that same ability! Discover it through constant practice.
Humans have used this simple but powerfull concept in all areas throughout history. Many famous examples start to pop-up, for instance in areas like music and science. Understanding complex problems through metaphors helped — and still helps — as a great communication tool. Einstein's ability to express his teories through simple metaphors is remarkable example.
Today, the power of metaphors has helped technology to become more "human-like". Skeumorphic design, for example, is nothing more than changing an experience from one context to another to create a familiar effect. To translate this into a "principle": A similar to B with different details & context.
And here is where concepts and frameworks start to take place. Methodologies, tools, and all kind of techniques are available to boost up creativity but: are people really getting the basic concept? I'm pretty sure that initially nobody really understands the famous "think out of the box" quote. How can I open my mind? How can people see things from a different perspective? Am I a creative person? These kind of questions constantly heat up our brains…Just remember
- You have everything you need (Hardware). Just a quick stat: Your brain can process millions of patterns and, therefore, methaphors…each second! Go for it!
- Thinking out of the box is about "A similar to B with different details and context". Any context can bring you inspiration to solve a problem.
- Multidisciplinary teams speeds collaboration in order to understand other contexts and help you to link patterns and create new metaphors.
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree." Einstein.
Link your branches and find new solutions!
Best,
César
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