Freemind ist ein Opensource-Programm, das ihnen ermöglicht ihre Gedanken in sogenannte Mindmaps (dt. Gedächtniskarte) zu bringen. Dabei Strukturiert man in Oberpunkte und Unterpunkte und stellt zu den einzelnen Gedanken eine Beziehung her. Man kann es sehr gut zum Erstellen von Konzepten hernehmen.

Das Programm bietet zusätzlich viele Optionen zum Symbolisieren von einzelnen Punkten und auch die Ausgabe kann in vielen verschiedenen Formaten erfolgen.

Sie können es auf freemind.sourceforge.net natürlich kostenlos runterladen.

What's the Big Idea Session #2

Discussion Topic: How should I convince colleagues that the immersive internet has business value?  What can I do to address their initial misgivings?

Date: Friday, Oct. 17th, 2008

Time: 2-3PM EST / 11AM-Noon PST

Place: ThinkBalm's Innovation Community brainstorming space in Second Life (Vio II region).  Second Life URL (SLURL)

Why Attend:

• To practice using collaborative virtual brainstorming tools.
• To gain experience brainstorming within a virtual environment.
• To make connections with others interested in utilizing virtual technologies and tools.

Who can Attend: ThinkBalm Innovation Community members (email info@thinkbalm.com if you are interested in joining)

How to Attend: RSVP to rsvp@thinkbalm.com (include your avatar name).  To access the space, you will need to be a member of the ThinkBalm SL group.

La Lluvia de Ideas o Brainstorming es una una de las fases metodológicas para crear contenidos. Se puede realizar solo o en grupo y consiste en definir un tema, para luego escribir todas las ideas que se te vengan a la mente, en relación a este asunto. Uno de los fundamentos de esta técnica, es que muchas ideas mueren por la crítica destructiva a que se ven sometidas antes de que maduren o se perfeccionen.

La otra etapa corresponde al ordenamiento conceptual de los temas que se incluirán en el relato y para ello, se puede utilizar un mapa mental. En este momento, se seleccionan los conceptos en función de criterios definidos por el o los ejecutantes.

I've just stood back from myself while working. I noticed that I've started to work slightly differently. My reading on the relationship between conscious and other-than-consciousness has led me to redefine their relationship and has created a separation of their 'utility' in my mind (hard to refer to the concept of the mind in this context.....)

Put simply, I'm trusting my gut/ intuitive/ unrestricted freedom of thought flow. I'm then trusting my application of my conscious analysing/ sorting/ challenging intellect to the outputs from more of the other-than-conscious thought flow.

I'm deliberately stopping myself from getting in the way of myself (if you see what I mean...)

This appears to be having the following results:

1. Ideas are flowing faster, and more clearly. They are unhindered by attempts to assess/ categorise or action on the fly
2. At the stage of assessment/ categorisation, a next stage of creativity seems to be more easily triggered because of the focus of attention that my conscious intellect has on a body of information/ thoughts/ musings that my other than conscious has produced.

Working separately, but together appears to be creating a stepped value-adding cycle of:

1. Release flow of thoughts/ feelings and unconnected ideas
2. Evaluate connections/ gaps/ conclusions
3. Address outputs from evaluation stage 2. and produce required further creative response
4. back to 2.

I'm not deliberately trying to systematise this. I don't think this helps the process. But there is definitely a process....

Spesso abbiamo bisogno di idee nuove e diverse perciò si fa brainstorming, ma cosa vuol dire realmente, “tempesta di cervelli”? è realmente utile? Ma soprattutto come si fa?

Ho trovato un libro scritto da Edward de Bono “Creatività e pensiero laterale” che a pag. 145 spiega concretamente come trovare nuove idee con questo metodo. Mi è sembrato notevolmente interessante e per questo ho deciso di proporvelo:

Si tratta di una attività di gruppo in un contesto speciale che incoraggia ad avere nuove idee.

Durante il brainstorming si da e si ricevono stimoli dagli altri. C’è meno pericolo di stare abbracciati ad un particolare modo di guardare una situazione.

Il numero di persone

Da 6 a 15 persone, per meno persone potrebbe esserci il rischio di creare un ambiente in cui la gente si metta a discutere e non a lavorare come previsto nell’attività di brainstorming 

I ruoli

-          un addetto a verbalizzare le idee (si può essere anche in due dandosi il cambio)

-          un moderatore

-          partecipanti

Il tempo

Circa 20 minuti (al massimo 40)

Modalità di svolgimento

È importante che sia chiaro che in una attività di brainstorming non esiste idea che sia troppo ridicola da non poter essere avanzata.

L’importante è che non si compiano tentativi di valutare le idee con osservazioni del tipo:

“non funzionerebbe mai perchè…”; ma quali sono le tue intenzioni al riguardo?”; “è già stato tentato ma non va bene”; “sarebbe troppo costoso”; ecc..

sono osservazioni naturali che se consentite rovinerebbero la riunione ed il lavoro sarebbe inutile.

Obiettivo

Trovare idee, non nuove idee, spesso un’idea dimenticata può riemergere ed essere la più efficace tra le idee.

Contesto

È utile essere in un contesto convenzionale in modo tale che non si sia tentati ad iniziare una discussione ed a perdere l’obiettivo del brainstorming.

Più una riunione di brainstorming è speciale e più c’è la possibilità che i partecipanti lascino fuori le loro inibizioni.

Valutazione

La valutazione va fatta solo dopo la fase di brainstorming, da un gruppo di persone diverse, o dallo stesso gruppo ma il giorno dopo.

I punti principali della valutazione:

1. Individuare idee che hanno utilità diretta
2. Estrazione di idee errate o ridicole
3. Elenco delle idee funzionali
4. Idee che si possono mettere alla prova con facilità
5. Idee che consigliano una maggiore raccolta di informazione
6. Idee che sono già state verificate

Ci saranno tre liste:

-          Idee di immediata utilità

-          Aree per ulteriori indagini

-          Nuovi approcci al problema

Die Plattform bietet mehr Platz als zunächst zu sehen ist, da die Inhalte skalierbar sind.
Per Mausrad kann die Ansicht der Denkblase bis auf 25% verkleinert werden. So können rund 200 Stichworte kombiniert werden, die in beliebig viele Untergruppen haben können.
Nicht benötigte Denkblasen können jederzeit gelöscht werden. Hierbei wird eine kleine Animation einer verpuffenden Wolke angezeigt. Keine Sorge, die Animationen halten sich in Grenzen. Unter "Menu", unten links der bubble-Seite, lassen sich Animationen sowie Sounds auch an- und ausstellen.
Wer bestimmte Farben verwenden möchte, kann über eine Farbpalette selbst einstellen.

Nach getaner Denkarbeit kann die Ihre Mindmap mühelos weiterverarbeitet werden. Die bubbl.us-Seite bietet hierfür die Speicherung als HTML, XML, JPG oder PNG an (siehe "Menu/Export", ebenfalls unten links der Seite). Eine Registrierung ist nicht unbedingt notwendig. Sollten Sie jedoch in einer Gruppe an der Mind arbeiten wollen, ist eine Registrierung nötig. Registrierte können andere Registrierte, bzw. Nutzer, anlegen und in Echtzeit bearbeiten. Zeitversetztes Arbeiten ist ebenfalls möglich, indem das Mind Map online gespeichert und dem virtuellen Team zur Verfügung gestellt werden kann.
Dieser Online-Editor ist komplett kostenlos, aber es darf gerne über PayPal gespendet werden.

Weitere Einzelheiten gibt es im Video (Sprache: Englisch)

(Quelle: Dieses Video stammt aus dem Blog von http://blog.bubble.us)

Isto tako, drugi ljudi očekuju da mi čitamo njihove tekstove, da rovarimo po njihovim blogovima i upijamo  tuđu (nekad manju, nekad veću, a nekad nikakvu) mudrost. Ja dođem kod tebe i pročitam nešto, ti dođeš kod mene i pročitaš nešto drugo. ''Čitamo se'', razmenjujemo mišljenja i stavove, čestitamo jedni drugima, hrabrimo se i ''grlimo preko žice''. Ali... (kada bih sada rekao ''uvek postoji neko ali'' to bi bio kliše gigantskih razmera, kao što je i taj drugi izraz kliše, te stoga to neću napsiati, iako sam zapravo već napisao samo u drugom kontekstu, a to se naravno ne računa :P) ... kao što rekoh, ali, postoje neke stvari koje nam omogućavaju da se ''povežemo'' i da lakše dolazimo jedni do drugih. Tačnije rečeno, do tuđih blogova koji nas ovde, makar u blogosferi, identifikuju kao individue sa stavom, mišlju i željom da nam tekstovi budu čitani. Ta stvar su linkovi, srpski rečeno - veze. Onaj podvučeni tekstić obično ofarban u ''plavo'' koji nas odma' prebacuje na mesto koje je povezano (linkovano) sa datim tekstom. Konkretno govoreći, jer ovo što dalje sledi ima veze sa nama koji blogujemo preko Wordpressa (mada je primenjivo i na druge blog sisteme, samo na drugačiji način), kada na nečijem blogu ostavite komentar vaše ime koje upišete (ili pod kojim ste ulogovani na sajt) ostaje kao redirekcija ka vašem blogu. Isti slučaj je i sa WP forumima. Taj tekstić je linkovan i trebalo bi da vas automatski usmeri na blog one osobe koja je ostavila komentar. Zar ne? E. paaa... ne.

U čemu je fora/fazon/trik/zamešateljstvo? U tome što je taj tekst (vaš nick, ime, nazovite ga po izboru) linkovan na http://, što je nepotpuna adresa vašeg bloga. To znači da će onaj ko klikne na taj link da popije prazan ekran umesto da uživa u onome što ste napisali, a što biste želeli da i drugi ljudi prostudiraju i da se naravno vrate po još studiranja itd. Ako vas dosadašnje filozofiranje nije totalno smorilo, konačno dolazim do poente ovog teksta, a to je jedno laganica uputstvo o problemu koji sam naveo: postavljanju linka u nick koji ostaje posle napisanog komentara. Ovo naravno važi samo ako imate blog na Wordpressu. Ako ste, pak, navedenu stvar već uradili, a zaista vas je smorilo prethodna priča (iako ste je stoički izdržali), ili još gore - uopšte nemate blog na WP-u - ne sumnjam da ste iznervirani, a možda i malo razočarani. Šta da se radi, pogreši čovek...

Elem, procedura je vrlo prosta, a sve se završava u svega nekoliko klikova. Podrazumeva se da ste već ulogovani na Wordpress.

1. Otvorite Dashboard.

2. Kliknite na stavku Users koja se nalazi sa desne strane.

3. Kliknite na stavku Your Profile (nalazi se sa leve strane, između tri opcije koje su ponuđene).

4. Skrolujte nadole do sekcije Contact Info. Pronađite polje pod nazivom Website. Ako ništa niste dirali od otvaranja bloga, u njemu će pisati http://. Obrišite to i unesite punu adresu vašeg bloga (kod mene je to, recimo, http://maladictbre.wordpress.com/).

5. Skrolujte nadole i kliknite na dugme Update Profile.

Prilično je deskriptivno (a i prosto) tako da mislim da sličice stvarno nisu potrebne, a i mrzi me da ih sad ''na'vatavam'', opkrajam i kačim. :)

Ovaj post nije napisan sa namerom da bi se neko prepoznao, već da bi doprineo boljem povezivanju ljudi koji bloguju, makar ovde na WP-u. Ja se prvi ne potpisujem onim što mi piše u url-u bloga (maladictbre), niti po nazivu bloga (Maladict's blog), pa ne mogu ni od drugih da očekujem da to rade. Kako nekad može da dođe do zabune kod navedenog linkovanja komentara, mislio sam da bi bilo dobro da se to na nekom mestu lepo objasni. Ako sa druge strane nemate unetu redirekciju ka blogu ne zato što ne znate kako se to radi, nego zato što vam tako odgovara, onda pretpostavljam da je i to ok. Svi volimo da pročitmo nešto novo i zanimljivo, pa što ne bismo jedni drugima to olakšali? (Jeste, jeste, uvek postoji pretraga ali je ovo pouzdanije :P).

Lately, I've had to do a TON of brainstorming for multiple projects here at the office.  It seems I've run through the entire spectrum of writing states - no ideas whatsoever, too many ideas coming a once, a steady stream of ideas...

Well here's something a lot of people don't talk about, what should you do when you are brainstorming for writing.  Maybe because it is one of those topics where everyone is like "DUH, how to brainstorm is SUCH a given." But really if you think about it, there are ways that you can optimize the effects of your brainstorming sessions.

The first thing... and maybe the best thing that I can think of, is that you should WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING!!! I kid you not my friends... even if it seems like the most ridiculous idea you've ever had, you can always come back to it and build on it or modify it.  This goes to say, no idea is a stupid idea.  Every idea you have has potential, it's just that some have more than others.

Personally,  I really like to keep a notebook with me, pretty much all the time.  I get the most random writing ideas when I am driving, relaxing or even working!  Having the notebook around to write them down in keeps them from getting lost.

I swear that there have been hundreds or thousands of times where I have come up with (in my opinion) a brilliant idea, but wasn't able to write it down right away.  Usually I can convince myself that I will remember my outstanding idea, but 99.9% of the time, when I finally get to a place to write it down I have forgotten it.  I can blame that on the multiple concussions I've had from sports while growing up.

So rule number one should be to WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN.  Even if you don't have a notebook, write it on a napkin or text it to yourself on your cell phone.  You will be so glad you did because you didn't lose your idea into the great abyss.

-From the Writer's Corner Office

A lot of such techniques are around and all have their place.  And it isn't that I have desire to see Delphi stamped out.  It just seems so out of place as something that should be codified in the PMBOK Guide. 

The bottom line is that Delphi just doesn't belong; here are four reasons off the top of my head:

1. How wide-spread is Delphi?  I've never seen the Delphi technique used -- or even alluded to -- outside of formal project management training.  It is a RAND creation, so I supposed that it is used in public sector settings.   
2. Is "information gathering" the usual use of Delphi?  My understanding was that it was a forecasting technique, at least originally.  Sure, it can be used as described, but it seems a little odd to focus on just this one aspect of the tool.
3. It is even good practice?  RAND's last word on Delphi was 34 years ago (link here) and negative.  This last study called Delphi "an unreliable and scientifically invalidated technique" -- even variations or improvements were not encouraged.  There is more evidence in support now, but its results are mixed at best.
4. Why single out Delphi?  No affinity diagramming?  No Ishikawa/Fishbone?  No prediction markets?

I'll add one thing to it though, which should apply to each of the 7 ingredients - keep it simple.

Image courtesy of Today's Inspiration

I once read this on a beer bottle. Not mine, I hate beer. I tried it for the first time at the age of 23, and was disgusted by it. I did once think about trying some I had found under my brothers bed when I was a teen, but after sneaking it in to my room and cracking it open, I was far to repulsed at the smell and dumped it down the drain.

Anywho, Originality is hard to come by, and as soon as you do, you have someone copying you. I am not claiming I'm original, although I did create the world renowned Coffee And Cereal denied by Starbucks, but hopefully the guys at Mythbusters will redeem it for me.

We all want to be original, and we all love to create. I am somewhat a constant brainstorm of ideas. I'm not saying I'm brilliant, but I look at something, sometimes a problem, sometimes something I wish I had, and I try to create a solution. I keep a Moleskin Notepad in my back pocket to etch out drawings, or write down something while I'm driving down the road. Here are some things I've written down that I probably will never happen, some I will keep to myself that may though :-D:

Songs that are stories. I'm a fan of songs that take me somewhere. How I write songs is I first create a music video, or a play in my head, then write lyrics to describe what's going on, or the general emotion.

Random thoughts for youtube: "Guns and Geeks"- Guys with guns shooting the latest gadget to kingdom come. I would love to grab an AR-15 and shoot a Google Android. I'm not violent nor can I shoot a weapon.

"TurkeyBack" I thought it would be great to write a spoof of Sexyback with the words TurkeyBack for thanksgiving. To my dismay, it has already been DONE. After watching this guys attempt, I'm glad I never tried.

"Can You Fry It?" I still would love to do this with some gadgets!

THEN, the iPod touch notepad came around. This has brought me to a new level of addiction for scribbling down ideas.

One of my FAVORITES that I have on my iPod touch is a list of things I constantly update when I discover something new that I love. Consider it a Bucket List of things I love..
Here it is up to date:

Things I love:
My Wife
Music
Snow covering everything
Singing loud in my car
A hot cup of coffee sitting and watching people
Road trips with my wife where we talk for hours
Waking up on a trip to my wife singing at the top of her lungs
Hanging out eating with friends
The beach at night
The mountains in fall
Driving when snow is falling
Treating my wife like a Queen
Falling asleep when i've been playing hard
Sunlight on my skin in 70 degree weather
How creative people can be
Dancing(moving) to a good beat
Cup of coffee on a rainy day
Washing my hands with warm water when I'm chilly(when I was a kid, I would fill the sink with very hot water and put my palms on it)

That's enough of that for now!

So, this can't even begin to describe what goes on in my brain throughout the day. Do you know what things you love? Do you think about them and savor them? I do!

Recently at Brookwood we've been talking about "One Month To Live" and it makes me realize even more how much more I should love everyone, live fully, humbly, and serve with a heart that doesn't care about what I'm getting out of it.

So, if you don't already, I encourage you to start up your own list of things you love. Look at it often, savor those things that make life great!

Oh yeah, if you are tempted to live me a comment, don't. Click the NEXT button instead and read someone else's blog and comment!

Even if you operate in a stable business where little changes from year to year, eventually you’ll rub up against a problem or challenge that requires you to think outside the square.

Imagination comes naturally to many people, but not everyone is gifted that way. The good news is that even people who think they lack creativity are capable of coming up with fresh insights — it’s partly a matter of practice, but it also depends on finding clever ways to shed the creativity-hindering baggage.

Brainstorming is one of the best-known tools for doing this. It’s a technique that has frequently proved its worth over the past 60 years or so and has evolved into an essential workplace discipline. Most of the world’s leading companies use it everyday. So do artists, writers, actors and other people in creative professions who need to generate fresh ideas by the truck-load.

Although you can buy software designed to speed or smooth the brainstorming process, it’s possible to brainstorm without any tools; all you really need are two or more active brains, some ground rules and a little imagination.

The first brainstorming sessions took place in the advertising industry more than 60 years ago. In the 1930s, an advertising executive called Alex Osborn found himself becoming increasingly frustrated with the way meetings called to develop advertising strategies often stymied rather than helped the development of fresh ideas.

At the time, be-suited executives would troop into a room for a formal business meeting and then carefully work through an agenda. The strict managerial hierarchies of the day meant that junior executives would defer to their seniors; speaking out of turn could be a career-limiting move. Not surprisingly many people were too frightened to speak out so they kept their bright ideas to themselves.

Often, concepts would be discussed in a highly combative way, so that the last man left standing (in those days it was always a man) would get his way. Usually this would be the most senior person in the room or perhaps the person with the most aggressive personality. Alternatively people would come to the meeting with great ideas, but the politics of the meeting saw them work towards a compromise position — in the process the ideas would be so diluted that there was little substance left.

Osborn had a masters degree in philosophy and a great interest in the mechanics of imagination and creativity. He realised that the barriers to inspiration needed to broken down so he devised a simple set of rules.

The process defined by Osborn’s four rules was known as a “brainstorming session”. His basic set of four ideas remains the core of modern brainstorming today and its application now goes way beyond advertising. You’ll find brainstorming being used in every area of commerce, in government and even in academia.

Sydney-based problem solving facilitator John Sleigh teaches companies how to use brainstorming, he also conducts sessions. He uses Osborn’s four main rules and adds the requirement of recording all contributions so that they are clearly visible to all participants. He says, “You really need a flip chart, a white board or better still, an electronic white board. When I started out in the 1970s we used to clip sheets of butcher’s paper to a table and write ideas there with a marker pen. In some ways the paper flip chart is the most user-friendly brainstorming tool of all.”

When Sleigh runs a brainstorming session he starts by asking participants “what are the issues?” He says, “I just stand there and get people to call things out. People who have done it before have no trouble with this. All the ideas are written on the flip chart or white board so that everyone can see everything.”

The next stage is to get people to think about possible ways of solving the problems; the rule is that absolutely anything goes. Sleigh says running a brainstorming session is quite different from conducting a formal business meeting and people sometimes have difficulty adjusting to the style. It requires a little training, but that shouldn’t take more than an hour. He says once people are freed of convention the ideas flow thick and fast.

If the brainstorming session is specifically geared towards solving a problem, Sleigh gets participants to define success and failure in their own words. He asks them, “What does good look like?” and the answers also go onto the flip chart. Then, “What does bad look like?” All these replies and the other to earlier questions are made into one long list of ideas, the second half of the meeting is what he calls the “tidy-up”; a process of sifting through these ideas, imposing order on the elements and looking for improvements.

Sleigh says the first part of the brainstorming process is about getting people’s thoughts to diverge; the second part is to make them converge.

It’s possible to conduct a good brainstorming session with just three people, but experts agree that it tends to be more effective with a larger group of people. If you’re organising a session inside a large organisation, it’s important to get a wide range of people at different levels and with different responsibilities to participate because you want the subject to be looked at from as many angles as possible.

A relaxed atmosphere is essential. Some organisations have special brainstorming rooms with bean bags or comfy chairs and begin sessions by playing mood music or serving tea and biscuits. You actually want people to feel that they can say silly things, so one useful technique is to start the session by doing something slightly crazy like giving everyone a funny hat. A more sober but equally effective loosening up might be to start by asking people to describe their favourite pet.

There are many different styles of running a brainstorming session. Some leaders ask people to think privately about matters for a set period before switching to a group session. Other go straight to the group. In some organisations the process is a chaotic free-for-all. In others everyone is asked to make a contribution to the discussion before someone can speak a second time. Some managers have tried technical solutions that work somewhat like an online discussion group operating in real time. There are also idea-generating software packages like Idea Fisher which stimulate free thinking. All of these approaches are perfectly valid, brainstorming is definitely not a one-size-fits-all technique.

Perhaps the hardest part of running a brainstorming session lies in knowing when to stop. You need to make sure you generate enough ideas, but it’s good to halt the session when no more new material is forthcoming. One strategy is to impose a fixed time limit on the meeting and work towards a deadline — this can concentrate minds wonderfully. Half an hour should be enough for most sessions, but you might need a little longer if you have a large group of participants.

Most brainstorming sessions wrap up with a list of the better ideas. Depending on your goals this might be the single best suggestion, a top three, top five or even ten items.

This post is an edited version of a story I wrote in the early 2000s for the now-defunct Communiqué magazine.

Brainstorming Links

Brainstorming.co.uk Be warned this site is plug ugly (it still has a mid-90s web look and feel). However it is  useful offering a free brainstorming tutorial and a good jumping off point for beginners.

Edward de Bono Famous for inventing lateral thinking, Edward de Bono promotes alternatives to traditional thought processes. There’s a wealth of material here, but it primarily exists to sell books and consulting.

Idea mapping is a powerful brainstorming tool for sorting through and organising thoughts. You can use it for something as simple as writing a homework essay.

John Sleigh Amongst other things John Sleigh teaches Australia’s corporate trainers. His material on brainstorming is excellent.

Top Ten Brainstorming Techniques A list of smart ideas to get your brainstorming sessions really cooking.

What’s wrong with brainstorming? A constructive criticism of brainstorming.

The Four Rules of Brainstorming

• Defer Judgement: recognising that good ideas could often wither on the vine, Osborn told meeting participants not to criticise anything that someone else said — at least not during the early stages of a meeting. This means that people can feel confident about putting tentative ideas forward for discussion without fear of being made to feel stupid.
• Free-wheeling: Osborn knew some of the best ideas come from left-field. So he encouraged people to throw every idea into the mix, no matter how wacky. In fact, he believed the more left-field the idea the better. He is famous for having told participants at an early meeting that it is far easier to tame a wild idea than to make a tame idea wilder.
• Quantity is important: the more ideas that come up, the greater likelihood that one or more of them contains the best answer. One aspect of creativity is that quantity can be the same thing as quality. Osborn encouraged people to think up lots of ideas and sift through them afterwards.
• Consolidation and Cross-fertilization: Osborn understood that some of the best creative breakthroughs occur when a second mind builds on an earlier idea or when two different ideas are combined in a new way.

Your Brain

If your brain was a PC, optimising its performance would be easy. You’d start by backing-up important files, cleaning out the recycle bin and defragging the hard drive. Then you’d search for unnecessary bits of code swallowing valuable processor cycles. Next you’d check all your important programs and drivers are up to date. After that you’d schedule regular preventative maintenance breaks to stave off problems before they appear. Finally you’d install a decent anti-virus program and a firewall to keep everything safe from harm.

Thankfully, human brains do most of their necessary maintenance work on autopilot. That’s good news because with as many as 100 billion neurons to play with, your brain is considerably more complex than any existing computer and it doesn’t come with much documentation. However, there are things you can do to improve on the autopilot and keep your grey matter ticking over at maximum efficiency.

The first is to ensure you get enough good quality sleep. Research studies show that even a small amount of sleep loss has a devastating effect on divergent or creative thinking. At the very least, it will take longer to find key insights and reach decisions. Exactly how much sleep you need depends on your own body, but you should target a minimum of eight hours before any creative work.

Your diet can have a major impact on your ability to think. Most experts agree that a well-balanced nutritional diet helps thought processes. Unlike most body cells, brain neurons don’t reproduce so not eating properly can literally kill your creativity.

Brain neurotransmitters are largely made up of amino acids; you can replenish these by eating eggs, fresh milk, liver, kidneys and cheese. Other good sources are cereals, some kinds of nuts, soybeans and brewers’ yeast. There’s actually some truth in the old wives’ tale about fish being good for the brain. It contains a chemical called Di-Methyl-Amino-Ethanol which is linked to learning, memory and intelligence, it can also increase alertness. Avoid carbohydrates, they tend to cause drowsiness.

Caffeine is a sure fire way to get the brain moving quickly. Research shows people think faster and clearer after a cup or two of coffee. Be wary of drinking too much, it’ll make you edgy and interfere with sleep.

Exercise and fresh air are great for creative thinkers. This can, but doesn’t necessarily, visiting the gym. Many creative workers, journalists included, find creative inspiration simply by taking a long walk — it’s a great technique if your find your creativity is blocked. You may also find it much easier to think creatively if you switch off external stimuli.

Lastly, like a knife, your creativity will stay sharp if you use it often, but not so often that it become blunt. Train yourself to think creatively in bursts and give yourself rest periods in between.

Vrlo me raduje što smo odmah počeli sa programiranjem umesto kojekakvog (nepotrebnog) teoretisanja. Tastaura u ruke i špartaj. Radili smo Javu i, koliko sam razumeo, ceo treći semestar je rezervisan za nju. Za početak, radimo u BlueJ okruženju koje je ''ograničeno, ali pogodno za početnike'', dok ćemo za mesec dana da pređemo na Eclipse, koji je za profi rad. Profesor je neviđeni lik, iako je po mom mišljenju možda previše... neobičan, u nedostatku boljeg izraza. Ili sam ja jednostavno navikao na uštogljeno predavanje svih ovih godina, pa se sad osećam malo pogubljeno jer je čovek nenormalan, a zapravo bi to trebalo da bude normalno? Sad sam malo zapetljao, ali... valjda ćete skapirati. :)

Your instruction booklet will combine "explanatory" writing and paragraph development (in the Introduction) and "process-oriented" composition (in the Instructions section). Include graphics, as appropriate.

Our general schedule of events for the next several class periods will center around making this piece happen. As we discussed in class on 10/6, this could be an example of a portfolio piece, in that it may demonstrate your ability to perform a combination of highly transferrable writing skills.

A suggested timeline:

1. 10/06 - Brainstorming, Drafting
2. 10/08 - Layout, Graphics
3. 10/13 - Feedback, Revisions
4. 10/15 - Finalize and Submit.

These are my most recent concerns:

1. Language. The gargoyles all speak such good modern English, and so easily. I understand it's a kid's show, but explain why one of them has a Scottish accent, but no one else does! Anyway, being an amateur linguist, I think the following should be true: I don't know what exactly the humans spoke in 1000 AD Scotland, but I'm hazarding a guess that it's an older version of Scots. Before that, people spoke Pictish. I've always thought of the gargoyles as very conservative, so I think Clan Wyvern should speak Pictish among themselves, which would mean they're probably the last society in Scotland to do so, and Scots to the humans around them. They were in the middle of a transition at the time of the Viking raid.

    

   In Manhattan, they learn to speak modern English. This development isn't pleasing to the older clan members, but the younger ones take to it pretty quickly. When Angela joins them, she has to start from scratch, too. But she has been taught Scots, not Pictish, so she's doubly out of the loop.

    

2. Religion. There's a scene of a Christian wedding in Castle Wyvern, but otherwise the gargoyles think of religion as something that happens to humans. I don't think this would be the case. I'm fond of the Mists of Avalon scenario, though. Clan Wyvern, being conservative and favoring Pictish, is also equally pagan. They adapted druidism to fit the needs and beliefs of their people. There is already some encroaching Christianity. But it isn't until they arrive in Manhattan, a world where there isn't any real paganism anymore, that the conflict hits them head-on. For the most part, they stay out of it.

    

3. So of course I gave them a priest. He lived through the attack and is with them in Manhattan. He called himself Pilgrim, which is in keeping with the New England naming system and still fits his character. He is the uber-conservative force in the clan, and insists on speaking Pictish, or at least Scots, and doesn't bother learning English. He is devastated by the complete death of his religion, and is worried that perhaps he got it wrong all along. He will eventually come to terms with it in the same way that Mists of Avalon ended: seeing his old beliefs live on in new ones, and finding a universal god beneath all the mortal interpretations of them.

    

4. My favorite plot of all is when the humans who are protesting gargoyles' rights have their meeting bombed by the Quarrymen. The show didn't go into detail, but all my speculation about the show hinges on what those people would think of the clan, and the clan of them. The gargoyles wonder if they should reach out to them, but doing so might make them even more of a target. But if they don't work with them, they can't protect them from the Quarrymen as easily. Pilgrim is for staying far away; Brooklyn is for talking to them.

    

Also, I think that since the clan is related to one another, there shouldn't be such a dramatic change in physical shape, size, and color as there is in the Disney version. I'd like them to be all slightly like Goliath and Angela, but with some different colorings, slightly different sizes, just not as dramatically different.