Blog assignment 1B

This link will leads to an article called “14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas” by Mitch Ditkoff.  In this article he discusses how it is that people get ideas when they are creating things.  He starts the article by saying that ideas don’t simply come to anyone who wants one.  He says that we have to actually want the ideas and strive to get them.   Ditkoff points out that ideas are not created, but are already out there and just need to be discovered by those with the means to find them.  The larger part of the article has fourteen tips for getting breakthrough ideas when creating.  One of my favorite of the fourteen ways is the last one.  This way is suspending logic.  He explains that we seek altered states in order to escape from our daily lives and go to back to when we were children.  Back then ideas flowed into our heads without effort.  Logic did not matter and anything we could possibly think of made sense because we were never taught that it didn’t make sense.  The reason that I like this idea the best is because it is what I like to do when I am creating things.  I think of myself as a pretty childish person and this way is great for me.  While usually that is considered a bad thing I think being childish in a major like mine is a good thing.  Video production majors are pushed to be as creative as possible and there is no one more creative than a kid.  They suspend logic every time they imagine anything and that is how new ideas can be discovered as easily as possible.  The second of the fourteen ways that I liked was number ten “Hang out with diverse groups of people.”  Ditkoff says that because most of us hang out with the same group of people every day the ideas that are available from that group can become stale.  There is only so much that the same people can give you.  Therefore if you were to branch out and start to hang out with people outside of your normal group of friends you may be able to get new ideas from the experiences that they offer you.  It’s not to say that you shouldn’t hang out with a different person every time you feel like doing something.  It’s simply saying that you should give yourself a break from your normal group to switch it up every now and again.  I personally like this way of thinking because I have used it.  I like hanging out with my normal friends.  I get ideas from them every time we are together.  Although it never really seems to get stale, I am not constantly getting these ideas.  When I branch out a little bit more and get together with some of the friends that I have not seen for a while it always turns out to be a good time.  Whether I get my breakthrough ideas or not being with a different group of people is just good to do whenever you can.  One of the fourteen that I particularly did not like was number five “Fantasize”.  I think that this is just the basic point of all of the other ones.  It’s not exactly a good tip to give regarding this subject because if you have not even been fantasizing then you haven't even been trying to get ideas in the first place.  Fantasizing is where ideas come from in the first place so it doesn’t make sense to label it as a “breakthrough” way to get ideas.  After the end of each one of the 14 ways to get ideas Ditkoff poses a few questions that can help you to set up an activity to get you started with using one of the ways.  The question posed at the end of the fourteenth way to get ideas is: “What can you do this week to suspend practicality, logic and rationality in service to birthing your big idea?”  Since I am older now and don’t do things  like play with action figures or dress up like something crazy I would have to resort to something a little more adult.  One thing that I like to do in my free time is play video games.  While playing the games I can just try hard to immerse myself into the world of the game.  If I can suspend logic and pretend that the game is the real world I may be able to get some new ideas for something that I need to work on in the future.