Is there an optimal system for safe, productive innovation?
a Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries: Experiment: Learn by doing. Fail quickly to learn fast. Develop experiments and prototypes to gather insights, identify problems, and build up to creative ideas, like Beethoven did in order to discover new musical styles and forms. Play: A playful, improvisational, and humorous atmosphere quiets our inhibitions when ideas are incubating or newly hatched, and prevents creative ideas from being snuffed out or prematurely judged. Immerse: Take time to get out…
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What do Americans earn?
a Planet Money: Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: 8 ways that money can buy happiness What are your relationships worth, in dollars? At what annual salary does money stop making us happier?
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How does Apple create such amazing products?
bsp; "Apple calls it concurrent or parallel production. All the groups— design, manufacturing, engineering, sales— meet continuously through the product-development cycle, brainstorming, trading ideas and solutions, strategizing over the most pressing issues, and generally keeping the conversation open to a diverse group of perspectives... it avoids this chronic problem of good ideas being hollowed out as they progress through the development chain." Via Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation: The designers come up with a basic…
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What lesson can we all learn from Alcoholics Anonymous?
coholics focus on staying sober one day at a time and celebrate these "small wins". Research has shown that paying attention to "small wins" can help us make progress in many areas of our lives. Via Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries: Small wins are like footholds or building blocks amid the inevitable uncertainty of moving forward, or as the case may be, laterally. They serve as what Saras Sarasvathy calls landmarks, and they can either confirm…
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Do work teams fail because they don’t joke around enough?
searchers believe that humor can help teams bond, increase the quantity and quality of communication and build trust. Via Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries: A host of studies indicates that humor creates positive group effects. Many focus on how humor can increase cohesiveness and act as a lubricant to facilitate more efficient communications, like Bob Petersen’s story team. Researchers have developed a general view that effective humor can increase the quantity and quality of group communications.…
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Can an advertising campaign be TOO effective?
bsp; The ad campaign for AXE body spray was so successful that teenage nerds everywhere began dousing themselves in it -- hurting the brand's image and smelling up schools everywhere. Via Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy: However, the brand’s early success soon began to backfire. The problem was, the ads had worked too well in persuading the Insecure Novices and Enthusiastic Novices to buy the product. Geeks and dorks everywhere were now…
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Are we addicted to our phones?
bsp; fMRI brain scans say we're not addicted to our phones -- we're in love with them: Via Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy: What was more surprising, though, was that there was also a flurry of activation in the brain’s insula—which is connected to feelings of love and compassion. In short, these participants didn’t demonstrate the classic brain-based signs of addiction to their iPhones. What the sights and sounds of a…
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Things you didn’t know about sports:
in 25K+ subscribers. No spam, ever. Enter your email here: Do pro athletes break the law more than the average person? How often do pro athletes go bankrupt? Why do pitchers hit batters in baseball? How long does it take athletes to make $100K? Does betting on sports ruin the fun? Could a morbidly obese goalie shut out an NHL team? The science of "fair weather" sports fans Should LeBron James accept a salary of $1 a year? Could…
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