A Whack on the Side of the Head: “That’s not my Area” Boot To The Head! A Whack on the Side of the Head: “That’s not my Area” Redone in Microsoft PowerPoint By Tristan Ford Redone by Osfield Incorporated

The Solar Cell A solar technician has a problem. Her research lab is experimenting with a new solar cell material, gallium arsenide, which is causing her problems in the slicing stage of cell production. Her task is to use a special high speed wafer. She cuts the material; it cracks. She tries changing the position of the saw. The material still cracks. She is quite frustrated. At home that weekend, she is in her husband’s shop watching him make cabinets. She notices that when he wants to make precision cuts on certain types of wood, he reduces (rather than increases) the saw’s cutting speed. She gets an idea: why not try the same approach on the gallium arsenide. She does, and it works.

Boot To the Head! What this woman did exemplifies an important part of creative thinking: recognizing the basic idea of one situation and applying it to another.

“That’s not my Area” How many times have you heard; “That’s an administration problem” or “That’s an engineering problem” or “That’s a marketing problem?” The idea is none of those problems are purely engineering, administration, or even just marketing problems. In fact, they’re all connected in some way. They are all of the above. They have to work together in some way to get the job done. This applies for a ton of other jobs and life challenges too. But if you develop the “that’s not my area” attitude, you won’t ever be able to recognize these problems and creative thinking will become much harder for you.

Cross-Fertilization Boot To The Head! Everyone can pick up things from one another even if their jobs are entirely different. They all have their own short cuts, helpful tips, discipline, and much more that they only learned from another person, who learned it from another person, etc.

Looking in new fields for different ideas is great. Many significant advances in art, business, education, entertainment, politics, and science have come about through such cross-fertilizations. Nothing will make a field decline more quickly than keeping out foreign ideas.

Exercise: Suppose the following people went to lunch together. Boot To The Head! Suppose the following people went to lunch together. What could they learn from each other? There are no wrong answers.

A bus driver and comedian An automobile mechanic and a politician A kindergarten teacher and a software programmer A priest and the head waiter at a five star restaurant An airline pilot and a geologist A policeman and a librarian A circus clown and an air traffic controller A TV producer and an elementary school teacher A bull fighter and a gardener A fool and a banker A choreographer, a librarian , a prostitute, and a professional football player

Exercise: Do you get your own ideas from any of the following? Boot To The Head! Do you get your own ideas from any of the following? Outside people Places Activities Situations

Numerous People have claimed that these outside influences have helped them. Magic- Through the study of performance you can learn the power that certain symbols have when they are associated with one another.

Flea Markets Flea markets are one of the last outposts of a free enterprise. If you want to know what a free economy is all about, go to a flea market. There you can see the other people’s opinions of the products by looking at the prices that they selected themselves.

Sports Sports provide a good source of ideas. People have found an interesting parallel between why some teams always win and why some mangers are able to motivate people so well.

Nature In the course of their evolution, natural systems have solved in variety of problems-often in quite ingenious ways. If you look at nature with an eye toward similarity, you’ll pick up some good ideas.

Chapter Summary The main idea of this chapter is that always solving your problems the same way, can damage your creative thinking. Thinking inside the box will slowly create the “That’s not my Area” attitude, and you won’t be open to the great ideas that surround you daily. Journey outside the box and experience what others can contribute.

Develop the explorer’s attitude: there are always new things to discover! Don’t get so busy that you loose the free time that you need in order to complete step one. Read more than just one genre. You never know what’s there until you go there. Go outside the box. Boot To The Head!

Fiction is a great genre to start with Fiction is a great genre to start with. It helps your imagination get a head start. An imagination is one of the things that helps to develop the explorer’s attitude. When an idea comes to your mind, don’t let it go. Write it down A.S.A.P! Never let it go even if it doesn’t sound good at first. It will later on. Whether it’s the next day, or a decade later. Don’t be afraid to take risks or advice from a new person. You’ll thank yourself in the end that you did. Look for new ideas in tons of different places. Think of someone else’s ideas as well. Boot To The Head!

Boot To The Head!

Credits This has been an Osfield Incorporated reproduction Revised from Tristan’s highly animated version BYE!