know_yourself – Page 22 – ORGANIZING CREATIVITY

Advising Grad Students in Good Faith (and What Every Grad Student Should be able to Get)

2014-06-12

An "I Quit" letter from 2009, serving as a powerful testament that sometimes, just sometimes, Academic Integrity wins. It also shows the two things every grad student should make sure to get -- or get out fast.
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Suggestions for Writing an Autobiography

2014-06-06

Suggestions on how to write an autobiography -- some questions and memory triggers. Great as a gift for a parent. Just ... don't wait too long.
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Why “great” ideas need a reality check

2014-06-04

Argument for the tedious task of learning about the domain you are working in. With a link to a beautiful video that shows what imagination without knowledge can produce: nothing pretty.
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Clear Communication in Engineering and Science (including the social sciences)

2014-06-01

Why clear communication between engineering/science and others is so important. Emphasizing the role of visual communication and using the Challenger Disaster as example. Definitely not a light topic.
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Good (and tough) Questions

2014-06-01

Sources for very good (and touch) questions (one referred to book cover shown left), with a few sample questions (and answers).
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A Creative Solution Regarding Consent to Organ Donation

2014-05-30

Organ donation is an important but very emotional topic. Whereas there are not enough organs available, there is a simple solution for the shortage.
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Book Recommendation: BITE: Recipes for Remarkable Research

2014-05-29

A very good book (cover left) on possible strategies to improve one's research productivity ... and happiness.
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With self-reflection, take small doses only.

2014-05-13

When you use your idea infrastructure for the most personal project ever -- improving yourself -- take care not to take in too much too fast.
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The Sweet Thorn of Madness in Creativity

2014-04-30

Reflection on the tradeoff between madness and creativity, and why being mad is not as good as it might seem, even if the ideas flow.
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Interesting Debate: “The State of Free Speech in America”

2014-04-29

Reference to a very interesting discussion on YouTube about free speech, and a few thoughts on it.
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This is a private blog showing my opinions. If you have an issue with what I write here, either don’t read it or talk to me directly. Don’t waste your time — or mine — dragging my employer into matters where they hold no authority.

The institution I work for, or rather the people officially representing it, have already distanced themselves from this blog. I find this unnecessary, as I’ve clearly stated in the «About this Blog» section that this is a personal blog.

Frankly, I have nothing but contempt for those who lack the backbone to address their concerns directly and instead resort to passive-aggressive tattling to others. Such behavior strikes me as not only cowardly, but also spineless, gutless, and wholly unprincipled. Moreover, these efforts are as pathetic as they are futile.

That said, I might listen if you present compelling arguments and evidence, as constructive feedback is always welcome. Who knows? We might even both gain something valuable from the interaction.

A comment for those seeking to use this site for personal gain: Given the increase in requests, let me be clear. I write on this blog because I want to. It’s my hobby, my playground. Sometimes people point me to interesting products/services and I write about them. But any request regarding ads or sponsored placements ends up the trash without a reply. And if you think something would be of interest, differentiate yourself from the spammers by referring to a posting — in an intelligent way. (I get enough auto-generated mails to identify them immediately.)

BTW, posts can get updated after I published them if I spot spelling errors (not a native speaker) or think a different wording might improve precision and clarity.

This blog is not focused on a single topic, or method. As long as it is relevant to improving creativity (or allowing it in the first place), it's fair game.
Some postings on this blog deal with freedom, as I think that we need freedom of thought, of speech, of association, etc. pp. to solve mankind's problems. Thus, some postings may seem a bit remote when it comes to organizing creativity. Freedom is, however, the bedrock of creativity.
The heterogeneity of the postings can make reading this blog a bit cumbersome, at least if you are only interested in one topic. You can either use the search function (above), or use the categories or the tags to narrow down the postings you see.