On Being Creative

 The typical artist/painter is supposed to be poor, unkempt and not adept with the ways of the (rest of the) world. Though that may be an exaggeration, there is an element of truth in the image. S(he) may be less concerned with the world than a person in a 'normal' profession. The primary reason, of course, is love for what she is doing.

Very few jobs offer the luxury of doing what you love (teaching may be one). Mostly, they are bread-earners for an employee, however much we may try and match the employee's strengths with the job on hand. Yes, it's possible to motivate through incentives, but that motivation may end when the tap of incentives closes.

Being creative (if allowed to) may be a way out. It seeks to motivate an employee by being creative, or innovative. For example, there is a dancing traffic policeman (saw a video of him), and a cricket umpire who used variations of the sign for declaring a batsman 'out' in cricket.

Lots of creative ways of doing things can be explored, as I have found out in teaching. And observing people in 'boring' jobs doing things differently. Conversations can be creative too, with co-workers, or subordinates.. and dare I say it, with bosses. 

Of course, one can pursue creative pursuits outside of the job, like photography, painting, writing or travel.

Administration Versus Leadership

I have deliberately not used the word Management, because I am not talking of MBAs alone, but more generally, about spheres that affect more people than the corporates.

Administration can be the routine activities, and more to do with implementation of rules that were framed by someone else. For instance, the Municipal administration mainly has to do with implementing rules and duties already assigned to the department. Few new things, maybe once in a while, like building a new flyover.

Leaders may be distinguished (if they are at all) by some creative ideas that they are able to come up with for the non-routine, which may benefit a lot of people. Many leaders give us hope, but few live up to it. In our political landscape, maybe three or four have solved problems of masses creatively, though many may have contributed in bits and pieces. TN Seshan, E Sreedharan (Metro Man), Verghese Kurien, and a few other bureaucrats from within the system were leaders who did this by probably going beyond their brief. The Metro has the potential to solve public transport problems if designed well- I have now travelled by Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore metros and can vouch for this.

I had the fortune to live in Andhra Pradesh when Chandrababu Naidu came up with a computerised service for citizens to pay their bills in one place. It was called eSeva, and was later (much later) copied by other states. Before this, people spent huge amounts of time in lines to pay their own utility bills.

The latest example of good leadership is the way the Orissa Cyclone called Fani has been handled, with able leadership directing the various administrative wings in saving at least a few thousand lives. It involved coordination among different administrative bodies/wings, making it all the more remarkable.

I am pretty sure that we can keep up a flurry of such innovations to ease the life of a common man, if we give enough thought to it. That would make for smart cities and villages, and much more. Maybe a citizen scrutiny and rating system may work, and get people to participate more in governance too.

Ads and Creativity

Ads are supposed to be made by creative people. Why do I get the feeling then, that there is a dearth of such people in the industry?

About a year ago, almost seven ads across different product categories had an unexpected person (or more than one persons) dancing somewhere. Were they taking one concept and selling it to multiple clients? Or was it different ad agencies that had stopped thinking altogether and blindly copied that idea from others? No idea.

Detergent ads all have white clothes. And this has been going on for 30 years that I know of. Who wears white?

Underwear ads, Deo ads, and Fairness cream ads (yes, they exist), all have a sameness about them that is disheartening, and they probably do not succeed in selling the product beyond what it would sell without the ads..

Looking forward to a breakthrough that is overdue..Kuchh khaas hai?

Word Play

The Washington Post's Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from 
the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and 
supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners (some censored for this blog): Enjoy!

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding a stupid person that stops bright 
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign 
of breaking down in the near future.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject 
financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person 
who doesn't get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these really 
bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a 
serious bummer.

10 Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming 
only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when 
they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've 
accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your 
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the 
fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the lot:

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an a-ole.

Creativity and Good Ideas

Reading a book on Creativity by a prof. whose name sounds Russian and is too complex to remember. Anyway, he has a theory about "Flow" of ideas. He quotes an interesting Q/A with Linus Pauling, a Nobel Laureate, and a student about how to get good ideas.

A student: "Dr. Pauling, how does one go about having good ideas?"

Pauling: "You have a lot of ideas and throw away the bad ones."

He also says finding pleasure in the right things is the best thing we can teach the young. And, that our schools and teachers are ineffective in bringing interest to the subject being taught. Parental models and behavior also usually sets wrong examples, hindering creativity and satisfaction among the children who grow up with wrong ideas.

Interesting thoughts based on interviews with highly accomplished and creative people including authors, musicians (Ravi Shankar) and the like.