Thinking new thoughts

The NY Times had an article on new habits and the benefits of getting out of the rut: ....brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.

And the New Yorker had a piece on generating big ideas, featuring the new venture of the former Microsoft CTO, Nathan Myhrvold and his innovation factory - Intellectual Ventures.

Ideas weren’t precious. They were everywhere, which suggested that maybe the extraordinary process that we thought was necessary for invention—genius, obsession, serendipity, epiphany—wasn’t necessary at all.......Good ideas are out there for anyone with the wit and the will to find them, which is how a group of people can sit down to dinner, put their minds to it, and end up with eight single-spaced pages of ideas.

So there you go - create new habits, get out of the same-old same-old and hang out with friends and create new ideas.