Innovation Inspiration #003—Organize Your Toolbox

You heard me. You’ve hit the wall, writer’s block, or whatever, and need some inspiration. You’re not going to find it by working harder, so work smarter. And you need to take a break from […]

Innovation Inspiration #002—Sleep

Sleep. Early and often. Make a habit of it. Discard the habit of pulling all-nighters (an occasional one is OK). Unless you’re doing something where lives will be lost if you sleep, you are doing more […]

Innovation Inspiration #001—Experiment

This isn’t the first gem of advice on how to find the inspiration needed to innovate, but since I just decided to start numbering them, this is the first to get a number. Whenever you […]

Seeking Innovation from Copying

I set out to write a post about stagnant design and innovation, tying my post about the shocking lightswitch and dumb outlet tester and the digital caliper design unchanged from 1982 to speculation and some insight on […]

Inspiration Really Does Come From Bright Sparks

One never sets out to touch live AC wiring on purpose (well, there are a few exceptions), but it does happen accidentally, and when you survive, you’re supposed to learn something. But I didn’t realize […]

Synthesizing Innovation

Alan Kay once wrote, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”—but how do you go about inventing the future? I’ve been thinking a lot about that this week, as I’ve been […]