The creative personality

Via a Twitter update by Marci Segal, I came across an interesting article by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi about the creative personality. Reading the article, I learned, for example, the following 10 things:

Learning point # 1
The energy of creative people is internally generated, due not least to their focused minds.

Learning point # 2
People who bring about an acceptable novelty in a domain seem able to use well two opposite ways of thinking: the convergent and the divergent. Divergent thinking is often perceived as deviant by the majority, and so the creative person may feel isolated and misunderstood.

Learning point # 3
Creative people combine playfulness and discipline.

Learning point # 4
Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.

Learning point # 5
Creative people tend to be both extroverted and introverted.

Learning point # 6
Creative people are humble and proud at the same time. They're usually so focused on future projects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding, are no longer very interesting to them.

Learning point # 7
Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping.

Learning point # 8
Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.

Learning point # 9
Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.

Learning point # 10
Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment.

How creative are you?

Whatever it takes to make your walking holiday perfect

Via this posting, I came across the 1½ minute video below.

The Disci dance – South Africa

Have you thought about that humans have mutiple intelligences – including, for example, musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, spatial intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and naturalist intelligence? You can read more about multiple intelligences here. On learntodisci.com, I found out that, in South Africa, they have a different way of playing soccer. It’s rhythmic, sometimes showy, but never boring. They call it Disci. It’s 5 soccer-based moves making up a dance that is uniquely South African. Here’s Matt in South Africa learning the Diski dance.

Use goats as lawn mowers

In this posting, I learned that, for Google, the cost of bringing in goats is comparable to hiring lawn mowers for the same job and the green benefits are clear: the goats eliminate mower emissions, reduce noise pollution, restore plant species and fertilize while grazing.

An interesting initiative.

Morality and the free market - Michael Sandel

Engage patients

Via this posting, I came across the 1 minute video below. In the video, Dr. Donald Berwick refers to studies showing that when patients got to participate in decisions, surgery rates fell by almost 25%, and satisfaction in outcomes improved.

Don Berwick #4: "Patients Make More Frugal Choices" from Century Foundation on Vimeo.

Improve toilets on trains

I was quite surprised as I saw this toilet on a train in Switzerland. In fact, I almost cannot believe that what is in the toilet is being flushed right onto the rails. What are your thoughts?

The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Via this blog posting, I came across the 7½ minute video below about the Akshaya Patra Foundation. I read that the Akshaya Patra Foundation started as a pilot project in five schools in Bangalore, feeding 1,500 children. Today, the program reaches out to more than 1 million children across India. Studying the website, I found it particularly interesting that the program has adopted a decentralized kitchen approach involving women's self-help groups in cooking and distribution of food - thereby ensuring a regular income for these women.

The population of India is 1.15 billion people. 30.5% of the population are below 15 years of age. For more information about India, have a look at this presentation.