Been wandering around curiously checking out the gaming and virtual world spaces lately. Lots of really cool and very exciting things happening. There’s the phenomenal (and in my opinion well-deserved and totally expected) pre-release buzz surrounding Spore and its great Creature Creator utility. But one other title, an upcoming PS3 game, is also demo-ing some very impressive graphics and functionality. Check out this playful GDC video of Media Molecule‘s LittleBigPlanet:

Way cool!

Oh, and if that doesn’t amaze you, just watch this vid through to the end. Within it could very well be the Holy Grail of gaming.… more

Pras Sarkar (of Yahoo! Research) delivers a must-read post full of superb advice for those seeking that sublime if elusive balance of employment and generalism. The title alone is worth the price of admission: Become a specialist at being a generalist.

Five key tips according to Pras:
–Stay up-to-date with your area of generalization
–Know what to explore and what to ignore
–Be critical of new technologies
–Visualize the results of all new pursuits and endeavors
–Don’t over-generalize… more

Don’t forget the Little People – a tiny street art project.… more

Complex systems – hell, even simple systems – can often be difficult to describe; to make palatable and understandable without trivializing or oversimplifying. Two great ways to explain systems are to lay them out visually somehow and then guide an audience through it using story. Both techniques are employed in this 20-minute video: the Story of Stuff (a link that HaikuBoxer so eloquently pointed to). In it sustainability expert Annie Leonard explores the global materials economy and its impact on economy, environment and health. You get the idea.… more

Here’s another good example of the Synthesize & Summarize service that Creative Generalists provide. JOVA is a creativity portal launched earlier this year by Sarah Boden-Dawans. She saw a gap to help businesses sift through the information overload required to stay in touch with global innovation and sought a way to collate it to inspire her southern African colleagues and peers. Many of its posts may also inspire communications and marketing professionals outside of Africa with a whole other perspective. Boden-Dawans describes JOVA’s founding purpose more in this Marketingweb interview.… more

I like to see this sort of thing… a job posting specifically tagged for Creative Generalists.… more

Few business books have had the widespread and sustained resonance that Blue Ocean Strategy by INSEAD professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne has. Published just a few years ago, it’s already a classic. If you haven’t yet read it, you should.

Blue Ocean Strategy challenges companies to break out of the red ocean of bloody competition by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant. Instead of dividing up existing–and often shrinking–demand and benchmarking competitors, blue ocean strategy is about growing demand and breaking away from the competition.

Using as examples Cirque du Soleil, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, CNN, FedEx, and Bloomberg, Kim and Mauborgne illustrate the value of redefining problems in new and different ways; ways not typical in traditional and entrenched marketing and management strategy.… more

I’d say this qualifies as pretty clever: Architect Secretly Builds Epic Scavenger Hunt into NYC Apartment.

Eric Clough isn’t your typical architectural designer. Sure, he’ll design you a fine den or kitchen, but he’s clearly got a creative streak that goes much deeper than that. That’s why, when given the opportunity, he secretly built an incredible scavenger hunt into a $8.5-million, 4,200-square-foot Park Avenue apartment that included ciphers, riddles, poems and a lot of hidden doors and compartments.

(Hat tip to Jordan)

Update: NY Times article here – a bit more backstory. Thanks J.… more

Noel, a member of “The Society of Creative Generalists” Facebook group, mailed me recently to ask:
“I am curious to know what the prevalent type is among Creative Generalists on the Myers-Briggs… maybe a poll. I have a premise that there will be certain traits that are more common than others.”

I’m curious too. A discussion thread has been started here if you’d care to share your M-B personality type and see if any patterns emerge. He’s ENFJ. I’m INTJ. Which one are you?… more

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. — Alan Kay… more