In The Secret of the Highly Creative Thinker, Dorte Nielsen contends that the key to creativity is an ability to make unexpected connections. “Highly creative people are good at seeing connections,” she writes. “By enhancing your ability to see connections, you can enhance your creativity.”
I thought of Nielsen’s argument when I read this article: “The Vehicle of the Future Has Two Wheels, Handlebars, and is a Bike.” The article walks the reader through the recent flurry of innovations in bike-sharing systems: from docking stations to dockless bikes to dockless e-bikes that allow you to show up to your meeting without looking like you just finished a mountain stage in the Tour de France.
Interesting stuff, but the part that really sparked my mind came at the very end:
Best of all, the bike-tech revolution reminds us that innovation isn’t always about the totally new. It’s often just as powerful to blend a robust, old tool that works well with a bit of new tech to make it better.
“The Vehicle of the Future Has Two Wheels, Handlebars, and is a Bike” by Clive Thompson
#connection. I can practically hear Dorte Nielsen crowing in triumph. For today’s exercise in creativity, let’s try the same move:
Old Invention + New Tech
Set a timer for five minutes. Jot down as many combos of old inventions + new technology as you can. (Go for quantity. Some will be silly, some may be horrifying: just get it down and keep going)
For a bit of a foothold on this exercise, consider the following list of old inventions:
- Dirigible
- Ballpoint pen
- Zipper
- Vacuum cleaner
- Ejector seat
- Compass
- The modern factory or warehouse
I’m curious to see your ideas. Would you leave one or three or eight of them in the comments? Here, I’ll get it rolling with some of my sons’ ideas:
- Jet-bikes
- TV-toaster (“because it’s boring to wait for your toast.”)
- Vape-organ (every time you press a key, vape fog blows out the pipes)
- Drone-dirigibles (for big deliveries)
- Dirigible-trains (okay, this one is kinda cheating, because it combines two old inventions. Picture a mini-dirigible attached to each car so the whole train can go through the air “like a beautiful sky-snake.” Bonus points for the trippy image.)