The Jive Aces
I’ve recently started to advocate a new theory of creative thinking. Ready?
Don’t think, Do.
It’s not “Just Do It” — blindly doing something (although that beats inaction). It’s more like start Doing in order to inform your thinking. And keep doing to inform your thinking. It’s my view that many of us waste a great deal of time thinking. Thinking is going to happen, what doesn’t happen enough is action. Don’t wait for the perfect idea to get started. Get started, and perfect ideas often emerge.
Yes, you need good ideas, and, good ideas often occur to you as a result of kinesthetic or multi-sensory action. If your problem is intellectual, find a way to make it more tangible. Draw it, walk through it. You might even sing and dance it.
Want an example? Watch this video. If it doesn’t make you feel better I’ll eat my hat. Even seeing people in action can be inspirational.
In theatre they often say that “feeling follows action.”
So, get into creative action today. In other words, swing baby.
(Thank you to The Jive Aces and the late, great, Louie Prima for inspiration).
3 responses to “When all else fails, Swing.”
Thank you, you really write in a way everyone – including me 🙂 – can@is able to understand, even if someone is not so familiar with these things. But what exactly do you mean with your first paragraph? Frank
Frank, thanks for your comment. Not sure I get your question. I think my thesis is pretty straightforward, I’m advocating action as a way to understand a problem. This action could take many forms, prototyping, research, tests, failure, etc. What I’m not advocating, any longer, is thinking “in your head” especially to the exclusion of other kinds of thinking. Action is a type of thinking really, so, I’m not against creative thinking if you define it broadly enough to include various types of action. Does that help?
I see you are somehow connected to the Theory of Constraints, what is your relationship to Eli Goldratt?
best wishes…
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