Dear David,
I however think your question can be a poor one or a good one, as long as it is
a question you are in the loop of seeking. Now I have to jump on the other side
of what I just said in a previous email. The idea of creativity can make you a
better designer if it stimulates you to think about what you are doing and
think about what YOU mean by creativity. Ideas and thoughts, our intellect is
one of the gifts of humanity. That mystical ability to think, reflect and do in
an UNPREDICTABLE way can often lead us into delightful places. Before there is
the known there is the unknown. Airflight is a known now but it wasn't always,
there was that time when that creative shift happened to move us from not
flying to flying. It is a long history of experimentation, wishful thinking,
risk taking, intellectual rigour and non-rigour, playing, and on and on. Why
did so many people figure it out at the same time (almost)? What serendipitous
impulse pushes us forward (if we think of it as forward?)
Jan

Jan Coker
C3-10 Underdale Campus
University of South Australia
+61 8 8302 6919
"There is no way to peace, peace is the way"
Gandhi


-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Friedman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, 3 March 2003 11:28 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Analytical distinctions

Dear David,

Please don't misunderstand the distinctions I raise.

Exercising wise judgement and becoming more skillful
will, indeed, make you a better designer.

You did not ask that of me.

What you asked was,

"How will the idea of 'creativity' enable me to become
a better designer?"

My answer is that the "idea of 'creativity'" -- the IDEA
of creativity -- will not help you to become a better
designer.

I answered the question you asked. If you don't want to
be disappointed with answers, ask better questions.

After I rephrased the question, I offered a reasonable
answer on how to become a better designer. The
distinction is that this does not flow from the IDEA of
creativity, but from processes. Some streams of creativity
research support those processes.

And that brings us back to Dick, Susan, and the
systematic arts of invention.

--

Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management

Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University