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The most curious thing about...well, curiosity (sense of wonder) is trying to figure when to coral it, and when to just let it loose. In grade school I was curious what would happen if I left class and decided to take recess all day, that didn't end well. In college curiosity was encouraged to push the boundaries of design, graphics and presentations, the true studio environment. Then your first day of your professional career comes and you tell your boss you think a quarter mile long steel and concrete bridge would be a great addition to the community park, budget buster no dice. At the end of the day all three were great ideas, but maybe need a little bit of help with the execution. The lesson I learned was not to try and turn my curiosity on and off, but focus the outward expression of the random questions that pop up every now and then. Why is there a 'sexy robot' trying to sell me Svedka vodka? Why is there a national waffle shortage right now? Why is the refrigerator on the right hand side? Not stop asking the funny questions, just know when to ask them out loud and when to just keep them to yourself.
Tapping Your Sixth Sense For Fun and Profit
Categories: Culture Innovation Discussion New Products, Services, and Business Models Innovation Community Ideas
At Maddock Douglas, one of the most important attributes we value in our employees is their sense of wonder. This is our "sixth sense". It is defined by one’s curiosity (not one’s ability to see dead people) and desire to understand “why?”
After reading this article ask yourself, "what have I wondered about today?"
I had a sense of wonder moment last week. In the middle of the night, my son - who wasn’t feeling well - asked me for something to drink, so being the good dad I am (my boys would actually say great dad, but I’m Asian so I feel compelled to be humble in public forums), I immediately jumped out of bed to go downstairs to get him a glass of water.Unfortunately, when I got to the stairs, I started feeling lightheaded from getting up so quickly and I instinctively reached out for the handrail. I grasped the rail, waited for the blood to start flowing again, and got my son his glass of water. On my way back up, I had my sixth sense moment: who came up with the handrail and how did they know how high to put it so my hand would find it so quickly? Handrails are such a simple idea that most people take for granted.
So the next morning, I did what most people these days would do feed their sense of wonder, I Googled it. By the way, without Google (or Wikipedia), how many wonder-ful questions would go unanswered? There would be a lot of people wondering about a lot of things until they got to a library or encyclopedia.
Here’s what I learned about handrails:
No one is officially credited for inventing the handrail. Handrails were presumably invented along with the staircase, which also has no individual credited for inventing (stairs have been around in some form for thousands of years).
Extensive studies have been done to determine the optimal height and graspability of the handrail. If you really want to know more, check out www.stairways.org. The Stairway Manufacturers Organization appears to be the resident expert on codes and standards. Not sure what this diagram below means but it’s taken from a study done on handrails and it looks like really smart people are conducting studies to make handrails safer, which makes me feel good.
Source: Influence of Handrail Design on Postural Stabilization: Pilot Phase. Centre for Studies in Aging, Sunnybrook Health Science. University of Toronto.
What is your sixth sense wondering about these days, and how have you made good on your innate curiosity?
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AdamRobertMiller you hit the nail on the head! I experience the same "issues" and yet I wish I could filter the area between thought and voicing that thought more effectively. What it boils down to is how you can market an idea and prove it's value. I was joking with a co-worker the other day that I wished I was in on the conversation where someone first said, "I'm going to bottle water and sell it", only to receive the obvious response of, "Why would I pay for it if I already have it here in my house?"
Schmittyapolis.
I love the bottled water analogy. It is a great illustration of why you should even write down bad ideas, even if you think it might be crazy there might be a market for it. You will go nuts if you look at successful/ unsuccessful concepts in the market trying to figure out why people are paying so much for something they could get for free, or not buying into a great idea. It kind of like the mp3 player. For a few years they were on the market and having average success, then the ipod hit and it was all over for everyone else. The products were not even that different! Like you said, it is all about how you market an idea.
I think that is the hallmark of great design, when something works so well that it becomes second nature. Fast forward years, or decades and it becomes the standard... Kleenex, Hoover (England specifically), Q-tips, Ipod, etc were all innovative ideas that made something better and became the definition of the item within their category.
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