Spaghetti Sandwich

Creativity involves putting together elements that are not usually associated with each other and coming up with a surprising result. The two conditions necessary for being granted a patent are 'novelty' and 'non-obviousness'. The invention needs to be 'new to the world', and it needs to be a bit of a surprise. The other day, I had some leftover spaghetti, but it wasn't enough for a meal. I thought I'd have some bread with it (the idea came from restaurant dining, where bread is often served with a meal), but I didn't have any butter. Then (bing!), I thought, I can put the spaghetti between two slices of bread... that would be just enough food, the bread wouldn't be dry, and it would be neat and easy to eat. I did, and the result was actually quite tasty (sort of like an eggplant or chicken parm sub with pasta instead). Now this invention was new to me (I had never heard of a spaghetti sandwich), but was it new to the world? I typed "spaghetti sandwich" into Google images and got several pictures of spaghetti sandwiches and quickly found out the invention had been thought of previously. It therefore lacked 'novelty', and could never be patented (not that I would... this is just a silly example).

Now a lot of people might go,"Yuck!" at the thought of a spaghetti sandwich, but only because it is unfamiliar and seems strange. When I was a young child, one of my favorite books was "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss. It was all about breaking the paradigm of unfamiliar being bad... at first the Cat in the Hat refused to eat the green eggs and ham, but after lengthy persuasion, agreed to try it... only to find that he actually loved it!

When I was in college at WPI, I minored in 'Creativity and Creative Problem Solving'. As part of my education, I put together a 3 day course on how to be more creative, which was held during winter break. In order to promote the course, I put up flyer around the campus that said (with the words formed into a question mark that covered the page), "Are you strange? Would you like to be stranger?” followed by enough info to know how to sign up for the course. I got 18 students to sign up. If you want to be creative and inventive, you really have to be excited about adventuring into the strange and unknown. You need to look at things from a different and unusual perspective. You need to be comfortable with ambiguity and willing to mix and match things that are at most tangentially related (i.e. at least 2-3 degrees of separation). Often, when I am trying to find a solution to a problem, I will isolate one aspect of the problem, generalize it, and then explore how others have solved the general problem. After finding some interesting solutions, I bring them back to the original problem and see if they unlock a novel solution. Often, they do.

Another common element of creative people is that they will use what is already around them in new ways. Creative people will tend to collect things and educate themselves about all kinds of things so that when that opportunity arises, the needed components and information will be readily at hand.

One important distinction to recognize is that there is an important difference between innovation and creativity. Creativity is fun and play and surprising and humorous and joyful and rewarding... but, more often than not, the outcome is rapidly forgotten. Innovation is where creativity produces something that has social, economic, emotional, or some other form of value, and that value is recognized, and the invention is subsequently duplicated, distributed, and adopted because of its clear value.

Often the innovation will be improved upon as people tailor it for their particular application. This is user innovation on top of existing innovation, and it takes place because (a) people have a specific need that the invention (in its current form) does not fully address, (b) they typically have at hand the tools that can be integrated into the invention, and (c) they have a certain expertise in that field. These user innovations frequently becomes the next generation of the invention. A research study done at MIT found that approximately 3/4 of innovations come from users. Users really understand the need (often better than the manufacturer), and, often by serendipity, will have some skill or talent that enables them to modify the innovation in a way that makes it better for them. It was somewhat shocking to me how often a product would be launched without the marketing person ever using the product themselves. If we are to be really good at innovation, we need to be personally involved to get the richest solutions, and we need to learn new skills and achieve new levels of understanding so that we can apply that to future innovations. Finally, understand the users, and look for unique and interesting applications and modifications to your innovation. That could be your next generation success story!

Metamorphosis

When we think of metamorphosis, the image that immediately pops to mind is the transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly. While that is a powerful and almost shocking example of transformation, there is another type of metamorphosis as well, which is more gradual, such as the transition from a tadpole to a frog. In a sense, one is like a revolution and the other is like an evolution. Both are valid means of reaching a desired end. In each case there is a dramatic difference between the 'before' and 'after'.

Curious about the word, I learned that during the pupa stage, a caterfly butterpillar will actually emit digestive fluids that cause the cell death and dissolution of its own former body, and the dissolved components are then recombined into a brand new living structure... literal death and rebirth. Other species, in more evolutionary metamorphosis, undergo dramatic transformations of their organs, such as the flounder, for example, whose eyes start on opposite sides of the fish larvae and end up together on the same side of the adult fish.

Another revelation came upon seeing that the antonym for metamorphosis is 'stagnation'. As growing, learning, evolving human beings, surely metamorphosis is preferable to stagnation!

A common but less cited example of metamorphosis is one that we have all gone through. We started off as two separate single cell organisms in two entirely different ecosystems. One merged into the other, and in an unbelievably complex microscopic dance, the DNA of both individual organisms combined to form a brand new and totally unique single cell organism. This organism then began replicating itself in another miraculous transformation. Then groups of identical cells began to express differentiation from other cells, eventually forming organs. Our form evolved visibly as we were transformed from a blob to a fish-like form to a human form, and then, pop! we went from liquid breathing to air breathing. Next, we are transformed from helpless babies into fantastically creative learning beings as children, and then into teen and adulthood.

Finally, as adults, some people go through a metamorphosis in their personal, psychological and/or spiritual makeup. Once successful businessmen can get addicted to drugs or alcohol and undergo a dark metamorphosis, at the end of which they wake up on a street corner homeless and penniless. Some will undergo another metamorphosis by going into a 12 step program, kick the habit, take the 12 steps to heart, and will emerge as a kinder, healthier, more ethical, stronger and more humble individual than they were before they started. Other people will find God and will be transformed from self-centered narcissistic individuals to loving and spiritual giants. The walk of faith is truly one about transformation... metamorphosis. It is about putting to death the 'old man' (fallen, sinful, corrupt), being born of the spirit, and bringing to life the 'new man' (enlightened, connected to God through Christ). In the central and pivotal verse of the New Testament, Romans 12:2 ("And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."), the Greek the word from which the word 'transformed' is translated is 'metamorpho'... look familiar?

It is said of businesses, that if you are not growing, you are dying. A business that is not innovating and progressing will soon be outflanked by its competitors and eventually become an annotation in the history books. The same is true, to a certain extent, with us as individuals. We need to continue to grow, to learn, to innovate, to change, to rise above. Some may go through radical, revolutionary transformation, while others may evolve more slowly. If we stop moving, we will stagnate. If we don't try each day to be better people, to answer our higher calling, to give more and to love more, then we are slipping into mediocrity and anonymity.

You can achieve great things! You can undergo a daily renewal and transformation so that you become stronger and healthier and wiser each day. As you grow, you will be able to accomplish more. Never stop learning. Never stop discovering. Seek the source of light and truth, then seek the transformation of your very soul. As you do, you will find yourself accomplishing things you never dreamed possible, reaching unimagined heights, and appreciating with renewed humility and joy the creative expression of God!