Mariah LeBlanc #1

1.) I would describe this reading to a friend as a good guideline on how to cultivate your ideas, and produce them. The article was very clear on the characteristics of creative thinking. Some of the big points she touched upon were receptivity, curiosity, conviction, complexity, attentiveness, connection seeking, goal setting, time management, and work sequentially. It all begins with your one idea and from there you can only add on and mold your idea into a finished product. There is a known fact that people who are creative are more willing to take in, and accept new ideas. Even though your idea may start with your intuition, in order to complete the job you will need a little logic, and a lot of creativity. Also, in order to complete the job you must set your goals. What is the potential you are looking to reach with your finished product? Deadlines are also a good idea so you do not fall behind in your work, and do everything last minute. Take things step by step. You will not reach your full potential by cramming it all in at the last minute. Lastly, working with others can be very helpful. The work can be evenly distributed, and bouncing ideas off each other will only make your final product even better. The idea and finished product are the most important parts to design. In the middle somewhere you will come across problems where you must choose between the urgent problems, and the non urgent problems. The problems you can fix and the problems you can't. It is good to make models and prototypes to find out what works best, and what it is better to your liking. You should brainstorm, make lists, diagrams, research, or create a journal. All of these are tools to cultivate your creativity, and ways to think about the situation. Two ways of thinking are convergently, and divergently. To think convergently, is to think in a linear way, step by step. When you think divergently, you are thinking in a non linear way, and thinking with an open mind.
2.) In my opinion these are all really great tips and I will most likely use them from now on in my college career. The article touched upon ways to brainstorm and get creative which sometimes I need a lot of help doing. Also, how you should not procrastinate and complete everything step by step. I tend to be a big procrastinator because I get overwhelmed with all the work at once. From this article I learned it is better to break up the work and it will relieve the stress. Another helpful tip is when a problem is in my way I should look at the situation, and over come it. I tend to go to everyone else to help me, and eventually just give up. I can see myself using these helpful tips in every single one of my classes. From writing a narrative essay in English, to creating a chunk of clay into a piece of art. I enjoyed reading the article and found it to be very interesting and helpful.