ThoughtForge
From UCSC Wiki
This is intended to be a kind of idea factory for UCSC. Maybe we need to invite our students also to participate and generate ideas... here or in a separate forum.
It is well documented that it is the 'learning organization' that will survive and make headway in this new knowledge society. Creative thinking thrives in diversity and where their free expression is facilitated. This Wiki is an excellent platform for this. In order to really make this really work, even the most 'crackpot idea' must be expressed and entertained - in other words nothing will be said to be 'stupid'. so, please contribute as much as (or more than) accessing this page!
Let me start by mentioning an idea told us by Gihan Thalgodapitiya on one of our 'thinking' workshops: since the most expensive part of a pencil is the lead stick, why not reduce at least one inch from the 'holding end' since one cannot use it after it reaches about 1.5 inches!
I'm not exactly sure how to structure this area - any suggestions welcome...
Note: I think we need to stress that half-baked ideas are very welcome - and will be the only way we make this exercise productive!
Contents |
Here we go...
The first new idea since this wiki was started is to celebrate our 21st Anniversary through a series of activities...
Since there's been no activity here, let's start by trying to create an environment for it! Recently some of us attended a talk on creativity. One of the exercises the speaker gave was to list out 10 impossible things. Lo and behold, of all the millions of things we could have come up with (which are impossible) the list the audience came up with had 5 exactly overlapping with the list he already had! In addition, 3 more were things which were not original - leaving us with only 2! I forget one of them but the other was "Swallowing a blackhole". I also liked the one, "Unscrambling an egg", but the contributor said he had heard it before.
Here are some I came up with subsequently... (please add to it!):
- Turn yourself inside out
- Stand on a cloud
- Grow hair on your palm ;-)
- Make a tree from wood
- Walk on the ceiling
- See through concrete
- Unread a book
- Walk off the edge of the world...
- Grow an extra finger
- Eat music
- Touch an idea
- Smell a poem
- Hear a picture
- Sharpen a ball
- Tickle a crocodile
- Burn smoke
- Carry water in your pocket
- Pet a virus
- Count to infinity
- Unfart!
- ...
I tried it on my kids and here's some from them:
- Make a shadow in the dark
- Swallow your throat
- Read an invisible book
- Bring a statue to life
- Swim on land
- Get into someone else's dream
- Think of nothing (isn't this called meditation?)
- Find a unicorn
- Measure your height on a weighing scale
Happy UCSC
Movie Suggestions
- Dead Poets Society
- The King's Speech
- Invictus
- Schindler's List
- Rain man
- Forest Gump
- 12 Angry Men (B&W)
- Matrix
- One flew over the cuckoo's nest
- Saving Private Ryan
- The social network
- Day after tomorrow
