TED talk #3 : Tales of Creativity and Play

Tim Brown is head of a design firm called IDEO. In his talk he explores how having a sense of creativity and play in the work place can be essential, going back to childhood like exploration of ideas. Tim speaks in a lecture style but is very interactive with his audience. First he has everyone one in the audience draw, in thirty seconds their neighbor. At the end of thirty seconds there is much laughter and "sorry", he relates to if a similar experience was done with children that they would be unapologetic, for they would not know as adults grow up to do is be embarrassed. Children are encouraged to explore and create without judgment but adults do not feel that way, something that I will take away is creativity is produced in a playful environment. To steal some of Tim's examples places of creativity and design like Pixar or Google are known for their fun and almost childish places of work. In terms of education he talks of how in every preschool class you will find means of creativity; scissors, colored pencils, paper, play dough, yet by the time we reach high school such supplies are nowhere to be found. Allowing adults and teens to "play" would greatly enhance creativity, the feeling of unapologetic invention. I, myself feel like I have to be in a creative inducing environment to create, I find it very difficult to write in class, judgment from my peers and teachers helps restrain me; I am extremely more comfortable in my room where I can listen to music and feel free of judgment. The world would be much freer and creative if we could allow people to be creative and play in work environments, no to distract from the work but to enhance it. Allow all ideas to flow without constantly stopping yourself to reevaluated and criticize .