10 ms·

This reminds me of J.P. Guilford's Alternative Uses Test, the aim being to find as many uses as possible of every day objects such as a brick etc.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
Back when I didn't have a day job and had some free time to spend outside, I took it as a point of honor to always fix everything with duct tape and whatever I could find on the spot. This was a conscious exercise to make sure I don't get that "functional fixedness" (I didn't knew the name back then). Needless to say, my mother wasn't always satisfied with the alternative applications I came up with. By the way, this is how I think a lot of people become functionally fixated - unfortunately the typical parent's reaction to child's creativity is "WTF did you do? Please put it back the way it was before.". By the time they reach maturity, improvisation skills get beaten out of them.
- srtjstjsj 11y ago
  Engineering flowchart for fixing machines: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/70/b5/11/70b511ecc607f60fc6224917448633fc.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/70/b5/11/70b511ecc... If you need it to start moving: WD-40 If you need it to stop moving: duct tape
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    I tend to carry both in my backpack everywhere :).
agumonkey 11y ago
Brilliant, I just tried the test here http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/Handout/d1.uses.htm http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/Handout/d1.uses.htm and it was delightfully fun to pick a mundane object and imagine all possible uses.
- srtjstjsj 11y ago
  > You might have noticed that the higher fluency the higher the originality (if you did "good for you!") This is a contamination problem and can be corrected by using a corrective calculation for originality that misses the point that in real life, "originality/creative" is often derived from fluency. The best ideas come from people who have the most* ideas (the bad ideas are discarded).

TeMPOraL 11y ago

Back when I didn't have a day job and had some free time to spend outside, I took it as a point of honor to always fix everything with duct tape and whatever I could find on the spot. This was a conscious exercise to make sure I don't get that "functional fixedness" (I didn't knew the name back then). Needless to say, my mother wasn't always satisfied with the alternative applications I came up with. By the way, this is how I think a lot of people become functionally fixated - unfortunately the typical parent's reaction to child's creativity is "WTF did you do? Please put it back the way it was before.". By the time they reach maturity, improvisation skills get beaten out of them.

srtjstjsj 11y ago
Engineering flowchart for fixing machines: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/70/b5/11/70b511ecc607f60fc6224917448633fc.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/70/b5/11/70b511ecc... If you need it to start moving: WD-40 If you need it to stop moving: duct tape
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  I tend to carry both in my backpack everywhere :).

agumonkey 11y ago

Brilliant, I just tried the test here http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/Handout/d1.uses.htm http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/Handout/d1.uses.htm and it was delightfully fun to pick a mundane object and imagine all possible uses.

srtjstjsj 11y ago
> You might have noticed that the higher fluency the higher the originality (if you did "good for you!") This is a contamination problem and can be corrected by using a corrective calculation for originality that misses the point that in real life, "originality/creative" is often derived from fluency. The best ideas come from people who have the most* ideas (the bad ideas are discarded).