Is gathering the dots just as important as connecting them?

Sorensen Grundy

We've all heard the phrase "connecting the dots" -- It even has it's own wikipedia entry.

But, what about the stage before connecting...

Gathering.  

If we don't have enough dots, they won't ever connect into anything interesting or different.

In Anna Rascouet-Paz's creative mornings talk, she argues that it takes curiosity to collect the dots.  

As a general rule, I'd say I'm pretty curious.  I've travelled around the world, love to read and was even on a child-leash as a kid because I ran away so much (maybe a precursor to my adult life).  

Regardless, I can still get into a thinking rut.  Here's some of her tips on staying curious.

1. Aim for breadth over depth
Where did the Renaissance man go?  How about the polymaths?  For some reason, we've started honoring the specialist -- the person with focused knowledge.  While that may be good for your dentist, it doesn't really produce creative thinkers.  As Roman Krznaric suggests, maybe we should start seeking after breadth of knowledge vs depth.

"The bag's not for what I take, Colson -- it's for what I find along the way."  

- Macgyver

2. Curiosity is like a muscle.  It needs to be exercised
It's not enough to be curious every once in awhile or on one particular topic.  You need to apply it as a way of life -- why?  what?  how? should be the foundations of your vocabulary.  

One tip that I like is to "take a different path home" from work.  Our minds tend to "chunk" things together to speed up our processing power; therefore, we often miss the things our brains have become accustomed to seeing everyday.  A new route means that you notice new things, like the man that works in the corner store or the flowers that bloom in your neighbor's windowsill.

3. It's okay to change your mind
I've been told that I've "changed so much since college," usually with a hint of criticism.  

As my favorite philosopher says:

"Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough."  

- Alain de Botton

4. Get out of your bubble
We tend to befriend people similar to us.  In fact, one of the greatest predictors of who you will marry or become friends with is proximity (see this study from the University of Leipzig).  If you work at the same place, live in the same neighborhood or sit next to each other at school, you likely have a lot of base commonalities and routine interactions, even if your interests or senses of humor may be different.

Likewise, social psychology proves that we are strongly attracted to look-a-likes.  According to Byrne's "Law of Attraction," attraction towards a person is positively related to the proportion of similar traits associated with that person.  On the other hand, cognitive dissonance is the discomfort experienced when holding two conflicting beliefs, which makes it difficult for people to befriend others that have very different attitudes and beliefs.

What does this mean?
The people you follow on twitter and interact with on Facebook are probably pretty similar to you.  Find people that challenge you.  That will debate with you.  That can broaden your world view.

5. Travel
It's the easiest way to see the world through fresh eyes.

“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do." 

- Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel

Do you believe in "flow"?

By me :)

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.  Don't resist them; that only creates more sorrow.  Let reality be reality.  Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." - Lao Tzu

A few weeks ago, I was in an "experimental videography" class and casually chatted with the students around me.

One middle-aged Singaporean, Michael, introduced himself as an actor -- an actor in 150 movies, TV shows and commercials to be exact.  I immediately started questioning why I signed up the class in the first place.  My last acting debut and finale were one in the same --  a 7th grade play where I forgot my lines and stood like a deer in spotlights for what seemed like an eternity.

I probed a bit further, and I found out Michael had been acting for less than 3 years.  He was an information security engineer (just as sexy as "an actor," right?).  One day, someone contacted him on Facebook and asked him to play an extra in a short film.  He said yes and loved it -- he felt a natural "flow" towards acting and decided to follow it.

He now acts full time and is unbelievably happy.  He also home brews his own wine (I just added that fact in because I think it's cool).

When we come to point of conflict or resistance in life, it might be because we are going in the wrong direction.  Rather than putting down your head and charging harder, maybe it's to reevaluate and jump paths.