Lit Circles Final Blog

           I read Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson. The main idea of the entire book was about what conditions are needed to come up with great ideas, and the environment best-suited for the creation of these ideas. I found Stephanie Gordon's blog entry to be more cohesive with the idea of this book, as she mentions how in the last section in her book, The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria, the author talks about how "the US needs to think 'outside the box' in order to really be a great nation. Instead of doing things the way we’ve done them for a hundred years, we need to start being creative in the way we run our country." 

          The US is in a rut government-wise, and that our government needs to change the way it is run in order for our country to modernize and adapt to the new rules of the globalized world. They have to get creative, and what better way to get creative than learn how to cultivate a creative environment to brainstorm ideas to get the country on track again and prosper? The American government needs to connect with a network of innovative people and share ideas and receive ideas. They also have to be receptive to criticism, and actually follow through with the promises made during campaigning instead of breaking them. Only then can we become a better nation.

"The Post-American World

Summary: In this final section of the book, Zakaria focused mainly on America’s strengths and weaknesses. The last chapter was mostly about what America was doing wrong as a super power and what it needed to do to continue its power. Zakaria also talked a lot about how the rest of the world’s view of American’s is not what we think it is.

Major Claim: “The United States should be thinking creatively and asymmetrically” (Zakaria 246).

Response: Through this major claim, Zakaria is saying that the US needs to think “outside the box” in order to really be a great nation. Instead of doing things the way we’ve done them for a hundred years, we need to start being creative in the way we run our country. The things we are doing in our economy may have worked really well a hundred years ago, but they aren’t providing the same affect now that they did then. We also should be running our foreign policy the way we have been because as other nation’s rise up closer to our level, they need us to get involved in their personal affairs less and less. He is saying that the people in Washington need to stop worrying about keeping what has worked for a hundred years and start thinking of new ways to help our country grow to its greatest potential."

-Stephanie Gordon's Lit Circle blog entry 

 

Literature Circles Meeting #2

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson

Group Discussion # 2 (pg. 45- 95)

            Environments that can either make innovation happen or stunt its growth can be compared to the states of matter: solid, liquid, or gaseous. Liquid networks are the best environment for an idea to be cultivated in, a gaseous network is too chaotic and no ideas are shared as everyone is doing their own thing, and a solid network suppresses the ideas of others and keeps innovation from happening. Slow hunches, if shared with others, have the capability of combining into an idea that can revolutionize thought or even change the outcomes of events that may happen in the future.

            “We can see Darwin’s ideas evolve because on some basic level the notebook platform creates a cultivating space for his hunches…” (Johnson 83).

            From my experience so far with the mindbook- which is what Darwin pretty much worked on based on how it was described he worked in his notebooks- my ideas aren’t evolving, but rather my sense of identity is.  If anything, since starting it at the beginning of the year, my drawing style has been getting cultivated and has become more consistent since I’ve drawn sketches on blank pages in the back of the book, and I’m seeing improvement. I should probably try writing down my thoughts on an insightful idea I have in my mindbook sometime, as most of my entries rely more heavily on visual elements rather than writing.  If I do that often enough about a specific idea, maybe then I will evolve thought-wise.        

Captured Thought: Penmanship and Drawing Style

          For years now, I've been thinking about the idea that a person's penmanship directly relates to their drawing style. For example, my childhood friend's handwriting is curvy, tiny, messy; almost childish as it seems that it hasn't changed since 2nd grade. Her drawings of people consist of Rugrats-styled head shapes, noses that look almost phallic like our art teacher taught us in Kindergarten, and tiny bodies. My other friend has neat and beautiful curvy handwriting, and when she draws, she draws consistently and even her doodles drawn using the worst possible mediums for an artist to use (any product from RoseArt) are amazing. One of my guy friend's penmanship is sharp and a mix between messy and neat, I can't really describe it, but his drawing style is wonderfully macabre and consists of intricate details. My penmanship is sort of sharp and inconsistent, and I've noticed my drawings are usually a hit-or-miss; they are either really good or absolutely terrible. I can't draw a continuous line that I am satisfied with, my doodles are complicated and detailed, and they end up having ruts dug in the paper from my pencil as I am not capable of drawing lightly with my pencil.
          I'm not sure. These are just things I've noticed for the past couple years. I'll try backing up my theory in my next mindbook assignment with samples.