The value of unknown unknowns

Creativity is not magic.

It only recombines accessible information to make new sense of the world.

But creativity is limited to existing information and experiences.

Many times I’ve heard people disheartened by creative workshops as no matter how many times or different formats they try they still end up with the same outputs.

The challenge is not that the workshops are poorly designed, but that we put the same information into them expecting new results every time (isn’t this close to Einstein’s definition of insanity?).

We need access to new information — information we don’t even know exists yet (unknown unknowns).

And the way to get there, or one way at least, is through rapid experimentation.

Stop talking about “failure” and start talking about the need to be “surprised”.

[#Assumptions about thin and thick data #1]