Tag: Joe Berk blog

Creativity

Most of us think of ourselves as creative people. But we’re really not. In fact, some studies show that our creativity peaks when we are in kindergarten, and takes a steady slide south by the time we graduate from high school. I’d argue that it’s even worse for engineers, as most of our focus never gets beyond meeting minimum requirements at the lowest possible cost. It’s a concept that seems to be in force when we see the latest motorcycles from the major manufacturers, often with nothing newer than paint and decals.

I’m an engineer and I feel comfortable saying the above, and I’m not alone in that regard. Many of the engineering managers I’ve known feel their engineers are not particularly creative. So much so, in fact, that I was asked to develop a course on engineering creativity several years ago, and it’s one I’ve since taught in the US and overseas many times. And in order to do that, I wrote a book covering 16 preferred creativity tools…

Unleashing Engineering Creativity, with an interesting cover photo showing a simple gate latch and a Modelo 1909 Argentine Mauser. Paul Mauser, inventor of the bolt action rifle, got the idea for his new rifle by observing a simple gate latch. Adapting earlier design concepts to new applications involves a technique called TRIZ, developed by a scientist in the former Soviet Union.

Unleashing Engineering Creativity includes a collection of quotes I thought I’d share with you…

Everything that can be invented has been invented.

– Charles H. Duell, Director of US Patent Office, 1899

Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?

– Harry M. Warner, Warner Bros Pictures, 1927

Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.

– Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895

The horse is here today, but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.

– Michigan Savings president, advising against investing in Ford

Video won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.

– Daryl F. Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, commenting on television, 1946

What use could the company make of an electric toy?

– Western Union, when it turned down rights to the telephone, 1878

And my personal favorite, one I’ve heard many times in my life…

We’ve always done it this way…

– Unknown

All this begs the questions:

What’s the next big thing in motorcycle design?

Where it will come from?

Are other businesses or industries are doing things that might make a new motorcycle more fun?

There’s a creativity technique called lateral benchmarking, which involves looking outside your industry for new ideas. Southwest Airlines greatly reduced their turnaround times after studying how NASCAR pit crews worked.  Is there something a company not in the motorcycle business is doing that would work well in a new motorcycle?

Kano modeling is another creativity technique in which you identify and assess potential cool features not expressed by the customer, but once experienced by a potential customer cinch the sale.  I bought a Corvette in 2004 when I saw its Heads Up Display.

A 2004 Z06 Corvette Heads Up Display. I wasn’t looking for such a feature, but when I saw it, I knew I had to own that car!

I would have never imagined I needed such a thing, but I worked on the F-16 HUD back in the ’70s, and when I saw it in the Z06 I knew I had to have that car.  What’s out there that’s supercool and might be incorporated in the next cool motorcycle?

Hey, do you have any motorcycle ideas? Let us know about them, and we’ll toss them up here on the ExNotes blog for comment.

One of the pages on the ExhaustNotes.us site lists the books we’re written.  Surprisingly, since we’ve launched the site, Unleashing Engineering Creativity has enjoyed a nice sales spike. I guess there are a lot of engineers following ExNotes. That’s cool, and thanks very much, folks!

Let’s wrap this one up with two thoughts.   First, please add your email address to our subscribers list (it’s the widget in the top right corner of this page).   You’ll find out the instant we post a new blog, and we’ll never provide your email address to anyone else.  And second…what are your ideas on new features that might entice you to buy a new motorcycle?   Let us know!

Just when I thought I was out…

So I’m retired, sort of, but I feel this compelling need to keep writing. Hey, I like to write. I want to be as good a writer as Joe Gresh when I grow up.

Anyway, there’s a whole lot more coming, folks, while Joe and I (that’s Arjiu and Dajiu to about a quarter of the world’s population) share what we think on a wide range of topics, including motorcycles, Baja, adventure riding, Baja, riding in other countries, Baja, partying at 14,000 feet on the Tibetan plateau, Baja, guns, Baja, maybe a bit on reloading, Baja, cars, Baja, 4x4s, Baja, and more. Rumor has it that Gresh knows a bit about concrete and living off the grid. You’ll see some of that here. This blog is going to be all about the good stuff: Good writing, good photography, and good times.

Oh, yeah…did I mention Baja?

Wowee, this is going to be fun. We’ve got a lot of cool things to write about, not the least of which will be our impressions of CSC’s new electric bike and maybe a Zero, and a whole lot of other bikes from a whole lot of other people. Yeah, I’m still convinced that small bikes are the way to go for real world adventure riding, but I like big bikes, too. I’d like to play around with an Enfield. Maybe a beat up old Sportster is in my future. I’m still riding my RX3 and my TT250, and both are still going strong. Yep, I’m still an advocate for CSC Motorcycles, too, but we’ll be covering a lot more. There’s a big wave in the motorcycle world headed this way, folks, and it’s spelled C-H-I-N-A (for both small and large bikes), and it’s spelled E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C (and most, if not all, of those bikes are coming from China, too). I’ve been there and I’ve seen it. You’ll get to see it, too. Just stay tuned.

And there’s more. We have an idea about a review of the state of the industry in the motorcycle magazine world. It’s going through a dramatic transition. You’ll read about it here. Like I said above, just stay tuned.

Oh, and there’s Baja. We’ll be covering things like the hotels we like, which insurance is the best, the restaurants that make the adventure truly great, which whales are the fun ones to play with (yeah, we’re on first-name terms with our Scammon’s Lagoon denizens), which cave paintings are the most interesting, which missions are the most beautiful, which wines are the most satisfying, which roads are the most fun, the months you should avoid, where to stay, and more. The research is going to be grand.

You can poke around on some of the other pages on the ExhaustNotes.us site. There’s a lot of cool stuff here, and there’s lots more coming. Gresh and I have been at this writing and riding business for a while, and we’ve got pages with links to our stuff that you can access on the Internet. We’ve got a page just on Baja, and we’re going to cover a bunch of cool stuff on that page (and right here in the Exhaust Notes blog, too).  We’ll be posting blogs about past grand adventures.  And there’s more, but you can find that when you poke around on this site.

And one more thing:  If you’ve got a comment on anything we post here on the ExhaustNotes blog, go ahead and post it.  We want to know what you’re thinking.

I am really looking forward to this. Big time.