{"id":872,"date":"2018-08-27T20:44:14","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T20:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=872"},"modified":"2018-08-27T21:05:23","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T21:05:23","slug":"creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/08\/27\/creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Unleashing Engineering Creativity<\/a>, 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.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unleashing Engineering Creativity<\/em><\/a> includes a collection of quotes I thought I’d share with you…<\/p>\n

Everything that can be invented has been invented.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Charles H. Duell, Director of US Patent Office, 1899<\/p>\n

Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?<\/em><\/p>\n

– Harry M. Warner, Warner Bros Pictures, 1927<\/p>\n

Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895<\/p>\n

The horse is here today, but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Michigan Savings president, advising against investing in Ford<\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Daryl F. Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, commenting on television, 1946<\/p>\n

What use could the company make of an electric toy?<\/em><\/p>\n

– Western Union, when it turned down rights to the telephone, 1878<\/p>\n

And my personal favorite, one I’ve heard many times in my life…<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve always done it this way\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

– Unknown<\/p>\n

All this begs the questions:<\/p>\n

What’s the next big thing in motorcycle design?<\/p>\n

Where it will come from?<\/p>\n

Are other businesses or industries are doing things that might make a new motorcycle more fun?<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Is there something a company not in the motorcycle business is doing that would work well in a new motorcycle?<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 I bought a Corvette in 2004 when I saw its Heads Up Display.<\/p>\n

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!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.\u00a0 What’s out there that’s supercool and might be incorporated in the next cool motorcycle?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

One of the pages on the ExhaustNotes.us<\/a> site lists the books we’re written.\u00a0 Surprisingly, since we’ve launched the site, Unleashing Engineering Creativity<\/em><\/a> has enjoyed a nice sales spike. I guess there are a lot of engineers following ExNotes. That’s cool, and thanks very much, folks!<\/p>\n

Let’s wrap this one up with two thoughts. \u00a0 First, please add your email address to our subscribers list (it’s the widget in the top right corner of this page). \u00a0 You’ll find out the instant we post a new blog, and we’ll never provide your email address to anyone else.\u00a0 And second…what are your ideas on new features that might entice you to buy a new motorcycle? \u00a0 Let us know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Creativity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[211,17,219,220,218],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feel-good-stuff","tag-engineering-creativity","tag-joe-berk-blog","tag-motorcycle-design","tag-new-motorcycle-features","tag-unleashing-engineering-creativity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":883,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions\/883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}