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Capturing Complexity Through Conversation: My Interview with Dan Ariely

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Capturing Complexity Through Conversation: My Interview with Dan Ariely

If you could pin down the essence of truth, could you draw it? That’s the question that lingered in my mind after speaking with Dan Ariely for my RSA Animate documentary—a project allowing me to reconnect with some of the most compelling thinkers of our time.

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Stick With It: How Can Messy Ideas Spark Creative Breakthroughs?

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Stick With It: How Can Messy Ideas Spark Creative Breakthroughs?

I have written a lot about failure. It’s something of a fascination for me. I am in a constantly evolving process with failure. When does failure become a success? Are there any true failures or is it just an endless process?

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How Creativity Can Transform Education

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How Creativity Can Transform Education

If you’ve spent any time in creative circles, you’ll know that while education has the potential to transform, we’ve been wielding this so-called "weapon" like a blunt instrument for far too long.

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To Live a Creative Life

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To Live a Creative Life

No matter where we find ourselves on the spectrum of human experience, creativity can play a vital role in survival, healing, and hope. 

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The Art of Medicine

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The Art of Medicine

AI could revolutionise the NHS by taking on administrative tasks, giving doctors more time to spend with their patients. However, while this sounds like a dream solution, it comes with challenges. With great power comes great potential for, let’s face it, accidental chaos.

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A study in scarlet... I mean pink

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A study in scarlet... I mean pink

So, here’s the reflective takeaway: in a world of endless scrolling and relentless sameness, being bold is essential, but it’s only the first step. Jaguar has smashed the glass case, but now they need to decide what to do with the diamond.

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Keep It Simple, Stupid: Rock and Roll All Night (and Refine Every Day)

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Keep It Simple, Stupid: Rock and Roll All Night (and Refine Every Day)

Over-complication isn’t just tedious—it’s the nemesis of efficiency. Enter the KISS principle: “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”

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The Inverted Pyramid: The Principle that Explains Why it Can Be Good to Think Upside Down

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The Inverted Pyramid: The Principle that Explains Why it Can Be Good to Think Upside Down

Ah, the Inverted Pyramid—It sounds like a tragic prog rock album you might find at a car boot sale, but it’s a concept that’s as intriguing as it is practical.

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The Magic of Affordance: A Design Principle Less Ordinary than it Affords

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The Magic of Affordance: A Design Principle Less Ordinary than it Affords

Affordance is how something shows you what it can do, like a door handle that makes you want to pull the door open or a button that looks like it should be pressed.

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The Golden Ratio: Where Art Meets Precision and Nature Reveals Its Blueprint

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The Golden Ratio: Where Art Meets Precision and Nature Reveals Its Blueprint

This peculiar proportion, approximately 1.618, has been lurking in the shadows of human creativity for millennia, like a mathematical James Bond, seducing architects, artists, and designers with its promise of perfection.

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Anthropomorphism: Why Do We Give Feelings To Machines?

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Anthropomorphism: Why Do We Give Feelings To Machines?

Why do we see faces in clouds, cars with expressions, or even attribute human emotions to our household appliances (admit it, your Henry Hoover has feelings)? The answer lies in the ancient concept of anthropomorphism—a principle as old as humanity itself, born from our inherent need to understand and relate to the world around us by projecting our own characteristics onto it.

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Hick's Law: The Overwhelming Choice of Dilemma

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Hick's Law: The Overwhelming Choice of Dilemma

Picture this: You walk into a diner with a menu the size of a small novel. You’re hungry, but now you’re stuck—overwhelmed by choice, paralysed by indecision. Welcome to Hick’s Law in action, a psychological principle that’s been quietly dictating human behaviour since the 1950s...

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The Scaling Fallacy: A Tricky Little Concept

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The Scaling Fallacy: A Tricky Little Concept

Understanding the Scaling Fallacy isn't just for philosophers or over-caffeinated academics. It's vital for anyone who wants to make an impact with their ideas, especially in creative fields where size does not always equate to success.

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Performance Load: The Art of Less

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Performance Load: The Art of Less

Performance Load teaches us that less truly is more. Visual thinking is about distilling complexity into clarity, turning a tangled web of ideas into a neat, navigable roadmap.

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Constraint: Creativity's Secret Weapon

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Constraint: Creativity's Secret Weapon

Ever heard of the phrase, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’? Turns out, constraint is its often-overlooked sibling—perhaps the unsung hero of creativity.

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Signal to Noise: Navigating the Creative Cosmos

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Signal to Noise: Navigating the Creative Cosmos

In the chaotic symphony of modern life, where every ping and notification competes for our limited attention, the concept of ‘signal to noise’ has never been more relevant. But before it became the buzzword of the digital age, it had its origins in the dry and dusty world of early telecommunications.

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Closure: The Unsung Hero of Visual Thinking

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Closure: The Unsung Hero of Visual Thinking

It is more than just rounding off; it is a psychological experience where the brain concludes what remains hanging in the balance.

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Archetypes: The Blueprints of Our Minds and Why We Should Care

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Archetypes: The Blueprints of Our Minds and Why We Should Care

Have you ever wondered why certain stories just hit us in a different way? Chances are, you're in the grasp of something archetypal; those universal, almost sneaky patterns of theme and form that are hardwired into our very being.

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Error: The Key To New Pathways And Understanding

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Error: The Key To New Pathways And Understanding

When we design, whether that be a piece of graphic design, a software integration or a whiteboard animation, we should strive to minimise errors and make them easy to correct.

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Unlocking The Potential Of Failure

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Unlocking The Potential Of Failure

Today, I want to explore a theme that is as ancient as it is perpetually relevant, failure. It’s a concept that shapes our very DNA, prompting where we go, helping us grow in our personal and our professional lives.

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