This manifesto by Mitch Ditkoff is a rather interesting bit of writing. In this writing, Mitch Ditkoff gives the reader 14 different ways to help think of creative ideas. The advice ranges from general ideas someone may have learned in school such as brainstorming, to something that normally appears to be frowned upon such as fantasizing.
One of them that the manifesto lists that really hits home for me would be the first one “Follow Your Fascination”. The main reason for this is simply because this is generally how I get any creative ideas; I like random or interesting things. If something is different from the norm, I find it fascinating. I honestly think that this bit of advice is one of the most useful out of the entire manifesto, because to me following what fascinates you would be what would lead to the most creative thoughts. I personally find it a little difficult to focus on something that I don’t find interesting. Also, I think there is a very good chance that if something fascinates you it’s possible to stay focused on it for a longer amount of time, leading to new ideas and thoughts on the subject.
Another of the suggestions given is something that has actually been a part of my life for a very long time, “Take a Break”. This is simply a great piece of advice in my opinion, because it simply fits so many different possible situations. This could be used when a person is working on a big project and can’t think of what to do next, when they’re dealing with some kind of calculation that is simply stumping them. The biggest benefit of this is, most likely during such times, the person will become frustrated and angry and from personal experience I can say that frustration makes it very difficult to think straight, and taking a break from the thing causing the stress is actually a very good way to relax.
Like I said, I’ve actually used this suggestion many times before, mainly while playing video games, but I’ve also used this when dealing with math or science problems as well. There have been many times when I ran into a difficult puzzle or annoying enemy that I spent hours and hours trying to get past, and no matter what I simply couldn’t, and let me tell you, that can get very annoying. After a certain amount of time, I wasn’t even thinking of something new to try I was simply rushing in trying to get past the problem as quickly as possible, not giving a single thought to a plan or strategy, and this didn’t help at all, it actually made it worse. But, sooner or later my brain basically shuts off and I just stop playing the game for a while, I lay back on the bed and just let my mind wander, sure, inevitably it gets back to the problem, but by this time my mind has cleared and I can use my imagination to run through new ideas and plans for the issue, and this hasn’t failed me yet.
One of the best pieces of advice given in the manifesto was the 5 suggestion “Fantasize”. The biggest thing here may be that to fantasize is, to me at least, almost exactly the same as being creative. I’m pretty sure that many great inventions and innovations would have been thought of as a fantasy before they were completed. One of the major benefits of fantasizing is that there literally is no limit to what can be thought up, it’s all up to the one doing that fantasizing to set the limits, and this opens up the new and truly innovative ideas. Even if an idea seems to be honestly impossible at the time, even if it really is just a fantasy, branch off from that idea; use it as a springboard for other ideas.
The final part of the manifesto are small prompt at the end of each of the suggestions that gives the reader something to think about or try to put the suggested way to the test. For example, one that I decided to do was the one for the 3rd suggestion “Tolerate Ambiguity”; the prompt was “What new idea of yours is bubbling on the brink of breakthrough? In what ways can you stay with it even if something in you is impatient for a breakthrough?” An idea that I’ve been working with recently is, I want to create a new set of cards for the game Magic: The Gathering that deal with one of my favorite mechanics from the game called shadow. The thing is that a card is actually rather difficult to create, they need to be balanced in correlation to other cards when it comes playing cost, abilities and stats, and trying to find the right combination of interesting cards that are also balanced can be incredibly difficult. One of the main cards I want to create is a Planeswalker, a special type of card in the game, that also deals with the shadow mechanic, and that is the most difficult of all of them. The way to do this though, is to not try to get everything right on the first try, creating a good card is all about trial and error, and while I may want to make these cards as soon as possible, I want to make them good as well.
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