One Plus One Equals Three: A Masterclass in Creative Thinking Quotes
Quotes from "One Plus One Equals Three: A Masterclass in Creative Thinking"
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“Geffen is now worth around $6 billion.
Not by being better, or tougher, or faster, or smarter, or richer, or better educated than other people.
Not by trying to beat other people at their own game.
But by looking at other people and thinking, ‘What aren’t they doing?”
“As living, thinking humans, we have no excuse.
It’s worth taking a moment to think.”
“Just as architecture encourages people to use buildings in a particular way.
You design the building the way you want people to use it.
That way you don’t have to nag people.”
“See, you don’t have to threaten, or restrict or dictate anyone’s choices.
If you’re clever, you can just rearrange the architecture.”
“The purpose of a prison shouldn’t just be locking people away, that’s inefficient.
It should be about changing behaviour.”
“I saw a great photo of an American beggar.
He was sitting on the pavement with nine bowls in front of him, labelled as follows:
Muslim, Atheist, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Agnostic, Christian.
Next to them was a handwritten sign that read: ‘Which religion cares the most about the homeless?’
This is a beggar who understands advertising and behavioural economics.
Instead of talking about what he wants, he concentrates on what his audience wants.
In advertising terms it goes like this.
Start with the brief:
What does he want and who does he want it from?
What he wants is charity.
So, what will generate charity?
Compassion generates charity.
So, who has compassion?
Religious people apparently have compassion.
So, he creates a spirit of competitive compassion.
Each person wants their religion to appear more compassionate.”
“What do I want?
Who do I want it from?
Why should they do it (what’s in it for them)?
By knowing that, he already understands more about strategic advertising creativity than most of the people working in it.”
“Don’t just go with conventional wisdom.
Don’t keep repeating the same old solution even though we know it doesn’t work.
Get upstream and change the problem.”
“We live our lives in a constant state of comparison.
So constant that we don’t even notice it.
And that should be the main purpose of all planning and research.
Context.
What is the context we are speaking into?
What is the context we want to create?
Control the context and you control the choice.”
“bare minimum.
The way most people do.
Spend absolutely the least possible amount we can get away with.
Do the job on as tight a budget as possible.
Skimp, and call it efficiency.
We need to learn a lesson from Bazalgette about doing a job properly.
Stop thinking under-spec and start thinking over-spec.”
“When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him.”
“In other words: use your brain.
But most of us don’t use our brains on the job.
Instead we enforce the letter of the law.
There’s no risk involved in sticking to the letter of the law.
If we stick to the letter of the law we don’t have to think.
Because there’s risk involved with thinking.
There’s nowhere to hide if it goes wrong.
But real creativity often comes with risk.
So don’t just blindly follow the words themselves.
Take a risk.
Think.”
“But no one was thinking.
Everyone was just copying everyone else.
If other people are running away, we’d better do the same.
Because that’s what people do.
They copy each other without thinking.
Herd mentality is a strong force.
It overrides logic, questioning, debate, reasoning, common sense.
Even though the evidence shows it often results in bad decisions.
Injury, death, injustice, wars, genocide.
Entire nations follow along because each individual fears being different, fears being left out, fears being ostracized.
That’s why the time to resist is at the point you find yourself going along with conventional wisdom.
It’s uncomfortable to be the outsider.
But the only opportunity you have to think is before you join the herd.
Once you’ve joined, it’s too late.”
“The only thing stopping them is themselves.
They are too smart.
They listen out for all the rules.
They very carefully pay attention to every detail.
They worry about being correct.
And that, Sheryl Sandberg said, is the problem.
Something everyone can learn from.
It’s not thinking.
It’s over-thinking.”
“One of my favourite expressions is ‘You can have what you want, or you can have your reasons for not having it.’
Jack Brabham chose not to have his reasons.
He did it all by being unreasonable.”
“What we can learn from Patton is that whether we’re talking to school teachers, little old ladies, construction workers, pole dancers, Oxbridge dons, children or soldiers . . .
We have to talk to people in their own language.”
“It’s not just what you say that’s important.
It’s also where, and when.”
“Don’t expect it to be judged purely on what you think are its merits.
Work out beforehand how you can get it taken seriously and judged in their world, in their language.
Not in the language of the world it actually has to work in.
Present your idea on toothpicks.”
“It’s not enough to have to have the right statistics, the best strategy, the correct marketing.
You have to have the best way to present them.”
“All because he lost the use of two fingers.
All because he couldn’t play like everyone else.
All because he saw that as an opportunity instead of a problem.
And the opportunity is always to be creative.
What do you do when events don’t go to plan and you can’t change the events?
You change the plan.”
“Your best advertising is your brand.”
“That’s what real creativity is: Form Follows Function.
It’s not just making something attractive that wins awards.
It’s solving a problem in an unexpected and innovative way.
Winston Churchill summarized real creativity best:
‘We have no money, we shall have to think.”
“Real creativity doesn’t come from struggling to answer a difficult brief.
Real creativity comes from getting upstream of the brief and finding a different answer.”
“But usually it resulted in simple, powerful communication.
Instead of trying to cram several things into the brief.
It’s better to succeed at one thing than fail at several.”
“The lesson: no one wants anything until they know why they need it.
So before you can sell the answer, you have to sell the need.”
“What Ahrendts knew was that if you have a premium brand, people have to be willing to pay a premium for it.
But they won’t do that if everyone in the world has it.
Part of the value of a premium brand is perceived exclusivity.
If everyone has it, it isn’t exclusive.
So you can’t charge a premium.
Burberry learned the hard way.
Chasing sales isn’t always the right thing to do.”
“The product creates the experience.
The experience creates the reputation.
The reputation creates the brand.
Don’t tell me you’re a comedian, make me laugh.”
“If you don’t have the confidence to be different, to stand out, you’ll want to be part of the herd.
The reassurance of looking in the same places as everyone else.
But then, of course, your work will end up looking like everyone else’s.”