CREATIVITY SAND DUNES BY CLAYTON LUKER

The creative thinking process is kind of like running up and down a sand dune. Over Thanksgiving break, my family and I visited Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan. We spent a few hours climbing and running down some of the dunes which was both exhilarating and exhausting. I compared that experience to the brainstorming and ideation processes we have learned while taking Friedman’s class.

When we are faced with a problem and want to find a solution, it is best to not go with our gut instinct. In my case, my instincts led me to run down a large sand dune without hesitation. Bad move. It took me almost twenty minutes to climb back up to the rest of my family. I learned that I need to take my time making decisions and look for the second right answers. There were plenty of other places where we could have run down the dune and walked back around so that we could have avoided the steep lengthy climb straight back up the slope. Just as with creative processes, I find it best to do research and fully understand the situation before diving in and coming up with a solution.