ka-POW-er!

…And Does Apple Still Care?

While I’ve heard stories of people running Final Cut Pro on MacBook Pros and iMacs (and horror stories of people running it on Mac Minis), the true professional choice is the Mac Pro tower. Even “Early 2008″ Mac Pros perform as well as the fastest iMacs and MacBook Pros (as of May 2012) and no other Mac offers so many configuration or upgrade options.

Until yesterday, the Mac Pro hadn’t seen an update since 2010. And that update was a huge disappointment.

The two-year wait had led many to claim that the Mac Pro was going to be discontinued. Others have further claimed that Apple no longer cares about the Professional market. Was yesterday’s “half-assed” update definitive proof that Apple is going to kill the Mac Pro?

I can usually see Apple’s reasoning behind its most controversial decisions; still, even I had serious concerns.

Now that we’ve all had the benefit of a night’s rest let’s unpack this a bit. The three primary issues regarding the updates are:

• The lack of Thunderbolt, ”the fastest, most versatile I/O ever“.
• The lack of USB 3.0
• The lack of Intel’s Xeon E5 processor

Thunderbolt
Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops have had Thunderbolt connectivity since February 2011 and in the meantime, Thunderbolt has found its way to Apple’s consumer-oriented iMacs and Mac Minis. So how could Apple’s only Professional desktop workstation lack these features?

We installed a new theme over the weekend, and while we love the new features (tag cloud, FINALLY!) we had to choose function over form. We had hoped to modify the theme so that the existing black/green/orange look wasn’t entirely lost, but there are only so many hours (and then it’s time to eat).

For those of you following along via e-mail, RSS, whatever, please be so kind to let us know if anything broke. Thanks for reading!

Last May, in Walt Disney Had Three Heads, we looked at a post discussing success in both creativity and commerce. This week I came across another such exploration where the whole “heads” analogy breaks down and where “personality traits” or “roles” is a better choice of words.

Take a few moments to read Deconstructing Creativity: The 4 Roles You Need to Play to be Fully Creative, where blogger Luicano Passuello takes a look at Roger von Oech‘s theories.

A few days ago, in Surrounded by Inspiration, we offered some ideas to encourage managers to nurture the “Explorer” role in their team members. Deconstructing Creativity should help management and executives think in ways that ensure their businesses as a whole address all four personality traits.

Creativity and business success are not mutually exclusive.

I came across this zeldman.com post via Daring Fireball, and while it’s from the perspective of a writer and web designer, it applies to any creative-for-pay endeavor. It makes a powerful case for results-based work (the opposite of presenteeism). A must read for any manager of creative sorts.

For a metaphorical approach to this very topic, take a look at Coffee and Creativity.

And  since we’re kind of on a “you can’t rush art” theme here, take a look at Pixar’s “How We Do It“.

There’s a great illustrated post over at the Times and if it didn’t hit the Internet over a week ago, I would have simply tweeted about it. It’s largely about inventors and it’s very inspirational. Just read it and smile. And then follow it’s advice, “Don’t mope in your room. Go invent something. That is the American message.”

I’ve updated some of the Blogs I follow in the Sidebar. Apparently there’s a WordPress bug which isn’t allowing me to put them into categories the way I’d like; they keep ending up in the “Creative Tools” category. (I’ll upgrade to WordPress 2.8 over the weekend.)

To those of you following along via New Readers/Aggregators, be sure to visit the web site from time to time!

UPDATE – WordPress v. 2.8 upgrade fixed the issue!

Lateral Action has an article detailing Walt Disney’s three “personalities”, which allowed him to be successful in both art and commerce:

• The Dreamer - the visionary who dreamt up ideas for films and business ventures.
• The Realist - the pragmatic producer who made things happen.
• The Critic - the eagle-eyed evaluator who refined what the Dreamer and Realist produced.

The article draws upon a book by Robert Dilts, who studies “Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) (which) explores the way people sequence and use fundamental mental abilities such as sight, hearing and feeling in order to organize and perform in the world around them.”

Quoting Dilts, “Walt Disney’s ability to connect his innovative creativity with successful business strategy and popular appeal certainly qualifies him as a genius in the field of entertainment. In a way, Disney’s chosen medium of expression, the animated film, characterizes the fundamental process of all genius: the ability to take something that exists in the imagination only and forge it into a physical existence that directly influences the experience of others in a positive way.”

So my only question is, which one of the heads got frozen?

Idea Connection has an interesting, yet long and wonkish interview with Keith Sawyer, author of “Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation”.

Sawyer uses an inter-disciplinary approach as a means to scientifically study something as elusive as creativity and de-bunks of handful of creativity myths.

Quoting Sawyer, “The creativity myths are not just wrong, they’re dangerous because they make us all believe we have no hope of being creative. If we’re not playful and childlike, if we’re not a bit schizophrenic or depressed or alcoholic, if we’re not always having flashes of brilliant insight, then we don’t seem to fit the mythical image of the creator.

The good news is that these beliefs aren’t true. Successful creators are stable, happy people; after all, being creative is just about the most fulfilling activity a person can engage in. ”

Another interesting tidbit, especially in this Web 2.0 age:
“My own research shows that creativity, more often than not, emerges from interactions of lots of people who come together in “collaborative webs.” This has been true throughout history; but now, the Internet makes the process happen so much faster.”

Despite the length of the interview, which I’m having trouble plowing through due to a late afternoon energy slump, Sawyer’s research seems both solid and fascinating. I just put his book on my Amazon Wish List. Now for some fresh air.

(Find out more about Sawyer  and his book.)

Great post over at Idea Champions with a simple message (see Title).

While the message is for corporations, I think there’s an important lesson for creatives-for-hire: unless we care, and yes, even find ways to be fascinated about the services and products we are helping our clients sell, our messages will not resonate with our clients’ customers. Something to ponder.

“When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost – and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl.”
- T.S. Eliot

As tired as I am about “boxes” and “thinking” both in and outside of them, Think Inside a Self-Constructed Box an article on effective brainstorming by the folks at Behance is based on research and deserves mention. They offer the following “tips”, though I think they’re being modest; these are success ingredients:

1. Keep the brainstorming groups small (ideally four people or less).
2. Gather people from different backgrounds, experiences, and interests.
3. Ask questions to build context, a brief, and core values, all to ”frame” the discussion.
4. Have a singular goal. For multiple decisions, hold multiple specific sessions.
5. Leave the meeting with “Next Action” steps.

With the time pressures faced by creative businesses on a daily basis, we would all benefit from more effective brainstorming.