1. Society creates a hierarchy of subjects. Teachers, parents, society all place unspoken value and prestige on certain subjects. On average, people tend to think higher of someone excel in math or science versus someone who is gifted in writing or music. This type of thinking creates a hierarchy where math and science are most valued, arts are the least valued, and humanities are somewhere in the middle.
2. Children are conditioned to fear making mistakes. Students fear failure and as a result, students go with the “safe” answer. While failure may be a good short-term motivator, do we realize what this does over time? Students become risk-averse memorizers (if you don’t believe me, watch kids study for SATs). Students are focusing on master memorization techniques and in the process they are losing their ability to think.

Why is this talk important? While Sir Ken Robinson answer this question directly, I will give my opinion. The topic of creativity will be one that sparks more interest in the near future. We are approaching a tipping point with how we value pure analytical power. We need more than just analytical and reasoning skills, we need people who can connects the dots. We need people see the big picture and create original ideas to help us solve most of issues that confront our generation, e.g. environmental sustainability, world poverty, profitable yet socially responsible corporations.

Did the school system kill the creative genius in you? Share you experiences below.

Motivating Factor #1: Frustration

Point blank, I’m fed up with the quality of content across the web especially with blogs. After reading several mainstream blogs across the web, I find most of them to be uninspiring. I spend probably a good hour or so checking my feeds over the years, I’ve seen the quality of content become more and more diluted.

Nowadays, blogging usually works like this: one person discovers something new and then instantly, it’s regurgitated across the web with each copycat just posting a link to the original content.As consumers of information, we have exacerbated this problem. Ubiquitous access has turned the Internet into an information buffet. As a result we are more concerned with the quantity of information we are able to consume, rather than the quality of the content.

Motivating Factor #2: Cockiness

My frustration has pushed me to the point where I want to join the ranks because I’m tired of eating at the buffet. I just want quality information. Frankly, I feel that I can do a better job than most other blogs. Only time will tell.

On this site, I will focus on three main passions: technology, design, culture. Most of the content will cover at least one of these topics or possibly a combination of them. Since my motivation is “quality, not quantity”, expect roughly 2-3 posts per week. This website will be about learning and sharing.

For those of you who are still wondering, “Who the hell is this guy?”, check out my About page.