Hang Out With a Diverse Group of People
I very much agreed with this point. If you limit yourself to only being around people like you, you aren’t going to get a variety of responses to ideas, and just in general. It’s important to be around many different kinds of people who will offer different critiques, praises, input for your creativity, because you never know what someone is going to say that’s going to spark something incredible in you. Also, by creating a diverse circle of friends and colleagues you keep yourself from becoming narrow minded. I actually sort of ended up doing this today. I contacted someone from the Comedy Club here at OU to talk to her about possibly doing stand-up and to go over jokes. This was important, I felt, because my own friends would be too nice about my material. Talking to a professional would guarantee I was getting an educated and helpful response. Meeting new people also keeps you on your toes, keeps you intellectually aware of yourself, since you aren’t so comfortable. Hanging out with a diverse group of people is definitely an important key to getting new ideas.
Follow Your Fascination
This was an interesting one. On one hand I agree that it is very important to work on things you are interested in, otherwise the work won’t turn out very good. However, it’s easy to get distracted or lost in your own world when you’re working with something that fascinates you. I’m sure this isn’t a problem for most people, but as someone who gets distracted extremely easily, I find that working on things that are extremely interesting to me causes me to over-indulge, research to excess, delay actual work, etc. I suppose the key is everything in moderation. I don’t argue that work is better when you care personally about what you’re doing, but the advice “follow your fascination” could easily get someone such as myself into a sticky situation. As I’ve said before, I suppose the key is to just keep a handle on it, not let yourself get too distracted, take an extra dose of riddling that morning, whatever you need. All in all, it’s probably a good idea to work on things you’re interested in, despite some challenges.
Take a Break
I don’t know about this one. I suppose I think my response to this depends on what it is you’re working on, and what else you have to do. Taking a break is perfectly fine if you’re stumped on a sketch that’s due in a couple of days and you have nothing else to do, but most of the time, especially in college, people have many things going on at once. I know that I for one, really can’t afford to take breaks outside of bathroom and lunch. If I don’t have an essay, reading, group project for a class, I have sketches, jokes, material to write for something out of class. Most of the time, the thought “I’ll just take a 5 minute break” results in an accidental 5 hour nap. Perhaps the solution is as simple as setting an alarm, but from where I’m standing, breaks only ever result in loss of time and train of thought. I do see how this would help most people, though, so I can’t dismiss it as completely trivial.
Notice and Challenge Existing Patterns and Trends
“What trends in the marketplace most intrigues you? In what ways might these trends shift in the coming years—and how might your most inspired idea be in sync with this imagined shift?”
The trend in today’s marketplace that most intrigues me is the shift of television from traditional sets to the Internet. This is a growing problem facing the entertainment industry and corporations are struggling to make sure they don’t lose profits. I feel like my interest in writing commercials and working in marketing could possibly fall in line with these changes. As a true product of my generation, I am sure I could work with marketing companies/production companies to ensure that their profits don’t dwindle because of these changes. Everyone from advertising companies to production companies are going to need employees who understand people. If there’s one thing I do better than most everyone else I know, it’s understand what people will/won’t do, what will/won’t work, and I feel like the market is changing at such a rate that companies will need people who know the American audience and can help them to profit during this shift.
Nice reflection of Ditkoff's ways to get ideas! I think your analysis of current market place trends is right on!
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