Trap the distractions and hold pretty things hostage

Distractions. Personally, I love distractions. I see them as the universe giving me a choice of paths for my inspiration. If I have 5 distractions, that’s a possibility of 5 new ideas.

I take these distractions very seriously. Giving each a little bit of time to see if it ignites the curiosity in my subconscious. I do this because I believe that every thing you’ve seen, everything you’ve read, everyone you’ve talked to and everything you’ve ever experienced is what makes you, you. It’s what makes your ideas different to everyone else. It’s how you combine seemingly random and unrelated observations, that most people would miss, to create something innovative.

“Innovation happens when you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.” The Medici Effect (a free pdf book for you right here)

Think I might have to write a blog post on this. So for now, I’ll stop harping on – but do come back soon.

*Another disclamer/plug for friends*

I’d love to claim this video as my own discovery, but I can’t. That would be cheating. It was tweeted by @pembygrl from Nowness.com. When you see them, say hi from me.

Put the power of the peasant wagon in your hands

Mapnificent is a wonderful piece of kit. In short it basically finds out how far away stuff is by public transport – which doesn’t really get your juices flowing with excitement, but when you consider it can do all of this, it’s a whole other ball game of practicality:

1. You’re friend texts you and asks if you’d like to go for a drink in 15mins. Find a bar that both of you can reach in 15mins or less
2. If you move house, work out how quickly you can get to work via public transport from your new pad
3. If you get invited to an interview on the other side of town, work out how quickly you can get there on public transport

It’s currently in public beta so there may be some bugs, but it’s available for most major cities and is the perfect companion for people with an imbalanced social-life:time ratio – so you can effectively use up every last minute of your day.

And you’ll get top Karma points for helping reduce CO2 emissions. Kerching!