Seenapse: Non-Obvious Combinations

Seenapse is a new platform designed to help inspire new, non-obvious combinations.

As I may have mentioned before, I believe ideas are a certain kind of thing.

I think that Genius Steals, that ideas are new combinations, that originality is a myth, and that the best, most interesting, most attention earning ideas, exist at the very fringes.

The least obvious combinations that still solves the problem is more effective, because it is less obvious, therefore more interesting. More creative, if you will.  Our abillity to create associations between seemingly non-related ideas is a fundamental aspect of how brains work.

It's what makes metaphors powerful and why metaphors are so important to how we think, seeing non-obvious similarity in different things. 

he greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. 

It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others;

it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an eye for resemblance.

-Aristotle, De Poetica, 322 B.C

This is how I think about good ideas. 

This is why it's important to expose yourself and your ideas to the broadest set of influences if you want to have interesting ideas.

The ideas you can have are as unique as the source material in your head. That's why brainstorms can be so useful - more legos to combine. 

Agencies talk about ideas all the time. Good ones, big ones, long ones, lots of small ones. Business building ones, expensive ones, cheap ones. PR ones, media ones, digital ones, social ones.

I think we need to challenge ourselves to define these things we sell with more clarity.

Commercial ideas must solve problems, address the drivers and barriers to growth.

Some of them are advertising ideas, some are ideas that can be advertised.

Some solve the obvious problems, some find a less obvious, more fundamental problems to solve.

[Genius Steals runs workshops on what ideas are and how to have better ones.]

Seenapse is a creative technology start up [DISCLOSURE: Genius Steals is an advisor / investor] that provides a way of leveraging the non-obvious connections that people are great at but software is not. 

The beliefs underlying Seenapse are very aligned with how we think at Genius Steals. Humans create associative links, that provide inspiration pathways. 

It's just gone into open beta, so I invite you to have a look and create some Seenapses that only you could create. 

Do Things. Tell People.

Is an interview I did with the very nice Petar at GapJumpers about my circuitous working life, that for convenience I sometimes confusingly refer to as a 'career', and digital strategy and training and loyalty and penetration and how to pick where to work based on how much you want to wear trainers. 

You can read it on the very pretty Medium platform: Do Things, Tell People.