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In
Think Naked, Marco Marsan and I present a creative-thinking
principle called Blockbuster. We illustrate this Think Naked
principle with a familiar childlike practice—stacking
building blocks as high as possible and then gleefully knocking them over.
More than just kid's play, this instinctual act of nihilism makes innovation
possible.
In the first place, creative people are often inspired by the conviction
that some old way of doing things falls short of the mark and, more
importantly, that there's a better way. Better yet, they are motivated by
the opportunity to find that better way.
Children and creative people practice Blockbusting, whether they realize it
or not, as naturally as they breathe. Like children, creative thinkers are
naturally skeptical, often rebellious, and sometimes destructive. Their
Blockbusting is no cute quirk we need to tolerate. It's absolutely necessary
for invention and innovation.
Old theories have to give way to new. Newton had to make way for Einstein.
Newton and others held the idea that space consisted of a medium called the
ether. As Einstein explained, the idea of an ether permeating all of space seemed at one time
absolutely necessary in order to afford light the medium it needed to travel
as a wave through space. Cornered by the contradictions that arise when the
new idea of electromagnetic fields is introduced into the ether, Einstein
could not solve the riddle of Special Relativity until he threw out, or
knocked down like a stack of blocks, the idea of ether.
Now comes what makes him the King of Blockbusters: On the record as
discarding ether as it had been understood, he reintroduced it, somewhat
redefined, in his General Theory of Relativity. Read for yourself how he
describes this feat in
Ether and the Theory of Relativity.
Einstein's devotion to truth made him the kind of Blockbuster that would
not think twice about busting his own blocks. He knew his thinking would have to make way for ideas
that would modify his own. So knocked down his own blocks before someone
else came along and did it for him.
Blockbusting separates science and invention from quackery. It separates
artists and journalists from cranks and hacks.
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