Week 4 Reading Reflection

In this week's reading on creativity and innovation, what stood out to me most initially was my own identification to the steps of the creative process. The way the process progresses is the way it has always happened when ever I have had a new idea. I had never thought of it being a process that could be divided in clear steps, but now that I am able to reflect on my own experiences it fits well.

The only part of the reading I found confusing was the section on probability thinking. The author claims that dice can be used as an example that predictive power increases as the experiment is repeated, but the probability of rolling a "4" is the same rolling once or after rolling it 1,000 time. 1/6.

My questions to the author would include what they felt are the best techniques for bridging the gap from coming up with the desired solutions to implementing those solutions. This is, in my opinion, the most difficult step. Coming up with the next million dollar idea is commendable, but until that idea is developed into something concrete it is useless.

My only disagreement with the author would come with what I stated previously about probability thinking. It is possible however that I misinterpreted the analogy. Perhaps the only other point I might contend would be the claim that all people are creative in some degree, but I would not necessarily agree with that as I think what many people see as creativity is merely repetition with slight variances.

Top 5 World Problems

Top 5 Problems

1. Water Scarcity
2. Finite Energy Sources
3. Terrorism
4. Corruption
5. Social Division

Top 5 Solutions

1. Fuel Competition
2. Harsher punishment for corruption
3. Fair and proactive management of water resources
4. International coalition against ISIS
5. Fostering national unity and identity.

All of the problems I listed are severe, but I chose Water Scarcity as my number one due to the fact that we simply cant make more water. What the planet provides us is what we have. While we do have the ability to create more drinking water through desalinization and reclamation, this only works in certain areas and doesn't change the fact that there are to many people living in areas prone to drought. Without careful management of water supplies moving forward we may very well see some "Water Wars." The other problems I listed are urgent and important, but without sufficient water supplies civilization simply cannot exist. 

As for my solutions, I picked fuel competition as the most implementable because it has been implemented in certain areas like Brazil with great success. I am a firm believer in the free market, and the oil industry's monopoly on the transportation industry stands in stark opposition to the concept of a free market. It would take a small comparative investment to modify the majority of the road traveling fleet, consumer or commercial, to accept multiple fuel sources or sources other than petroleum. In fact the municipal buses in my area now run off of CNG.