Drinking & Thinking - does changing our brain-state change our ideas?
Wow! So much has happened in the past two weeks. Here are the highlights:
I've got some exciting stuff coming up before the next newsletter - but I don't want to spoil it. I'll just warn you that you'll probably see quite a few posts coming from this keyboard from Wednesday onwards.
Now, on with the featured story.
Take a glug of creativity
I want to start this tale by stating that I'm not trying to condone the use of alcohol. But neither am I condemning it. I'm sitting solidly on the fence (with a non-alcoholic, gluten-free beer in my hand). With that said, let's get on with it.
If you've ever watched Mad Men, you'll have noticed that the characters often held a glass of booze in the office. This was undoubtedly exaggerated but even in the early 90s, when I started in advertising, alcohol was still a big part of the scene.
It was common for us creatives to go to the pub at lunch and not quite so common to return to the office afterward. We often worked from a sticky table with a pint by our side. And it felt more creative and enjoyable. So The Drum magazine, John Jessup and myself decided to run an experiment to see if alcohol improves your ideas.
We recruited 18 advertising creatives and split them into two equal teams. One team was given an endless supply of alcohol and the other team was only allowed soft drinks. We gave them three hours to work on the same brief and watched the chaos unfold.
The results were overwhelming.
The inebriated team came up with more ideas and came up with ideas more consistently throughout the night. But what we really wanted to know was which team came up with the best ideas.
So we took the five best ideas from each team and sketched them up to the same standard. Then we presented them to a group of advertising creative directors who were gathered together to judge an awards show. They ranked the ideas from best to worst, placing four of the alcohol team's ideas at the top of the pile. We then put the ideas to the public and got almost exactly the same results.
From every metric, the drinking team came out on top.
Obviously, this experiment wasn't done to rigorous academic standards. But that hasn't stopped it from being cited in academic papers on the topic. Yes - since we did this experiment, academics have run their own studies and had similar results.
You may be wondering if I'm recommending getting boozed up before working on creative ideas. The answer to that is a clear 'no'. For lots of reasons.
So I want to share some other factors that I believe contributed to better ideas in the days when people worked from the boozer.
? Trust
In Dan Pink's book 'Drive', he lists autonomy as one of the three elements of motivation. When it comes to creative thinking, it's important to give people the freedom to work where, how and when works best for them. As long as they're clear on the deliverables, how they deliver should be up to them.
? Environment
Offices influence the way people's brains work. The environment you're in directs your thinking and what your expectations are. They limit people's capacity for ideas. Personally, I find coffee shops and bars to be better environments for creative thinking. Even better are airplanes, tropical beaches and jacuzzis. (I planned two of my books from a jacuzzi in a health club - then wrote the words in the cafe. Seriously!) Get out of the office and find a place that works for you.
? Altered states
Alcohol isn't the only way to change the way your brain operates. So does coffee, tea and those repulsive energy drinks. Hunger can be a good way of focusing the mind too. But nothing is better than exercise. It releases some fantastic neurochemicals, floods your brain with oxygen and improves your ability to learn information. I currently do a lot of my work from a health club near where I live (although you couldn't tell that by looking at the size of my stomach).
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So it looks like I've got some more experiments to do.
领英推荐
Maybe in a gym next time.
Who's in?
A must-have for ChatGPT
As you may know, I've spent a lot of time over the past few months getting nerdy with ChatGPT. (Look out for my LinkedIn Learning course on prompt engineering in the next few days.) But copying and pasting prompt templates can feel a bit tiresome. It would be so much better if you could paste your prompts once and use them whenever you want in a single click. That's what AIPRM allows you to do. It's a free Google Chrome extension that lets you create ready-to-use prompts - and explore prompts created by others. I use it all the time. Huge thanks to Christoph Cemper for building it!
Meet my friend Fredrik
As you can see from the title of this newsletter, I'm all about experiments in creativity. But my fellow speaker Fredrik H?rén is all about exploring the world of creativity. We were both speaking at the domen.rs conference in Belgrade this week (and were both wearing our t-shirts). We're two guys dedicated to uncovering knowledge about creativity. Fredrik is one of the best public speakers I've ever seen (check out one of his talks here ). Maybe you should think about booking us both for your next conference. Or either of us, if you can't handle that much brilliance in one place.
This week's gift
A few years ago, my daughter was obsessed with story dice. We had a few different versions at home and she was always asking for a story. So I decided to create an online version so that we could play it when we're out and about. That tool now attracts over twenty thousand users a month. These seem to be a mix of workshoppers, schools and parents trying to entertain their?kids on the move. Check it out and bookmark it for later use.
Over 1,000 students
About a week ago, my free Creative Bootcamp course passed the milestone of 1,000 students. It's had some great reviews. So if you've not already signed up, you really should. As well as helping you have ideas you wouldn't normally have, signing up will help to nudge me closer to the next milestone of 2,000 students!
This article is part of the?Experiments in Creativity?newsletter,?which examines the frontiers of creative thinking and creative work. Often that involves a bit of science or technology. If you want more of this kind of thing, you can subscribe?to get notified when a new article posts .
If you want to learn more about what I talk about, check out my courses on?LinkedIn Learning ?and?davebirss.com. ?If you haven't signed up already, it's a good idea to start with my?FREE Creative Bootcamp course .
If you'd like to book me for a talk or training session, send an email to?[email protected]
Head of Product, Creative Director
1 年As a long-time non-drinker and creative, all I can say is that if it helps, great but there are plenty of instances where it actually works against real creativity. Especially if it has become a crutch.
Creative Johnny
1 年Although the drinking culture was strong when I set out in the business in the 70's, pub every lunchtime, I don't actually remember thinking "I must have a pint or I won't be able to crack this problem." As you know Dave, I don't think having a drink harmed any of the creatives thinking, just the opposite in some cases. However, it also led to health, career and relationship issues for some too.
Creative Director, Team Builder & Writer
1 年Dave, I agree that altered states of mind are critical to creativity. I, too, experienced the booze- and weed-infused advertising days of the 90’s. But those are not sustainable outlets. I find a couple hours on my bike, or a long walk spoiled playing golf, or a few hours pondering art at SFMOMA, or an hour exploring the Poetry Room at City Lights Bookstore, or a late night of live music - all of these simultaneously distract and motivate my mind. But let’s grab a stiff drink, smoke a joint, and discuss further.
Founder and Director - igenci
1 年Good in theory, but in practice, as I recall, half the department didn’t return to the office to do any beer-fuelled thinking and the other half napped till home time under their desks.
This is one of the most info rich newsletters ever!!! Thanks Dave! (And I note with a smirk on my face that energy drinks are repulsive, and your aren’t promoting alcohol use…but the beer was far from repulsive!!!)