In moments of quiet desperation, I create alternate realities. These are worlds in which I am doing something creative, being more playful, building things that are more fun. And in each such moment, I wonder why some of my more outlandish ideas are never entertained by the people I work with. I think it’s got to do with the world being divided into people who get satisfaction from checklists and incremental improvement, and those who are excited about producing a dizzying array of whimsical ideas. I suspect I fall in the latter camp.

What makes people original? What do original people do? What do they believe? How do they work? The formula seems to be hiding in plain sight:

1. Original ideas come from having lots of ideas.
2. Originality comes with lots of doubt.
3. Randomness (I interpret this as play) is crucial to originality.
4. Originality comes from having constraints.

This series of talks capture a lot of these points. And Shimpei Takahashi, in particular, is delightfully funny.