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Author: Carl Nordgren

Apr 25, 2017
in Creative Genius, Creative populism
by Carl Nordgren
1
1 Comment

Free Creativity Workshop on May 5th in Durham

Did you know that 98% of us are born with a creative genius? And that the World Economic Forum recently determined creativity will drive our future successes? I am hosting a fun and action-packed workshop on May 4th from 6:30 to 7:30 pm at the Southern Regional branch of the Durham Public Library. This workshop will help you grow your creative capacity and develop your entrepreneurial instincts; you’ll develop skills that will serve you in all aspects of your life...

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Mar 22, 2017
in Creative Genius, Creative populism, The Generative Blog
by Carl Nordgren
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Creative value found in Humility

Relying on 30+ years of experiences as an entrepreneur followed by 14 years designing courses in creativity and entrepreneurship for Duke Students, I’ve identified 4 Generative Behaviors that serve our creative and entrepreneurial growth and performance most effectively. When you practice these four behaviors intentionally as you navigate your daily life they will help you steadily grow your creative capacity and develop your entrepreneurial instincts. And when you are focused on a creative or entrepreneurial project, applying these behaviors will improve your outcomes. Folks easily embrace Being Generous as Being Generative as one of the behaviors even before they learn that generous and generative come from the same Latin word generos, to produce. They have fun with Being Playful—it makes intuitive...

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Mar 21, 2017
in Uncategorized
by Carl Nordgren
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Guest Blog: The New Wave of Entrepreneurship

I am pleased that the folks at Toptal.com reached out to me to ask if we’d promote a recent article they’ve added to their site. ‘The New Wave of Entrepreneurship’ is written by Matt Swanson whose experiences as an engineer in Silicon Valley offer interesting insights into emerging trends. I don’t bring an engineers’ perspective to the site myself, and am delighted to add Matt’s voice. And check out Toptal.com. It was created by two entrepreneur engineers, Tasu Du Val, and Breanden Beneschott, who bring a compelling passion to their work. There is a multi-trillion dollar economy opening up to technology faster than ever. It has been driven by trends that have changed the nature of how entrepreneurs will be characterized going forward;...

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Mar 05, 2017
in Creative populism
by Carl Nordgren
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1 Comment

Creative Populism as a political philosophy?

Our country is in trouble; the problems we face are so large we can’t even be honest with ourselves about just how big so many of them are. The only way—the only way—we can take on these problems and build our best futures is if we work together. The problem is, we pretty much hate each other and that’s a situation that, if allowed to play out, will only get worse—there are cameras everywhere and social media prevails and so I will be sent all the worst images of what I dislike the most on a regular basis. If it has always been hard to change one’s mind about an important belief, it is nigh onto impossible now. So we need to find...

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Mar 03, 2017
in Creative Genius, The Generative Blog
by Carl Nordgren
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Thinking is better than Knowing…

For years those words from Goethe guided my teaching and challenged my students. As a teaching guide it disciplined me to avoid defining the creative concepts I introduced to students. Instead I tried to surround these new ideas, providing multiple perspectives, and urged students to think about these concepts for themselves, to shape their own understanding of these creative ideas and entrepreneurial strategies, an understanding that was most useful to their purposes. It worked well for them. And as a challenge for my students? Well, these were highly successful young men and women at a world class university who had worked their butts off for pretty much their entire lives in order to know so they could pass the next test, then...

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Feb 27, 2017
in Creative Genius, The Generative Blog, Uncategorized
by Carl Nordgren
0
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Discovering > Predicting

Many of us are convinced that the crucial early accomplishment in the creatively entrepreneurial process of building something new is producing the Plan. That is the first step in corporations and has been their model for a long time. Rushing to complete the Plan is a practice most other institutions—schools, non-profits, governments—and many individuals have taken up. It seems a necessary practice in corporations, this immediate production of the Plan.  Because they have many creative initiatives and projects underway, of course each needs a Budget; fiscal responsibility demands it.  And to establish a Budget, each project needs a Plan of what is to be built and the resources needed to build it. That means that when the team is most ignorant about what...

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Feb 22, 2017
in Creative Genius, The Generative Blog
by Carl Nordgren
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Why I didn’t allow ‘out of the box thinking’ in my creativity classes

It’s simple. What the heck does "out of the box thinking" mean? Does it mean the same thing to you each time you say it? Are you certain it means the same thing to you as it does to him or to her? If instead you have to find the words that capture the creative dynamic you are considering when you say "out of the box thinking" doesn’t it serve you to do so, and then to say it out loud? Isn’t it a bit of a creative workout to challenge yourself to find a new way to express what you mean? Might that lead to new understanding on your part? If creative and entrepreneurial thinking and behavior busts the status quo, why be restricted by status...

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Jan 31, 2017
in Creative populism, The Generative Blog
by Carl Nordgren
1
2 Comments

Advocacy for Participation Trophies

  It was the loving parents of Millennial babies who suction cupped ‘Baby on Board’ caution to car windows and manifested that same love when later they decided that all team members in youth sports deserved a trophy for participating. Or, as so many members of us older generations like to put it, “Those kids even received trophies for just participating.” As obvious as it is to us all that Millennials didn’t ask for the extra attention in the first instance is how obvious it is to me that they didn’t ask for the trophies either. I coached two girls soccer teams each year for seven years, following my daughter from six to thirteen, and three girls basketball teams, and never once did...

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