Category: Business

Ray Bradbury on Work and Creativity

Illustration of Ray Bradbury
Illustration of Ray Bradbury
By Liftarn (Traced from Image: Ray Douglas Bradbury.jpg)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“

“Why is it that in a society with a Puritan heritage, we have such completely ambivalent feelings about Work? We feel guilty, do we not, if not busy? But we feel somewhat soiled, on the other hand, if we sweat overmuch?

I can only suggest that we often indulge in made work, in false business, to keep from being bored. Or worse still, we conceive the idea of working for money. The money becomes the object, the target, the end-all and be-all. Thus work, being important only as a means to that end, degenerates into boredom. Can we wonder then that we hate it so? Nothing could be further from true creativity.”

Ray Bradbury

American author (1920-2012)

About Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter known for his works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His best-known works include “Fahrenheit 451,” “The Martian Chronicles,” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” Throughout his career, Bradbury explored themes of censorship, technology, human nature, and the importance of imagination and creativity.

This quote reflects Bradbury’s belief that true fulfillment comes not from working for external rewards like money or status, but from engaging in creative pursuits that bring intrinsic satisfaction. For Bradbury, meaningful work was inseparable from creativity and passion.

Essential Bradbury Reads:

  • Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
  • The Martian Chronicles (1950)
  • The Illustrated Man (1951)
  • Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)
  • Dandelion Wine (1957)
  • Zen in the Art of Writing (1990)
What’s your favorite Ray Bradbury quote or work? Share in the comments below.

9 Principles of Innovation at Google by Gopi Kallayil, Google’s Social Chief Evangelist

The 9 Principles of Innovation at Google

Notes from Gopi Kallayil’s Dreamforce presentation

Gopi Kallayil giving a presentation
Gopi Kallayil sharing Google’s innovation philosophy at Dreamforce

I recently attended a Dreamforce session titled “The 9 Principles of Innovation at Google” and wanted to share my notes.

1 Innovation comes from everywhere

There is no innovation department at Google. Kallayil shared an example where their algorithm was working with unintended consequences in that searches for “best ways to commit suicide” did in fact list what if felt the best results were.

A medical doctor at Google argued persuasively that although the algorithm may have decided to provide results, Google needed to intervene with human-powered result by providing the 800 number to the suicide prevention hotline. If you now Google anything suicide-related you receive the 800 number for the suicide hotline as the top result. The day the change was made the volume of calls to the hotline went up by 9%.

2 Focus on the user and all else will follow

Provided an example of implementing instant search which saves the user a few microseconds. Executives knew receiving faster results would minimize the amount of time ads were displayed but they went ahead and implemented it because it made for a better user experience.

Also mentioned that although each user is only saving a few microseconds, when you factor the billions of searches a year, it saves the world an immense amount of time at scale. Implementing instant search was also more costly to implement but again it was best for user experience and therefore implemented.

3 Think 10x (ten times) better

This is Larry Page’s mantra. If you want radical revolution at a scale, think of things as 10x and not 10%.

Provided the example of Google Books. When Google’s mission was created to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” it wasn’t to just organize digital information. At the time when Google Books was created as a goal, most of the world’s information was primarily still analog.

4 Bet on technical insights

Google engineers developed a self-driving car as an example. A few engineers read that a couple million accidents car accidents happen a year and felt compelled as engineers to see what they could do to reduce or eliminate those deaths.

They thought if you remove the human it could reduce or eliminate the accidents. They already had services like Google Earth and Maps at their disposal.

5 Ship/launch and iterate

Some organizations only ship products when they are polished or fully ready. At Google, they believe they should develop a first prototype, get feedback, and then based on that feedback iterate to make it better.

Examples: Gmail was in beta for 3 years. Fast is better than slow. The first prototype of Google Glass was developed in 90 minutes.

6 Give employees 20 percent time

Give people freedom in their regular schedule, even when outside of the core job, and they will delight you with what they come up with quite often. They actually didn’t come up with the idea, they borrowed it with what some universities do.

The way it works is you quickly build a prototype and you recruit others to help you with that idea inside of the company.

Products Born from 20% Time:

  • Gmail
  • Google News
  • Google Alerts
  • Street View enhancements like the camera trike for narrow alleys
  • Galapagos ocean Street View

7 Default to open

Google admits they can’t hire all the “smart” people in the world. They believe if you open up your application to the world you can allow them to help you make their products even better.

A perfect example is Google Maps. They empower people to help them via Google Map Maker to update the maps because the world’s infrastructure is constantly changing each day.

8 Fail well

“There is a belief in the company that if you don’t fail often enough, you’re not trying hard enough… failure is actually a badge of honor.”

There is no stigma attached to failure at Google. Since Larry Page has taken over he has shut down 72 products so they try many things and shut then shut that service down if it doesn’t end up working.

9 Have a mission that matters

If you ask people at Google why they come into the work many will say that their work is helping to change humanity (the world). They are working to level the playing field for information retrieval.

Key Takeaway

These nine principles have helped Google maintain a culture of innovation even as it has grown into one of the world’s largest companies. Which principle resonates most with you or your organization?

Seth Godin on Compliance vs. Initiative

The Educational Challenge

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Compliance is simple to measure, simple to test for and simple to teach. Punish non-compliance, reward obedience and repeat.

Initiative is very difficult to teach to 28 students in a quiet classroom. It’s difficult to brag about in a school board meeting. And it’s a huge pain in the neck to do reliably.

Schools like teaching compliance. They’re pretty good at it.

To top it off, until recently the customers of a school or training program (the companies that hire workers) were buying compliance by the bushel. Initiative was a red flag, not an asset.

Of course, now that’s all changed. The economy has rewritten the rules, and smart organizations seek out intelligent problem solvers. Everything is different now. Expect the part about how much easier it is to teach compliance.

– Seth Godin

https://seths.blog/

Compliance

  • Simple to measure
  • Simple to test for
  • Simple to teach
  • Rewarded with obedience
  • Previously valued by employers

Initiative

  • Difficult to teach in a classroom
  • Hard to showcase at school boards
  • Challenging to implement reliably
  • Previously seen as a “red flag”
  • Now valued by smart organizations

Food for Thought

How might we redesign education to better nurture initiative while still providing necessary structure?

Join the Conversation

Do you agree with Seth’s assessment? How has your educational experience shaped your ability to take initiative?