Given the current coronavirus situation, it is start to stay at home all the time and I miss conferences in particular, which stopped for now for safety reasons. My last conference was SxSW 2020, a few weeks ago,
After just arriving from SxSW, I felt good recovering from the flux of tech nerds, social networking mobile apps, and frantic passerby looking for power outlets. I love the energy of SxSW: that feeling looking around at everyone walking around with iPads, Macs, and iPhones (power to those rebellious Android folks!). Then you look down and realize all of your Apple products are within reaching distance as well.
The problem with SxSW is that so much like minded camaraderie does not breed creativity: in fact, it produces more of the echo chamber that is prevalent in places with high startup density. Transplanting Silicon Valley folk to Austin won’t produce paradigm shifts in technology…so the question is, if you’re looking for inspiration where do you look?
A recent article in the WSJ explored the nature of creativity. It sought to explain why certain people seem to be more creative than other (yes Steve Jobs) and how we can learn to induce creative thinking. The answer is completely contradictory to what one might expect. Creativity comes from bringing together loose connections to solve problems. An example in the article was a 3M executive who came up with the idea of the Post It Note after losing his place in a church choirbook and needing a bookmark.
In order to induce this type of thinking we need to do one of two things: relax or focus. We already know that the shower tends to breed amazing ideas (and songs!) but it has more to do with the relaxed state of our minds than the flowing water. The other surprising thing to do is: get drunk.
Apparently, in a study where sober and drunk participants had to do non obvious word associations…drunk participants performed 30% better. Notwithstanding wanting to be a participant in that study, this brings credence to the idea that chilling out and grabbing a beer is actually very beneficial for your business.
The final crucial finding was that interaction with people outside of our industry breeds creativity. Approaching problem solving outside of a narrow context means that non obvious solutions will be proposed. Practically, this means if you are a tech nerd you really should go to Ignite, join a book club, or take up that underwater basket weaving class. You’ll meet interesting people who have completely different vantage points who can give you critical feedback and spark conversations that you won’t get elsewhere.
The point is that if you want to be creative, innovative and unique…SxSW is not the place to do it (unless you are say, an artist or outside of the tech world). Just walk around and you’ll see each year there is a theme to a new crop of startups…this year it was mobile networking apps, last year it was group messaging apps. Get creative by relaxing, meeting new people with diverse backgrounds, and getting drunk together.
Could it be that these people just aren’t all that smart? I know that sounds harsh, but I don’t think it requires remarkable talent to declare yourself an entrepreneur, hatch a hare-brained social app idea, desperately seek funding, drive to SXSW, set up a booth and hand out tshirts and grilled cheese sandwiches as if you know something everybody else doesn’t.
It requires remarkable talent to come up with an original idea in an unpopular industry like dumpster rental services or gun silencers (which, let’s face it, is where most big ideas and innovations come from) and see it through without immediate funding or an enormous community doing the exact same thing.