The McDonald’s Theory of Creativity An Article by Jon Bell jonbell.medium.com I use a trick with co-workers when we’re trying to decide where to eat for lunch and no one has any ideas. I recommend McDonald’s. An interesting thing happens. Everyone unanimously agrees that we can’t possibly go to McDonald’s, and better lunch suggestions emerge. Magic! It’s as if we’ve broken the ice with the worst possible idea, and now that the discussion has started, people suddenly get very creative. I call it the McDonald’s Theory: people are inspired to come up with good ideas to ward off bad ones. The surprising effectiveness of writing and rewriting creativityideasrepair
v0.crap I couldn’t seem to convince my writers that I was genuinely ok working with a super rough first draft — i.e., that I’d harbor no hidden judgment about their intelligence, commitment, or excellence at their craft. So I came up with a new word. “Just give me a v0.crap.” (Pronounced “version zero dot crap”.) v.0.crap works because it’s attuned to the psychology of the situation. It’s punching through our innate desire not to “look bad”, plus years of corporate conditioning that tells us not to share less-than-polished work. It’s easier for people used to delivering exceptional work to feel they’ve exceeded the goal of “crap”; they can sit comfortably in “good enough for the current purpose.” Courtney Hohne, The monkey, the tiger beetle and the language of innovation blog.x.company Writing, Briefly qualityideaswritingmaking