Space

Poor John probably thought I'd never show up over here.

Not that I blame him, I'm getting around to it after 2 months...

I asked a Psychic once if I was an old soul, or young soul. For the Zen-challenged, Buddhists (and other religions not as widely practiced) believe you're soul lives many lives. The number of lives you might have lived, varies person to person and has nothing to do with calendar age... hence why you meet 4 year olds that act like 80 year olds, and vice versa.

She responded:

"You're a young soul trying on adult clothes."

And for those who know me best, that is Brazen in a nutshell.

John asked if I would like to post over here and the first thing I did was buck responsibility like a five year old. Been feeling guilty for weeks now. Was waiting for him to say something, send me an email:

Eh Brazen... you alive?

But he didn't.

And in that empty space I discovered I was ready to try on some adult clothes. And now here I am. Writing to you about this seemingly silly topic... only that it's not so silly at all... but rather insight into something actually quite enormous.

Space.

To get somewhere in one's own time.

It's such a novel idea in such a face paced, competitive society we live in isn't it? And yet here's the great part:

Taking one's time
Playing
Smelling the roses....

... isn't new age hippie bullshit, unrealistic for today's modern world! In fact, it's more relevant than ever, and Science is proving it. And we all know how much those new age hippie doubters need their data and research, so here we go.

Daniel Pink does a much better job describing this over at the TED awards, but I'll summarize for you first, before you undoubtedly jettison over to hear him engage the pants off of everyone he speaks to. He presents a lot of great information- but the part that is relevant right here, is Carl Dunker's Candle Problem created in 1945. Here's the problem:

You have a candle, some thumbtacks, and a box of matches. Now, use these materials to keep burning candle wax from dripping onto the table.

I won't ruin the surprise, Pink does that for you if you want to listen to his speech. The solution isn't the juicy part.

The best part is the study that went a long with the problem. They divided people into two groups, and told one group: "The person that solves this problem fastest, will get a reward." The other group was allowed to take their time. No reward. Just pure satisfaction of problem solving.

Now according to Arne Duncan... we should race to the top! We should give a reward! And according the Candle Problem study, Arne would be right... if we were living in the early 20th century. The scientists discovered that rewards improved performance... but stunted creativity. The group that was offered a reward took an average of 3.5 minutes longer to solve the problem.

So here's the deal Arne... if we were preparing our children to compete for factory/office/or labor jobs, improving their performance would be ideal. But guess what? Those jobs are going overseas faster than... faster than I can think of a witty metaphor. So guess what we do need to prepare our children for? Ah yes... design jobs, leadership roles, engineering positions... jobs that require um, creative thinking.

And we have scientific research telling us that in order foster creative thinking we need....

Space.

Did you know you were so smart John? Giving me space and all?