The Worst of 2018

Darrell Mann

Finding bad things to write about increasingly feels like shooting large fish in small barrels with large Howitzers. That said, 2018 felt a bit like a year of flux. The focus of the rubbish-ness is shifting. Customer service … Read More

Short Thort

Darrell Mann

“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence … Read More

Wow In Music – Horses

Darrell Mann

Pipping the Ramones’ first album to the post by five months, Horses is generally considered not just one of the most startling debuts in rock history but the spark that ignited the punk explosion.

Exactly forty-three years ago … Read More

Definitely Not Funny – The Iron Law Of Unintended Consequences

Darrell Mann

Not so long ago I proposed a new rule: No-one should be allowed to run for public office or work in a management position unless they’ve successfully passed a Complex Adaptive Systems 101 course.

If we don’t understand … Read More

Short Thort

Darrell Mann

“What is the nature of the search? you ask. The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the search is to … Read More

Wow In Music – Here, My Dear / Let’s Get It On

Darrell Mann

I have another theory. One I’ve had for a long time, but have never had the chance to really explore. Mainly because, outside the world of art, music and literature I wouldn’t know where to go find the … Read More

Not So Funny – (WD-) 40 Inventive Principles

Darrell Mann

All hail the mighty WD-40. If there is ever going to be a 41st Principle, WD-40 will very likely point the way. Or it might actually be Principle 41. Meanwhile, it is already all of the 40 we … Read More

Short Thort

Darrell Mann

“Civilization did not rise and flourish as men hammered out hunting scenes on bronze gates and whispered philosophy under the stars, with garbage as a noisome offshoot, swept away and forgotten. No, garbage rose first, inciting … Read More

Wow In Music – Lost Ones

Darrell Mann

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is the debut solo album by American singer and rapper Lauryn Hill. It was released on August 25, 1998. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 422,624 copies … Read More

Not So Funny – Pet Rock Redux & Other Barely Essential Luxuries

Darrell Mann

One thing I’ve never been able to properly forgive my parents for is their refusal to let me have a pet-rock when I was a boy. Spool forward 35 years, and it got re-launched as the USB version. … Read More

Short Thort

Darrell Mann

“INDECISION, n. The chief element of success; “for whereas,” saith Sir Thomas Brewbold, “there is but one way to do nothing and divers way to do something, whereof, to a surety, only one is the right way, it … Read More

Wow In Music – Happy

Darrell Mann

Earworms. Yes. And no. Earworms are songs that you’re unable to get out of your head. Sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes it isn’t. Scientists at the University of St Andrews have named the Top 20 official … Read More

Not So Funny – TRIZ Before TRIZ

Darrell Mann

TRIZ research started after the Second World War. The ethos of the research originated around the reverse engineering of successful patents and inventive solutions. What’s less clear is whether there was any parallel inverse research to establish whether … Read More

Short Thort

Darrell Mann

“Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing” is a well-known evolution pattern in teams. The sequence forms the first half of an s-curve. Few teams think about the second half…

Related posts:

1. Short Thort
2. Use the Eight Patterns of Evolution … Read More

Wow In Music – I Say A Little Prayer (x2)

Darrell Mann

This month saw the sad passing of singer, Aretha Franklin, a woman who was blessed with arguably the greatest singing voice in the history of recorded music — and with it, the superhuman ability to make songs better … Read More

Not So Funny – Literally Principle 12

Darrell Mann

Principle 12, Equipotentiality, is all about removing tension within systems. When someone is given an instruction and they don’t follow it precisely, we could interpret their discrepancy as a tension. Which is a bad thing. Consequently, we should … Read More

Short Thort

Darrell Mann

Innovation is done by pragmatic fantasists…

Related posts:

1. Welcome to the February 2009 Issue of The TRIZ Journal!
2. Editorial Community
3. Short Thort

Read More

Not So Funny – Discarding & Recovering

Darrell Mann

There is just something about the way kids take pictures that is pretty funny. The only thing that might be funnier is when adults decide they want to take those same pictures, decades later. As weird as kids … Read More

Wow In Music – The Downtown Lights

Darrell Mann

I’m writing this at 3am, soft rainfall and ambient lightning flashes outside suggesting, at last, a break in the unstoppable summer weather, and all I want to do is stroll down to the street corner in my local … Read More

Not So Funny – Freudian Slippers

Darrell Mann

Freudian Slips. When you say one thing but mean your mother. So the old cliché goes. Freudian slips reveal contradictions. Or their resolution. Are they Inventive Principle 9, Prior Counter-action? Or Principle 10, Prior Action? Or maybe Principle … Read More