Video: Merlin Mann's "Toward Patterns for Creativity"

We were pleased to have Merlin Mann in last June to do a day of Webcast CLEs for Minnesota CLE.  Merlin's thought has the beauty of being both practical and out-of-th-box.  He gave a great talk at MacWorld called "Toward Patterns for Creativity."

Merlin talks about "Design Patterns" as a way to understand the creative process (lawyers keep reading, your job is inherently creative).  The concept was introduced by architect  Christopher Alexander.

There are certain conflicts that people always face in trying to solve a problem.  When you do it long enough, you will notice that patterns continue to reoccur.  (Lawyers:  sound like law?)  Alexander posited that we should not have to reinvent the wheel every time.  In Alexander's words:

Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem in such a way that you could use this solution a million times over without doing it the same way twice.

Let me give a quick architectural example of such as the conflict.  Someone wants a room to be sunny and not overheat on summer afternoons.  A pattern would not tell the designer how many windows to put in the room; instead, it would propose a set of values to guide the designer toward a decision that is best for their particular application. Alexander, for example, suggests that enough windows should be included to direct light all around the room.  (From Wikepedia)

Merlin takes this idea and weaves it into a dissertation on how one manages a creative life - and by that he means someone who is day in and day out needing to create things that didn't exist before - architects creating buildings, software engineers creating programs - and lawyers are squarely in that camp because we are creating solutions to recurring problems every day.

I commend to your enjoyment and edification, Merlin's (sometimes profane) musings on Patterns for Creativity:

- Peter H. Berge

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