Sunday Ross Beef 🥩 #4 22.08.21

Welcome to Sunday Ross Beef

Every Sunday I share three ideas, thoughts or provocations which have intrigued me over the course of the last week, with a curated group of business leaders, creators and entrepreneurs. It’s not about the news, rather more timeless ideas which reflect the range of my interests.

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1) Do schools kill creativity?

I’ve been watching the late Sir Ken Robinson’s poignant and entertaining TED talk on education again. This first of three, it has collected over 71m views and is TED’s most popular of all time.

Ken was a creativity expert who challenged the way we educate our children, championing a radical rethink of how our school systems cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

The last 18 months have challenged the way we think about education and has accelerated our opportunity to enable technology and its surrounding entrepreneurial spirit to personalise the experience far more, to allow kids to flourish in the pursuits that they love; not only in the ones they must do. As Ken said in 2006, “creativity now is as important in education as literacy”.

C.f. the problem of endless credentialism which Rory Sutherland addresses here and here.

2) Airports are lawless places

We edged back towards normality last week, returning from holiday by plane. After a long gap, I was reminded what odd places airports are.

It’s acceptable to sink a beer or guzzle champagne and oysters at 7am, you can sleep on the floor, put your feet on the chairs and even brush your teeth in public.

Further, despite attractiveness for airport authorities, why are airports filled with designer brand outlets? Do many people really want to buy a Gucci handbag or Rolex watch in the 30 minutes before boarding a plane?

3) The opposite of a good idea

In Rory Sutherland’s book ‘Alchemy: The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind Numbing Conformity,' the author discusses why the opposite of a good idea can be a good idea.

In physics, this can never be the case, but in psychology it certainly can. The context or situation we’re in changes our perception and judgement. Economists try to rationalise and apply universal explanation to human behaviour but humans are walking contradictions.

Luxury goods would not exist if everyone could own them. Certain foods are popular because they are widely eaten. Scarcity and abundance are both effective, but contradictory.

I discuss this with Rory in my interview with him which will be published next week. Sign up to get it.

As Rory says, ‘You should always consider that the opposite of what makes sense may actually also be an interesting field of enquiry.’ Danish physicist, philosopher and Nobel Laureate Niels Bohr once apparently told Einstein, ‘You are not thinking; you are merely being logical.’

Have a great week!

Daniel

And, as always, please give me feedback on Twitter. Which bullet above is your favourite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. Just send a tweet to @danielsjross

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You may be familiar with my Paths Less Trodden interview series where I chew the fat with super creative folk like Jack Butcher, Rory Sutherland, Tshepo Mohlala and George Calhoun among others. You can subscribe to that here if you haven’t already: