Uncommon

Innovation is simply finding uncommon connections between things that already exist. This morning I heard one of these innovators describe his craft. The podcast was Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson and the topic was video games. If you are familiar with the format of the podcast you know that Neil has typically assembled an interview with someone of note or interest and then he and his rotation of comic guest hosts listen to and discuss the topics around the interview. This episodes interview featured the creator of Sim City (and all the other Sim related games) Will Wright.

I was never a fan of the Sim games, mostly because I’ve never been able to make much investment (time or financial) in video gaming, but to hear Wright explain the game in terms of the human experience was very interesting. As it turns out there is more to Wright and the Sims series than just some dumb game.

The quote below is from the Will Wright Wikipedia page but he expressed many of the same thoughts throughout the interview.

The problem with our education system is we’ve taken this kind of narrow, reductionist, Aristotelian approach to what learning is. It’s not designed for experimenting with complex systems and navigating your way through them in an intuitive way, which is what games teach. It’s not really designed for failure, which is also something games teach. I mean, I think that failure is a better teacher than success. Trial and error, reverse-engineering stuff in your mind—all the ways that kids interact with games—that’s the kind of thinking schools should be teaching. And I would argue that as the world becomes more complex, and as outcomes become less about success or failure, games are better at preparing you. The education system is going to realize this sooner or later. It’s starting. Teachers are entering the system who grew up playing games. They’re going to want to engage with the kids using games.

Who knew such good ideas about teaching and learning could come from a video game designer. In closing I’ll end with another quote from Wright that is amusing but also bolsters the notion that innovation comes from the uncommon.

“I'm uncollecting. I buy collections on ebay, and I disperse them out to people again. I have to be like an entropic force to collectors, otherwise all of this stuff will get sorted.”

BTW Blog fans, tomorrow I’ll be writing on harvested birch bark with the once glowing embers of a recently snuffed campfire and along with that I’ll be away from the internet so posting may be problematic.  I’ll do what I can to put something up, plenty of pals with strong and smart cellular phones.