It’s “The place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5.”

Postings range from the practical (create an Excel model, improve your resume, appraise your vintage guitar) to the offbeat (toilet train your cat, make an emotional rant, send you a mini sod of irish turf for burning.)

You can also request gigs (someone needs advice how to get a job in mining industry in Australia).

“Good judgment comes from experience.

Experience comes from poor judgment,”

gives a very good reason to exercise the Fresh Ideas

strategy ‘Risk Failing Well.’

The hotel partnered with The School of Life to offer a Minibar for the Mind.  Offered as a “a midnight feast of intellect, inspiration and ideas, ” it includes:

“A box set of 250 cards featuring questions, quotations and provocations to start tongues wagging.”

“A volume of the best columns written by The School of Life’s faculty and friends.”

“Two tailor-made reading prescriptions from The School of Life’s Bibliotherapists designed to evoke moods of relaxation or seduction.”

“An open book and a blank page to write down your dreams and fears.”

Side note: the Minibar for the Mind is also a nice example of the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Mine a Metaphor.’

Type in an address and receive its Walk Score: a number between 0 and 100 that measures the location’s walkability.

Why does the score matter?  The more walkable the location, the more likely you are to make new connections and have an unexpected conversations there.

As WalkScore puts it, “ …the main reason to love walkable neighborhoods is their human energy: they’re fun, lively, memorable… not boring. They’re the kinds of places where you might bump into a long-lost friend; stumble across creative inspiration, whether for a song or a new business; or meet the love of your life. (That’s why they’re becoming among the most sought-after addresses around.)”

Attending a conference? The blog attached to the site also  includes a ranking of the Most Walkable (Large) Convention Centers.

consider Leonard Cohen‘s  illuminating take on

the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Accentuate the Positive‘:

“Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.”

A recent post pointed visitors to Gizmodo Eureka Innovation‘s stories of experiments, accidents and failures that led to innovation. For example:
“4. Play-Doh – Kutol Products

Before being found ground into the rugs of child-rearing homes everywhere, Play-Doh was ironically created to be a cleaning product. The paste was first marketed as a treatment for filthy wallpaper—before the company that produced it began to go down the tubes. The discovery that saved Kutol Products—headed for bankruptcy—wasn’t that their wall cleaner worked particularly well, but that schoolchildren were beginning to use it to create Christmas ornaments as arts and crafts projects. By removing the compound’s cleanser and adding colors and a fresh scent, Kutol spun their wallpaper saver into one of the most iconic toys of all time—and brought mega-success to a company headed for destruction. Sometimes, you don’t even know how brilliant you are until someone notices for you.”

designers combine typography with skin, stones and shopping carts (among other things); creating interesting and sometimes unsettling images, and providing opportunities to practice two Fresh Ideas strategies:   ‘Collect the Eclectic‘ and ‘Make a Note of Unusual Combinations.’

- not feel sorry for yourself, and the importance of listening. (Bill Clinton)

-  how quickly perception can become reality. (Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu)

-  “…it’s never as bad (or as good) as it seems at the time.” (Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media)

-  to invest for the long term. (Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBay)

-  the value of rapid prototyping. (Max Levchin, CEO of Slide)

and more.  Excellent real-world reminders of the principles described in the complementary Fresh Ideas issue Risk Failing Well .

Collect the Eclectic

Risk Failing Well

Build Loose Social Ties

Which of these approaches have you found to be the most interesting or effective?  What happened as a result of applying any of them?

Thanks for adding your comments; I’m looking forward to continuing our discussions.

Tracy

PS:  Subscribers, a new issue is coming soon!