About our banner's quail

  • Titled "California Party," it's an image of a watercolor by artist Roger Folk (used with his permission). It and twenty wonderful others of his, all scenes of nature, can be ordered by emailing Roger Folk at [email protected]. They are 3 in. x 18 in., free of the low resolution of the above image, and priced at $17.50 + $4 shipping.

The Friend You've Been Waiting For

  • The friend you've been waiting for has also been waiting for you. Meet each other at your local animal shelter.

Who runs this blog?

  • The Saunterer. That's me, H. Charles Romesburg, Professor in the Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University. As part of my research I saunter through the writings of especially creative people, keeping an eye open for insightful ideas on subjects that are joined with great goodness and creativity. I will in this blog present ideas from the writings of more than three hundred of these creators: painters, scientists, mathematicians, entrepreneurs, writers, poets, naturalists, actors, rock climbers and more. Among the subjects that will be covered: How workers in most every vocation and avocation can work as artists do, creating use, beauty, or both, of rare note. How regularly experiencing wild nature makes us better creators. How it is that the more all forms of life come to be revered, the more creative society will be. For some of the other subjects that will be covered, click on cnr.usu.edu/romesburg

Archives

About

« Rita Levi-Montalcini on useful ignorance in creative work | Main | Novelist Thomas Wolfe comments on the quality of living in Cache valley, Utah »

October 31, 2005

Luis W. Alvarez’s method for conceiving new problems to solve

    Luis W. Alvarez and his father had a method that served them well:

Dad never claimed he might have won that Nobel Prize, but he did say more than once that he would have been a better researcher if he had occasionally let his mind wander over the full range of his work. He advised me to sit every few months in my reading chair for an entire evening, close my eyes, and try to think of new problems to solve. I took his advice very seriously and have been glad ever since that I did. (Quoted in The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 220)

    Researchers without new problems to solve get nowhere. But why stop with researchers? Think of artists, teachers and business people, indeed all creative workers.

October 31, 2005 |

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Books by H. Charles Romesburg

  • H. Charles Romesburg: The Life of the Creative Spirit

    H. Charles Romesburg: The Life of the Creative Spirit
    Practically all of the quotations in this blog's posts are collected in "The Life of the Creative Spirit."

  • H. Charles Romesburg: How About It, Writer?

    H. Charles Romesburg: How About It, Writer?
    Based on a study of more than 12,000 essays from the very best literary magazines, this book provides writers with lists of thousands of classic forms of opening sentences, titles, transition sentences, ways of saying "for example," and ways of closing nonfiction pieces. When you are writing an essay and want a hint for a better or fresh way of saying what you mean, looking through the lists acts on the imagination, stimulating your creativity. From Lulu Press (ISBN 1-4116-2862-4, 194 pp., softback), it's $16.95 when ordered from Lulu.com/Romesburg , and $22.95 from bookstores. To view its cover, click on www.cnr.usu.edu/romesburg/how_about_it_writer.htm To view its title page, contents, and first two chapters, click on: www.cnr.usu.edu/romesburg/how_about_it_writer_preview.pdf

  • H Charles Romesburg: Best Research Practices

    H Charles Romesburg: Best Research Practices
    The Saunterer’s new book (2009), Best Research Practices explains how to plan and carry out reliable experiments, how to conceive and circumstantially support research hypotheses, how to test research hypotheses with the hypothetico-deductive method, how to discover cause and effect, and more. It’s based on his examination of 5,000 top scientific articles, studying the methods used to produce reliable knowledge. Preview it on-line by going to the following link: http://print.google.com/print?isbn=9780557017836

Subscribe to this blog's feed
Blog powered by Typepad