Category: Blog (the archive of everything)Page 11 of 12
I met with a friend earlier in the week to talk about setting some life goals. It’s a conversation we had had five years ago and then did…
I’m a slow reader. The problem is I can’t seem to retain things unless I write them down or sketch them out. It means that I read very…
I just went to see The Lighthouse, an enjoyably gothic story of the descent into madness of two lighthouse keepers. I loved the visual design of this film…
I am reminded this morning of much I like working out what all the buttons do on a machine. Quite often the machines we use, be they an…
Readers of this blog will know I started a project a couple of years ago to write a book called ‘Analogue Skills‘, a re-examination of the pre-screen skills…
It will probably be very muddy. At least it was for my first visit of the year to Hazel Hill Woods. Recent rain has made the forest wetter…
I am speeding north on a train from Aix-en-Provence TGV and reflecting on what it is I like so much about this station. It sits on the southern…
My Dad and I talk about chords. How would you get from one key in a piece of music to another? To onlookers, it might seem as though…
My daughter is now seven. I have been trying to remember what being seven was like for me. Memories start to become more frequent around this time. Some…
This week I have had the feeling that I have been struggling recently to find focus on my creative work. I have lots of projects on at the…
This question came up on the way home this evening. On the back of the tandem, my daughter was experimenting with counting in French. Things were going fine…
Drivers, please don’t complain about the traffic: you are the traffic Broadbent, O. (2019). Internal monologue everytime I hear a driver complain about the traffic. Bristol.
A key part of problem-based learning is reflection. But how do you get people not interested in reflection to start thinking critically about the decisions they take over…
Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking to engineers about they can do in response to the climate emergency. For those that are engaged with the topic,…
Creative surplus is the time we have to invest in thinking creatively, just like a financial surplus allows us to make financial investments. I like the term because…
[The following text is adapted from the after-dinner speech I gave at the University of Edinburgh Engineering Faculty’s away day. It was originally titled ‘How problem-based learning can…
This afternoon I headed to We The Curious with my daughter for a summer holiday treat. The highlight was the giant sheet of bubble you can make there…
[Written in May, posted today] Saturday was the chance for my one of my favourite kinds of parenting: the kind where I can go on a journey with…
I’ve started experimenting with leaving the house without my phone. On purpose. Here are some things I’ve noticed. I need to get a watch. Without a watch, however,…
At the start of the summer I felt that the best contribution I could make to tackling the climate emergency was to offer my skills as a trainer…
One of the thing things that I like about Marseille is the quality of the concrete tower block design. I’ve been riding in taxis back and forth across…
Marseille In my previous post I was talking about the experience of distance, and how, when understood as an experience, distance is no longer a fixed entity. That…
Marseille A morning walk up the steep hill to the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Gard granted me panoramic views of the city of Marseille and the…
For my birthday this week my partner Mary gave me Alistair Humphreys’s inspirational book ‘Microadventures’. According to Humphreys, a microadventure is an adventure that is short, simple, local,…
I’m on the road again, this time to the University of Bath where I have the pleasure of running a workshop with first-year students on creative thinking in…
Superpowers for Creative Design is the name I gave to a one-page summary of my undergraduate creativity teaching at Imperial College. This is my first draft. I like…
I am starting to shift my attention away from creative tools for engineers. Tools are still important. But I’ve realised that you need a creative culture for individual…
A quick engineering detour to check out the impressive interior of Coventry Cathederal.
There was great energy at today’s IStructE Academics’ Conference, the theme of which was Creativity and Conceptual Design. If you are visiting this site for the first time,…