Looking to Get Creative? Leave the Echo Chamber. Drink. Skip SxSW. | Hacker News Reader

Looking to Get Creative? Leave the Echo Chamber. Drink. Skip SxSW.

entrepreneursunpluggd.com

45 pointsstartupstella31 comments

SXSW is a very efficient place to go if you stick to the sidelines, hang out at a nearby coffeeshop and do work. You end up meeting more people that way, seeing familiar faces, and getting more done. Every year I've been there I've gotten things done more quickly (business deals, press meetings, customer feedback) simply because of the sheer volume of people there.

The key is to pick a spot to camp out at, and invite people to meet you there. It creates stability and easy collaboration. I am always surprised by the new and old people I run into there. Easier than spending a week or month going back and forth on E-mails trying to meet.

Allowing serendipity to run it's course is quite efficient. The creativity comes from the conversations and living knowledge in small groups and hangout sessions vs. the panels and the ads. There are many layers to big events like this.

I totally agree with you. There are huge business development advantages to having all of your potential partners in one place for a few days. My point is that the environment doesn't really breed creativity as opposed to collaboration.

Yeah, I actually got a lot of work done by just moving from talk to talk with my laptop, filling the spaces with work and using the topics to learn and be inspired. It was a great way to think creatively and get non-coding done.

I'm making the drive up from San Antonio this weekend to do just this.

Anyone near Cafe Medici who wants to talk Scala, .net, whatever this Saturday, email's in my profile.

Looking to get creative? How about doing something which actually develops creative thought? Getting drunk does not sharpen your mind, nor does it help you explore new venues of thought (other than whatever you typically self-inhibit as a sober person).

Play trivia games. Learn a new [natural] language. Paint. Write a song. Go and socialize with people you have very little in common with - look for new connections. But leave the alcohol behind.

Getting a buzz from booze may boost creativity: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338406/title/Vodk...

I`d say any activity that lets your mind wander is helpful for creativity, Ive had a lot of 'clicks' while drinking...

If you don't like drinking, don't drink, I honestly don't see the point in drawing a line on how people you don't even know should work to get creative

So then the question that follows is how do you prevent any niche gathering, digital or real world, from becoming an echo chamber? Don't all like-minded groups eventually become echo chambers? Even HN runs a risk of becoming an echo chamber as a group of like-minded people that quickly popularize a news story and then comment/respond in similar fashion.

I'm not saying that to bash HN. I love HN. I learn more from the stories and comments than any other source. I think "regular news" (RN?) is mostly a mix of garbage and entertainment. I like having like-minded individuals to learn from. I don't want to spend time in groups that talk about which Hollywood celebrity of the month is getting married/divorced/hired/fired/honored/dissed.

I think a diversity of participants, diversity of opinion, and diversity of passions is a good start. I think we have that here (even if in a somewhat narrow slice of diversity). After that, do we just hope for the best?

You start with yourself.

A lot of people spend time knowing which Hollywood celebrity of the month is getting married. If you shut yourself off from that you're just creating your own little bubble.

We always live in bubbles. The only thing you have is figuring out how much you're willing to leave the safety and comfort of that and learn something new.

Instead of dismissing it as useless.

There are actually two types of creativity, one much more powerful than the other, and while I can't speak for SXSW because I have never been there, from your post I can infer that the creativity you are referring to is limited at an event like SxSW, but the much more powerful creativity is abundant at a large gathering of like minded folks.

Here is how Napoleon Hill breaks it down.

Synthetic Imagination: "Through this faculty one may arrange old concepts, ideas, or plans into new combinations. This faculty "creates" nothing. It merely works with the material of experience, education, and observation of which it is fed."

"Creative Imagination: Through the faculty of creative imagination the finite mind of humankind has direct communication with infinite intelligence. This is the faculty for which hunches and inspirations are received. It is by this faculty that all basic or new ideas are developed. It is by this faculty that thought vibrations from the minds of others are received. And it is through this faculty that one individual can "tune in to" or communicate with the subconscious minds of others. The faculty functions by ONLY when the conscious mind is vibrating at an exceedingly rapid rate, as for example when the conscious mind is stimulated through the emotions of a strong desire."

These desires that make the mind vibrate at an exceptional rate are: "The Desire For...sex,love, fame, power, money, music, friendship, harmony of two or more people who ally themselves for spiritual or temporal advancement, mutual suffering, autosuggestion, fear, narcotics and alcohol. "

While I am not a psychologist, and Napoleon Hill formulated these concepts close to a century ago, so I can't speak to where "Creative Imagination" really comes from...I certainly believe that there are strokes of genius that are not simply arranging old concepts into new combinations, but more like paradigm shifts that completely change the way to see a problem and create for it.

I would think that an event like SxSW would have thousands of people whose minds are vibrating at an extremely high rate, and It is probably a great place to trigger true sparks of genius.

The link currently redirects to a page that asks for my email, and the "skip this step" button doesn't work. This is a bit frustrating.

Has the site been hackernews'd? It seems to be down right now. Is there a cached version somewhere else?

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&outpu...

cache, although loading slowly

Unfortunately, it has. :( Working on it though.

Ironically, I can't even get to the site to start a migration over to WP Engine.

Sorry about that!

If you have a backup of the site - you can install a caching plugin. That will help with the load until you can move to Cloudflare or move the hosting to WPEngine.

We have a caching plugin (which performs well under normal conditions). The problem is the server (or lack thereof).

We're moving over to WP Engine tonight.

Correction: *If the site comes back up..

fucking SingleHop.

Is it bad that I picture SxSW and groan, and then picture it full of pseudo-nerds who think they're nerds because they own an iPhone and then groan even more?

I think most of the negative comments are based on people having absolutely no idea about the reality of SXSW. I'm not in a position to spend $950 on a ticket either, so what did I do? Instead of staying home wishing I was there and masquerading that under contempt for the entire festival, I hoped on the StartupBus www.startupbus.com. We drove from LA to Austin and started a company and built a web app in 3 days. I worked with the best team of designers and developers I ever have. On the way there, I pitched to Dave McClure, who told me the beer I brought him was "fucking cold". Once we got to Austin, I met some of the most interesting and accomplished developers, designers and entrepreneurs I ever have. I talked to Eric Ries and pitched him my half baked idea I thought of on the way to the party we met at. How much did my accommodations cost you ask? $35 a night. I snuck into a few events and heard Steve Blank talk about his new book. Hasn't anyone ever seen Boiler Plate? When someone asks you if you are registered for the festival, just "act as if". My point is that you can go down to SXSW for less than a grand and still have amazing networking and learning opportunities. Now if I could only figure out how to make up for all the time I lost prepping for finals :)

EDIT: Dave actually told me the beer was "warm". Sorry for the typo, and thanks to Dave :)

That's not an accurate impression of SXSW. There are many companies and folks there doing fascinating things and solving hard problems. If you just go the panels and hang out at the convention center, you're going to miss out. If you have a personal network that you can tap into and leverage to meet more folks, you get a huge benefit out of SXSW.

> If you just go the panels and hang out at the convention center

[also known as "SXSW"]

> you're going to miss out. If you have a personal network that you can tap into and leverage

[also known as "not SXSW"]

> to meet more folks, you get a huge benefit out of SXSW.

So, in other words, you get a benefit out of SXSW... by not going to SXSW, and doing something else instead.

I do this this is accurate. Going to Austin during SXSW can be really valuable, exciting, and inspiring. Paying for a badge and doing the panel circuit isn't worth the money or time away from what's outside the CC.

Depends how strictly you define "SXSW". Point is that SXSW is a huge networking opportunity whether you go to the panels or not- friends of mine got to chat with staff at Foursquare, Spotify, and all manner of other organisations, just by going to their SXSW "space". There are very few other events that can claim that.

(I mean, where else can you watch Dave Tisch speed-eat grilled cheese sandwiches?)

If you think you have a realistic picture of what happens at SXSW, you're mistaken. Which is bad, I suppose.

So: Yes.

I'm not going to lie, it's more of an eye-roller at the "hip nerd has an iPhone" image that just irks me. I fume at people who (and this has really happened) ask me, "ew, you have an Android, why?!". As my original comment, I've not been to SXSW myself and I was just going off the impression given by the OP article.

Negative, uninformed opinion about Android: Bad.

Negative, uninformed opinion about SXSW: Acceptable.

Gotcha.

What do you want me to say? I told you what I was basing my comments on. I even proposed this as an uninformed opinion based on the depictions in the thread, article and what I've gleaned from Twitter.

Instead of correcting me or offering anything to counteract the numerous examples in this thread, you're just being snide.

That's pretty silly

Huh. I've found SxSW can help stimulate ideas, because you end up talking to so many different people and break out of your normal routine. It's not an echo chamber if you don't live in the bay area.

It's pretty miserable for other reasons though, I doubt I will ever go again.

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