Welcome to Conspire’s Fun Friday Links, a weekly collection of interesting discoveries from around the Web. Most of the time, the goal is to get you thinking differently about innovation, collaboration, business culture, and life in general. Other times, we may toss an infographic or fun video your way. Submissions are welcome, and you can send them to conspire@mindjet.com for consideration.
Isaac Asimov on How People Get New Ideas
As the spotlight shines bright on any and all things innovation, the question of how to inspire creative ideas and change is both widespread and extremely difficult to answer. In this never before published essay, the infamous Isaac Asimov details his perspectives on ideation, creativity, and collaboration. From Technology Review:
“How do people get new ideas?
Presumably, the process of creativity, whatever it is, is essentially the same in all its branches and varieties, so that the evolution of a new art form, a new gadget, a new scientific principle, all involve common factors. We are most interested in the “creation” of a new scientific principle or a new application of an old one, but we can be general here.
One way of investigating the problem is to consider the great ideas of the past and see just how they were generated. Unfortunately, the method of generation is never clear even to the “generators” themselves.
But what if the same earth-shaking idea occurred to two men, simultaneously and independently? Perhaps, the common factors involved would be illuminating. Consider the theory of evolution by natural selection, independently created by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace.”
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20 Tips for Dramatically Better Emails
Despite many attempts by organizations and individuals alike to drive people from traditional email to enterprise social networking, the Almighty Inbox doesn’t appear to be going anywhere just yet. With that in mind, why not make your email marketing strategy the absolute best it can be? Besides, great advice is especially helpful when it’s presented visually, as with the below article. When clicked in the full version, Tip Cards go into detail about how to execute the relative suggestion in your email campaigns. From GetVero:
“When it comes right down to it, email marketing is all about getting the basics right.
Yes, you need to segment your lists and yes, you should upgrade your transactional emails but every email marketer also needs to invest time in big picture strategies like positioning, voice, value and conversion optimization. The 20 tips below may seem basic but you’ll find many at the core of the best email marketing campaigns out there. You’ll notice that many of the examples employ five or more of these tips in a single email. For best results, apply liberally.”
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INFOGRAPHIC: Why Business Intelligence is Key for Competitive Advantage
The importance of data science — from collection to interpretation — is not lost on today’s successful business leaders. What can throw a wrench is your overall strategy is an inability to manage, process, and translate the extraordinarily vast amount of information that would truly allow you best meet market needs, develop innovative products, and trump competitors. In this infographic from CIS Online, statistics and research show why leaders need to hop on the business intelligence train before they simply drown in all of that data.
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FUN FRIDAY INNOVATION BONUS: The Hendo Hoverboard
The post Fun Friday Links: Asimov’s Ideas, Dramatically Better Emails, and Business Intelligence appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad.