September 8, 2020

Over Labor Day weekend we had to brainstorm an idea to pursue for the first marking period project. The constant ideas I had in my head went blank as I shut them down thinking they were silly or pointless to create a project for. Thankfully in class today we learned how to approach problems from a positive point of view without shutting down ideas. The class was given an example being told that Uber plans on providing a service that brings kittens to you for a 15 minute session. Rather than looking at this idea and saying “I don’t think it’ll work” we stated any concerns and ideas for improvement in a positive way for example saying “How do you plan on approaching transportation issues for the kitten”. This way Uber has a new perspective on how to improve a possible issue rather than being told it would be a failure. I then reproached a previous idea of creating a magnetic shopping cart system. Initially I was confused because I didn’t know where exactly I wanted to go with this or how I wanted to create it for efficiency and improvement but after using this new problem thinking technique and discussing with the class, I have a more narrow approach. I was also worried thinking that if I chose one idea and it goes completely wrong that I must stick to it. No, the failure of one idea might lead to the discovery of another.