4 Wonder

leveraging information for the good life

Wonder includes positive traits for acquiring and using of information in the service of the good life. These are cognitive strengths, such as ingenuity, openness to new experiences, and a sense of perspective. For example, looking at street lights and star light, an engineer was inspired to create multimmedia software that let people in different disciplines commuicate more easily.

Goals

To critically assess …

• The meaning of creativity, curiosity, perspective, and innovation
• How these virtues inspire others, such as industriousness and planning
• Ways related words of wisdom guide appropriate action
• How to resolve realistic scenarios based on wisdom in the topics

Creativity

Creativity is producing ideas that are original and make a positive contribution to one’s own life or the life of others.

Ability is having the skill and will to perform some task.

• For example, at age three she was able to tie her own shoes.
• Ability is practical in nature. Action is the true test of ability.

The reward of a task well done is to receive a greater task.

• One is reward not for having, but for using intelligence. 
• Ability is in what is accomplished, not merely attempted.

Creativity is using imagination to produce something original and alluring.

• For example, a children’s slide wrapped around a spiral staircase or a clock that tells time by lighting words (e.g.: Quarter — Past — Noon). 
• Imagination is just as important as knowledge.

Some people think they are being creative when they are just being different.

• It is the product, not the employer, who truly pays wages.
• A work should impress its meaning even before its subject is known.

Design is to decide the way something will look or work, to produce according to a plan or purpose. 

• For example, a well-know museum, although six stories tall, was designed with one long walkway spiralling around the interior so patrons stroll from one exhibit to another without the interruption of stairs. 
• We shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us.

Form ever follows function.

• A building is a string of events belonging together.
• Culture creates music; the composer merely arranges it.

Inspiration is an influence that arouses creativity or personal industry. 

• For example, I was inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson and decided to write a ballad of my own. 
• In giving a eulogy, the past governor was inspired by the acts of the departed to a rousing a speech that inspired many with hope.

Inspiration works best when you do.

• Others will follow your footsteps faster than your advice.
• Inspiration is getting average people to do superior work.

Resourcefulness is the ingenuity of doing more with less, or creative use of resources to deal with difficulty. 

• For example, the castaway’s resourceful use of bamboo produced a hut for shelter and a still for drinkable water. 
• To discover new lands, one must lose sight of the shore for a time.

Credit for resourcefulness goes to the person who persuades others, not to whom the idea first occurs.

• It is easier to put on slippers than to carpet the earth.
• To others, you are what you say and do, not what you hope and feel.

Based on the Wisdom in this Topic

Case of the Absent Star

How should team members proceed in the absence of the team’s key player?

• ELLA. Our team’s star player failed to show up for the big game. I want us to forfeit rather than go through the humiliation of having our cross-town rivals running up a high winning score. Without our star play, this won’t be a true test of our ability.
• KEISHA. There is more to winning than numbers on the score board. Winners never quit and quitters never win. To go out there and try, especially under the circumstances, shows dignity for ourselves and respect for spectators. That’s what we deliver.

Case of the Pop Portrait

How can one reconcile what is creative to one person and trite to another?

• MUSIC AGENT. A few years ago, one of the music groups I represent made a mural by accident. The drummer tripped. His long hair fell into a bucket of paint to be used on the stage setting. When he whipped his hair, the image intrigued fellow band members. They followed pursuit. The “painting” was put up for charity auction and sold large.
• ART AGENT. It astonished the art world when that same “hair portrait” was again put up for auction, but failed to get a bid over the minimum price set by the charity. In other words, it didn’t sell. Potential bidders said it used cliche symbols and a comic book caricature that rendered the musicians unrecognizable.

Case of the Eclectic Repair

How can eclectic decor be made to fit in a more conservative community?

• WIFE. As a newlywed couple, strapped for cash, we bought a house in need of considerable repair. We are well intended, but neither is handy with tools or directions. So, we end up improvising. As a result, the house has taken on a rather eclectic appearance as a result. 
• HUSBAND. That fits our bohemian lifestyle as artists. It doesn’t fit the standard of their neighbourhood. One neighbour suggested we skip the do-it-yourself and pay for professional tradespeople. Sad he didn’t offer to help. One has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

Curiosity

Curiosity is the pursuit of experience in response to intrigue.

Attention is taking notice of something as interesting or important. 

• For example: the driver’s attention was drawn to the odd rock on the road. 
• The trouble with mental notes is that the ink fades so fast.

The secret of memory is attention

• Learn to listen, for opportunity often whispers.
• You cannot be learning while you are talking.

Experience is an encounter or occurrence that makes an impression, influences attitude. 

• For example, summer camp is a great way to experience the beauty of nature and the persistence of insects. 
• Any problem can be a learning, turning, or earning experience.

Experience is yesterday’s answer to today’s problems.

• Good judgment follows experience, which frequently follows poor judgment.
• Life is understood by looking backward, yet lived by looking forward.

Modest opportunities can be the start of major achievements.

• Action creates more fortune than caution.
• Use all the brains you have and all you can borrow.

Curiosity is being inquisitive, having the desire to find out. 

• For example, I am curious to know how they get a ripe pear inside a bottle.
• A clever bit of prestidigitation both amazes the audience and leaves them curious as to how sleight of hand is done. 

Silly questions are easier to handle than silly mistakes.

• A good angle from which to approach a problem is the try-angle.
• If you know all the answers, you have not asked all the questions.

Based on the Wisdom in this Topic

Case of Gallery Tourists

What’s the best way to help patrons at a gallery pay attention?

• PATRON. A walking tour through the art gallery ended in a large room. Easels and painting supplies were set up all around. Here, as tourists, we had an opportunity to create an abstract painting, applying the techniques mentioned along the way by the guide. 
• CURATOR. One group was so busy chatting that they picked up little information. Equally clueless were those who took no notes. Those of the third group heard what was said, but did try to see the techniques pointed out by the guide in the masterpieces shown.

Case of FIST Fight

How should munitions makers deal the natural curiosity of bystanders to investigate?

• COMMANDER. The military developed Final Intelligent Strike Technology. FIST, for short. FIST is an artificially intelligent device carried into combat. It will detect whether all friendly soldiers are lost, then monitor when enemy combatants gather around and detonate a lethal final strike. The device detects a friendly soldier by a chip the size of a rice grain imbedded under the skin. It perceives all others by means of light, sound, and motion detectors.
• REPORTER. In the ambush at Panicle Point, all friendly soldiers were killed. The only surviving enemy soldier lay unconscious. Soon a crowd of curious villagers were drawn to the battle scene. FIST armed itself and detonated into the crowd of civilians.

Case of the Deep Flu

What is the wisest way to deal with a risky discovery that has potential benefits?

• CAPTAIN. The influenza virus can be deadly. A century ago, one strain killed millions of people around the globe. That strain then vanished. Until now. My team located a ship known to have passengers infected with the deadly strain. It could be worth a fortune to pharmaceutical companies.
• VIROLOGIST. Because of how the ship sunk it has remained sealed. The strain likely survived. The treasure will be dangerous to retrieve and dangerous to have aboard. However, this is the holy grail of virology. Understanding what happened a century ago could possibly prevent other pandemics.

Love of Learning

The love of learning refers to a positive attitude about acquiring skills, satisfying curiosity, and adding to ones knowledge.

Education is acquiring knowledge, skills, or some other enlightening experience. 

• For example, a field trip to the zoo with little kids is an education in patience. 
• To learn is to make new things familiar and familiar things new.

Education is achieved, not received.

• A person can be led to knowledge, but cannot be made to think.
• To know a topic well, translate it for others to understand easily.

Goals refers to ambition or desired result. 

• She paid a little extra on the monthly mortgage toward goal of owning her home sooner. 
• Important things are often the aggregate of many little things.

An idea will not work unless you do.

• If you aim at nothing, you will hit it.
• Hope doesn’t change things; it changes people; people change things.

Preparation is getting ready, planning and arranging.

• For example, wedding preparations began with a list of whom to invite.
• When there isn’t time to do it over, take time to do it right.

Preparation is important because the more you leave to chance, the less chance there is for success.

• Chance favours the prepared mind.
• All comes to those who wait, provided they work at it while waiting.

Industriousness is being diligent and hardworking, putting in a sincere, steady effort. 

• For example, my grandmother’s kitchen was a centre of industry when she was busy making pies for the county fair. 
• Ideas do not work unless we do.

Learning is acquiring knowledge or skills, becoming competent or proficient in some ability. 

• For example, a good way to learn patience is to travel with children or pets. 
• To grasp an idea, one must have at least partially lived it.

Learning is translating ideas into experience, experience into ideas.

• I forget what I was taught, but remember what I learned.
• Knowledge has its origin in perception; see for yourself.

Orderliness is being methodical, arranging items neatly or according to some criteria. 

• For example, books arranged alphabetically, shoes sorted by size, photos sequenced by date. 
• A desk or filing cabinet without order is but a wastebasket.

Methods and motivation are as important as information.

• Planning, to others uninformed, appears as luck.
• An item lost is always found in the last place one looks.

Based on the Wisdom in this Topic

Case of Theatre Troupe

How should a theatre respond to economic options into new areas of performance?

• THEATRE OWNER. As the curtain falls to end another season, I am—as owner of the Port Spindrift Players—again barely able to cover expenses. The theatre troupe has a history of making musicals, but if they are to survive financially we have to get creative and develop an alternative theatre production.
• ARTISTIC DIRECTOR. I have some ideas. Hook up with a local restaurant to do mystery dinner theatre. Put on a hybrid production of some movie scenes alternating with live stage scenes. Maybe go unscripted and switch to improv skits with audience participation. However, some members of our troupe think the setback is temporary. They want to stay with the kind of theatre productions they know. 

Case of Castaway Island

How best could a shipwrecked family respond to competing survival goals?

• MOTHER. Ours is a sailing family. We were sailing around the world when caught in a storm far out in the ocean. Our communication equipment sank along with the boat, but everyone safely washed up on a deserted island. It may be weeks before we are found since we were blown some distance from where their last location was transmitted.
• DAUGHTER. Mom and my brother want to spell HELP with rocks for a passing airplane to see, then go further inland in search of fresh water and shelter. My dad and I want to stay on shore, where we can fish for food and distill water if they can make fire.

Case of Which Crate

Which last-minutes choices best increase the change of surviving a shipwreck?

• MARY ANNE. The cruise ship is sinking, but everyone aboard can survive by swimming to the shore of a nearby deserted island. Once there we can look for water, start a fire, build a shelter, make a large SOS signal out of rocks, then look for food. I want Ginger to help me swim this crate to shore. It contains plastic tarps, nylon rope, some old clothes and newspapers, a knife, mirror, and even an old cigarette lighter.
• GINGER. The skipper was knocked out, but is being held up by the first-mate and professor as they swim to shore. That leaves Mary Ann and me to pick a crate of supplies to lug together as we swim to shore. Everybody needs to stay calm, find food, then find a way off the island. We can take only one crate, so I say we take one with a map and compass, chocolate bars, loaded pistol, and several bottles of rum.

Perspective

Perspective is the use of good judgment in considering what is important relative to its context or alternative options. 

Opportunity is an occasion to prosper or circumstances that make it possible to achieve something. 

• A reunion offers an opportunity to see distant relatives. 
• Stepping on a nail gives the tetanus bacteria an opportunity to cause infection. 

Ability isn’t much without opportunity.

• Many people miss out on opportunity because it looks like work.
• Opportunities are never lost; the next person takes those you miss.

Outlook refers to a person’s point of view or attitude toward life. 

• For example, the one who laughs, lasts.
• There is always free cheese in a mousetrap.

Outlook influences how we think and what we do.

• Losers lose — winners have fun.
• Progress begins with a clear view of the obstacles.

Perspective is to reconsider presumptions, to view matters relative to other factors, assessing their relative importance. 

• For example, the grocery bill isn’t so expensive considering how many meals it provides. 
• When the well runs dry, the animals look at each other differently.

Outlook is the way we look, perspective is how we see.

• Of all the dramatic media, radio is the most visual.
• When your only tool is a hammer, every problem will look like a nail.

Viewpoint is an attitude of manner of considering something. 

• For example, a certain novel about a pioneer family was told from the mother’s point of view. 
• A hen is an egg’s way of making another egg.

That which is seen depends in part on that which is sought.

• Nothing is work unless you would rather be doing something else.
• In adolescence, boys discover girls and girls discover they have been discovered.

Based on the Wisdom in this Topic

Case of Amnesty In

Is it better to allow illegal immigrants or insist on a strict immigration policy?

• RED SENATOR. Many of our manual labourers come from a neighbouring nation without immigration papers or work permits. We have better working conditions and higher wages, but it isn’t going to last since they bring down wages by willingly working for less money. They don’t report any earnings, so they get health, education, and other social services without paying taxes. Our tax dollars go to support them. No, they are here illegally; deport them now.
• BLUE SENATOR. The fact is, we depend on their help. They tend to take jobs that our own citizens refuse, such as crop picker, gardener, housekeeper, waiter. Let’s issue a 10-year temporary citizenship to all those presently working here so they can save up and return home or else immigration and as tax-paying citizens.

Case of the Injury Escape

Is it better to play for a losing team or excuse oneself to project a winning image?

• MANAGER. Our baseball season started with high hopes. Now, at midseason, we have an equal number wins and losses. Even worse, in the second half of the season, we will have to play all teams with better win/loss records than our own. Getting to the playoffs are slim.
• CATCHER. Some players went on the injured list as a way out. If injured and not playing, they’re less likely to be seen as part of a losing team. That might protect their prospects for a trade to a team with a bigger budget. Our pitcher developed an inscrutable strained wrist.

Case of Blue Pine

What is the wise way to deal with wood that is adequate, but perceived as tainted?

• WHOLESALER. A beetle in pine trees on the west side of the Lilac Island carries a fungus that stains the sapwood blue. The blue wood is safe and strong enough for framing houses. Lumber retailers are reluctant to stock it since some people see the blue timber as tainted. 
• BOARD CHAIR. Our school board cancelled an order for the blue lumber in refurbishing portable classrooms. Marketing officials were concerned that the public may have a hysterical reaction by hearing “fungus” and seeing blue.

Innovation

Innovation is betterment of an existing idea or means of achieving a goal, improving or extending, or combining ideas into something new.

Achievement is a measure of success, accomplishing a goal.

• “My greatest achievement”, reflected the retiring pilot, “was that emergency landing on the highway.” 
• Big problems can’t be solved by the level of thinking that created them.

Productive work is satisfying, and often prevails over amusement.

• If at first you don’t succeed, try a little ardor.
• The Past offers directions to the Present on getting to the Future.

Betterment means working to improve something or circumstances. 

• Painting a house contributes to its betterment. It might be said that charity is for the betterment of society. 
• Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.

One who takes time to be better will enjoy better times.

• Removing the faults of a stagecoach may make a better stagecoach, but doesn’t produce an automobile.
• When the blind carry the lame, both go forward.

Planning is thinking ahead and arranging a set of steps to accomplish a desire goal. 

• For example, the cruise ship will leave with or without us, so we need a contingency plan in case connecting air flights are not on time. 
• The simple solution might not work, but is the first to consider.

To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

• To go without a goal is to get nowhere and not know when you arrive.
• Prepare and prevent instead of repair and repent.

Success is achieving a goal, doing what you set out to do. 

• For instance, the new ads are a success, measured by sudden increase in sales. 
• If at first you do succeed, try something harder.

For success, try aspiration, inspiration, and perspiration.

• No skills, no success; know skills, know success.
• One rarely does well what one rarely does.

Excellence is exceeding expectations, having superior quality. 

• For example, our restaurant has a built reputation for culinary excellence, so expect the extraordinary. 
• Aim for excellence; preparation today determines achievement tomorrow.

Progress is improving or developing in condition or achieving a goal.

• The patient made slow, steady progress in recovering from her burns.
• To do the impossible, break it into many merely difficult steps.

Change is not always progress, nor is all activity achievement. 

• Some think they are being creative when they are just being different.
• Small matches can light great torches.

Based on the Wisdom in this Topic

Case of the Bakery Bistro

What wise advice best guides the maintenance or expansion of a family business?

• GRANDSON. My grandfather came from the old country and opened the bakery downtown. It has regular customers despite little change over the years. I want to expand the business, add some tables, serve brunch, morph the business into a modern Bistro. That would have made my father proud, I know it.
• GRANDFATHER. I started this bakery at 18 and built up a clientele. Even when my son was killed in the war, our bakery was open for business. Now days I am there part-time. This brunch business is just a distraction from what I built up all these years. I say, either open a real restaurant or stay a bakery and maybe add to our pastry section.

Case of the Auto Trio

What does one do for the betterment of an industry in difficult economic times?

• ECONOMIST. The global economy had been shaky for several years. Manufacturing was reduced. Companies laid-off employees. There was less cash flowing all around. Three automobile manufacturers took different strategies in response to slumping sales.
• AUTO NEWS. Company X is making their utility vehicles more sporty. Company Y is researching engines that use water for fuel, but it is too soon for something practical. Company Z is making hybrid vehicles, hoping a combination of gas and battery will be less polluting.

Case of the Fox Trap

What advice would respect old-school simplicity with a measure of greater success?

• NIECE. My aunt is a chicken farmer. Chicken wire and bait haven’t been successful in capturing the wily fox, so she turned to technology. Old school kind of tech. Aunty has a plan, but it is as delicate as the eggs in the hen house. She has rigged up a contraption that will drop a barrel onto the vixen.
• AUNT. First I borrowed that pocket-size device my niece uses to play music and games and recorded a looping sound track of hens clucking. I taped the device inside a barrel, turned the barrel upside-down near the hen house, and propped it open with a stick attached to a long string. The fox will hear the clucking and go under the barrel looking for a hen. I will yank the string, pulling away the support stick, and the barrel will drop to capture the fox inside.