BBB Fun Feature: Creating New Directions

For many years, television has been in desperate need of a dose of creativity. Especially from the years 2000 to 2008, people would always see television shows that would involve either of these elements: sci-fi suspense, crime suspense, law suspense, family drama, complicated romance and even doctor drama. (I hint heavily on the last one because 2000 to 2008 was all about House, Grey's Anatomy, General Hospital, ER, Scrubs, Nurse Jackie, Nip/Tuck. This genre was really creative at first when there were just one to two shows in the category, but it started to get polluted and failed to creatively push itself further to differentiate itself from the other .) Even more so in the local Philippine channels, whenever one would see a trailer of a newteleserye and learn about the plot, he would most likely gush and say "not again" because he is probably referring to the same old plot: (1) rich boy meets and falls in love with poor, beautiful, kind girl, (2) rich boy's family who owns a hacienda does not like poor girl (who is currently dealing with so much challenges), (3) poor girl takes an opportunity and suddenly becomes rich, (4) newly rich girl gets back at the rich boy's family, (5) newly rich girl finds out she is related to the boy, (6) girl and boy's family work out their problems and have a happy ending.

Enough of those. Thankfully, there is a new show in the world of television and it does succeed in providing us a break from the dark world of suspense and drama. This revolution was brought to us by this guy shown in the picture below, Ryan Murphy.

Ryan Murphy: Creator of Glee

As many people know, Ryan Murphy is the creator of one of Fox's new television series, Glee. Glee is not just another ordinary television series; it is a musical comedy television series. Yes, you heard it right. It's a musical that showcases a comedic take on one main theme (coping with the pressures of high school) but styled with different subplots in a series of episodes. It is precisely because of this that makes Ryan Murphy an intersectional thinker of our generation. Based on the book "Medicci Effect" by Frans Johansson, intersectional thinking is thinking of and combining multidsciplinary fields to come up with a new direction in any endeavor. Glee does just that: it combines elements of musical, comedy and television. Its story centers on the challenges of a high school glee club, New Directions in preparing for a choir competition, while its members struggle with pressure, romance and sexuality. According to Wikipedia, most of the elements of Glee are actually based on Ryan Murphy's life: (1) he was a member of a show choir in college, (2) Like Kurt's character, he came out gay, and (3) he is an independent singer-songwriter up to this day.When the first season turned out to be a huge success, fans of the show like myself could not help but think, "Who would have thought that the musical fad can be revived and brought to the television screen?" As I continued watching episode after episode, I have confirmed the reasons why this show is so interesting and different yet so simple. As a creator and one of the writers of the show, how did Ryan Murphy keep audiences interested? Well, here is my answer. First, Glee plays a different repertoire of existing songs every week and each of these songs are changed up to become more interesting. Second, Glee always introduces a new character every month and a different or developed side to an existing character every week which makes the show cater to anyone and everyone: youth, adults, music-lovers, newcomers to music-loving, etc. Lastly, Glee is a show that keeps on giving fans what they want: more Glee.

(Glee logo from Google Images)

First, Glee always does a cover of different existing songs every week. In the first season, Glee focused on the importance of the different genres of music such as ballad, broadway, hip hop, acoustic, pop, and rock. Every week until now in season two, Glee's New Directions would turn an existing song into something much "edgier" like turning a ballad song into an acoustic song or vice versa. This really works for Ryan Murphy and his crew because the show usually airs after an episode of American Idol in the Fox channel, which uses the same concept (having contestants perform a different song from a different genre every week). I believe this is one of the creative marketing strategies that the show used. Aside from these, Glee also does mash-ups which are acts of harmonizing two songs from different genres into one catchy songs. Furthermore, Glee always showcases a different dance routine for every song. To have Ryan Murphy encourage the actors and the crew to practice the songs and dances everyday on a really tight weekly schedule seems to be really challenging but really worth it because the satisfaction of the fans never seems to die. The creation of weekly repertoire of song covers from different genres complemented with dance routines is one of those elements that make Ryan Murphy and the other writers of Glee intersectional thinkers since Glee incorporates different genres from different eras and tweaks it to come up with a more interesting kind of musical.

Below is Glee's ballad rendition of Katy Perry's pop song, "Teenage Dream" aired on Season two.

  

Second, Glee always introduces a new character every month and a different or developed side to an existing character every week. This is clearly shown in season two when different character personalities, different races and different sides of existing characters entered the show. Such examples of new characters include Sam Evans, a transfer student (who is very good in football but loves to sing church songs in the glee club New Directions) who is played by Chord Overstreet, Sunshine Corazon, a geeky Filipina with a powerful voice who is played by our very own Charice Pempengco and Blaine Anderson, a gay student from a rival choir who is played by Darren Criss, another part Filipino as well. Aside from this, examples of developed personalities of existing characters include Mike Chang's fully expressed dance skills, Quinn Fabray's nice and tender side, and Emma's feisty side. Furthermore, most of these actors and actresses are not known names and their characters are placed in a simple high school setting and portrayed in a comedic manner. Moreover, Ryan Murphy never fails to bring guest stars--broadway singers or actors who can sing--(but not popular singers, with the exception of Britney Spears who didn't sing on the show) like Gwyneth Paltrow and Niel Patrick Harris from the show How I Met Your Mother occasionally to sing in the picture. I believe Ryan Murphy did this for fans to explore the talents of the other characters and to cater the the show to anyone of any race, any gender or any age. All these make part of another element that makes Ryan Murphy an intersectional thinker: he hones the talents of ordinary singers and makes them take on huge, popular songs that have been tweaked to his own liking.

Here is a video that focuses on the break-out personality of Mike Chang in season two, an existing character from season one.

Third, Glee is a show that keeps on giving. Although each episode is known to have a unit cost of three million dollars, Glee has coped by creatively finding different sources of revenue streams, which continuously flow until today. Aside from its high ratings and the revenue it gets from airing the show, Glee songs always places in the iTunes Top 10 every week, which means fans buy and download their songs frequently. Aside from this, Glee comes up with a CD release twice every season that contains all the songs it has played on air for half a season. Other than this, the Glee actors, actresses, performers and crew act like a real band named "New Directions" and frequently have live concert tours in different parts of U.S or guest performances in other shows. It doesn't stop there. Furthermore, Glee is rumored to have a broadway musical adaptation soon, which means more royalty revenues to Ryan Murphy and his crew. It is also because of these "Glee-craving" services that make Ryan Murphy an intersectional thinker because he combined the fields of a television project and a music group or band project to come up with a new direction for creating revenue while keeping fans satisfied.

Here is a recorded video that shows the performance of New Directions of the song Somebody To Love in their concert tour in Phoenix, Arizona.

In conclusion, for me, Ryan Murphy is the epitome of an intersectional thinker of our time. As the creator of Glee, he is very innovative in keeping fans of Glee interested from episode to episode since (1) the show plays "edgier" covers of existing songs from different genres complemented different dance routines every week, (2) the show showcases talents of previously unknown actors or actresses or actors or actresses not known for popular singing who are always willing to work with the tweaked songs of Ryan Murphy and whose characters cater to different people of various age groups, race and gender, and lastly, (3) the show keeps on giving what fans or "Gleeks" want: more glee in and outside their television sets. Overall, what obviously makes Ryan Murphy an awesome intersectional thinker is the incorporation of three different multidisciplinary fields: comedy, musical and television, without which these three elements would not have been possible. Directors and producers should learn from him to keep fans interested. Also, innovators of any endeavor whether in media, science, or recreation should really try to mix up product categories or genres for the benefit of the society like what Ryan Murphy did. It will enable people to have something to look forward to. In Ryan Murphy's own little way, he revolutionized television and I believe he is paving the way for more creative ideas to sprout in the minds of other television directors. He really created NEW DIRECTIONS in more ways than one! :)

- Kia S.

Slight References:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2009/10/14/lessons-gleaned-from-the-success-of-glee/

Blog Entry #11: Leaders of the world need an art lesson: A Reflection on "The Arts and Education - Changing Track" by Ken Robinson

Written by: Kia Sta. Ana


As we all know, this was the previous president of the Philippines...

(President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from Google Images)

She was an economist, a professor and a leader.

But did the condition of the Philippines improve during her term? Absolutely not.

Why? Because she wasn't creative. Like the past presidents, she continues to use conventional and predictable ways of solving the country's problems. 

This is exactly what Sir Ken Robinson is saying in his article, "The Arts and Education - Changing Track". In his article, he points out that the arts have been neglected nowadays. People have become so focused on math, sciences and language because they think those are more important. Robinson, however, stresses that the arts are important too; they are the ones that enable a person to think outside the box or think of fresh, creative solutions to any problems. I strongly agree. It is art that triggers all forms of innovation that we see today. Before any math or science is concerned, it is actually the key ingredient that spurs or puts into action any marketing plan, business plan, science experiment or any plan for that matter. For example, Bill Gates, interested in introducing a new line of computers for personal use, used the arts to do so. He created small computers meant for the home, which was a break from the huge business computers that were popular at that time. His utilization of art to create such an innovation was really legendary, because, really, what would we be without personal computers? Probably, our world would have been a slow-growing, traditional world. Communication, technology, businesses and almost everything (since almost everything is run by a computer nowadays) would have been slow.

(Windows computer from Google Images)

However, today, we live in a fast-paced economy. Even Robinson writes that nowadays, there is an economic revolution driven by technology and demography. Demography today drives the economic revolution because of the rapid increase in population and migration. Technology drives the economic revolution because information technology makes the children and teenagers "live in a different world from their parents". As Robinson writes, "they network, communicate, and create online in ways that many adults don’t really understand and often fear." The world is changing and I think we really should update the way we do things. This update should always stem from an idea. This should not be hard when the world has got a multitude of ideas from the minds of people who contribute to the increasing population of the world. Also, since we already know that technology has changed the face of the economy, maybe, we can incorporate technology to fix the problems that our country or the world still has up to now. If one uses art, whether in business, in political or economic projects, or any endeavor for that matter, he would be seen as a greater competition to others because our generation is always concerned with something new or "the next big thing". When I was in Taiwan for my Junior Term Abroad, I kept using Skype, an application that allows you to make video calls, to call my parents in the Philippines. My parents were so enthusiastic and surprised with the concept of Skype and the way it works that we even came across the topic of how this would strongly benefit Overseas Filipino Workers in reaching their loved ones. That made me realize that Skype is successful in bringing the economic world, the cultural world, and the technological world into one. As Robinson writes, "Creativity is about making connections. One of the most important connections we have to make is to see that economic and cultural growth and sustainability are intimately related."

(Skype logo from Google Images)

So if I were the president of the Philippines right now, I would really try to incorporate art into my plan of developing the country. We are in fact a "developing" country, which means we need to develop, change or move on from old practices. We need fresh ideas on how to stop pollution, poverty, crime and corruption. For example, maybe the government can design trash cans similar to the trash can that was made by the Fun Theory organization to encourage people not to litter. We hope current president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, is reading this.

What I realized both from this article is that your creativity is based on what you make of what you have. Elle Woods in the movie "Legally Blonde" once said to Paulette, "You have all the equipment. You just need to read the manual." The same thing goes for the Philippines. We have all the equipment. We have a population of around 90 million people. That's a lot of ideas already. We just need to "read the manual" or interpret them and execute them in a way that will benefit others. If we do, maybe, we can be the next big thing. :)

- Kia S.

Blog Entry # 10.2 Useful or Useless Innovation

1. Smart Cup this space saver allows you to put 2-4 pieces of cookie beneath your drink. 

2. Butter Cutter

Getting a slice of butter can be irritating sometimes especially when it came from the fridge. Now with this butter cutter, we don't have to. It can serve a standard portion of butter with ease.

3. Banana Guard

Are you a fan of banana? Do you often bring a banana to work or school? How often do you bring a banana for snack just to find out it's squashed? With this banana guard, worry no more

Images from Whatever strikes

BBB Fun Feature: Smartphones

Smartphones

View more presentations from Kia Sta Ana.

The group made an analysis of the different smartphones in the market such as iPhone 4, HTC Hero, O2 Atom, Openmoko Neo 1973, Blackberry Torch 9850, and Samsung Galaxy by judging them on the basis of these categories: operating software, CPU, data storage method and memory. We took the best component from each category and integrated them into our "dream smartphone". Basically, our dream smartphone is an iPhone 4 but has (1) a Google Android 2.1 OS like that of a Samsung Galaxy, (2) a CPU clock like that of Blackberry Torch 9850, and (3) a RAM capacity like that of Blackberry Torch 9850. :)

It is not the smartphones that make them smart. It is the innovators! The innovators of iPhone 4, HTC Hero, O2 Atom, Openmoko Neo 1973, Blackberry Torch 9850, and Samsung Galaxy are all winners because they really gave the public a device that can think on its own and can be brought around in times of need.

However, if someone were to innovate the dreamphone we came up with, that person would be the ultimate winner in our group's eyes. Our group promises to buy his smartphone immediately and give him or her a blog entry solely featuring him or her!

Blog Entry #10.1: Useful or Useless Inventions?

Normally, inventions are supposed to be of big help. But for now, let's take a break from all seriousness and see some odd inventions. Do you think they're useful or are they "useless"? You be the judge.

We present you 15 weird inventions:

1. Pizza Fork

Saves the trouble of using a knife and fork to cut a small piece of the pizza. You can also just use one hand without getting your hand(s) dirty.













2. Fish Training Kit

The fish training kit can be fun for the fish and the watcher if your fish can perform these 'activities.' Show your friends that your fish can do tricks! They'll be impressed---maybe.






3. The Loo Read

Are you someone who's always busy? Need to read some readings for your school? Papers to read for business?
The Loo Read helps you multi-task: doing your "business" and reading something like the newspaper or perhaps even studying. One can always read there without a table. But maybe if you need to highlight or write things, a Loo Read can help.


4. Motorized Ice Cream Cone

The motorized ice cream cone-- what it does is that it rotates the ice cream for you instead of you manually rotating/twisting your hand for you to lick the melting sides of the ice cream.













5. Butter Stick

Imagine a glue stick. Now imagine that instead of it being a glue, it's butter. That's the basic idea of this invention. There's on need to use a knife to slice butter and spreading it on the bread. Now, there's no need to use a knife to slice butter; you just apply the butter stick to the bread. Saves time!











6. Cat Duster Slippers

Too lazy or too tired to clean your house? Let your pet cat do the cleaning! Just let her wear these cat duster slippers and let them do the house cleaning while you do your other work.















7.  Food Cooler

Food's too hot? Use this food cooling device to blow the heat off for you.












8. Dryear Ear Dryer

According to this, it "prevents swimmer's ear."
Its scientific name is otitis externa. It is an infection of the ear canal. The ear canal is the tubular opening that carries sounds from the outside of the body to the eardrum. Different types of bacteria or fungi can be the main cause of this infection.
This infection occurs many in kids who swim or stay long in water. "Too much moisture in the ear can irritate and break down the skin in the canal, allowing bacteria or fungi to penetrate."









9. "Under-Ease" Anti-flatulence Underwear

 The Under-Ease is an underwear that provides "protection" against human gas or flatulence. "Under-Ease" is an airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter that removes smelly gases before they escape. As the slogan says: "Wear them for the ones you love."







10. PawSense

Chris Niswander invented PawSense, a software that detects when a cat is typing. When cats walk or climb on your keyboard, they can enter random commands and data, damage your files, and even crash your computer. This can happen whether you are near the computer or have suddenly been called away from it. PawSense is a software utility that helps protect your computer from cats. It quickly detects and blocks cat typing, and also helps train your cat to stay off the computer keyboard.



11. Portable Commuter Seat

Train full of people? No space to sit on? The portable commuter seat gives you that space! Just bringing this portable seat with you when you need to use the train and you have a guaranteed seat to sit on. Just try to adapt to the train's speed though. It looks like this can get make you easily unbalanced.








12. Umbrella Headband

If you're lazy to hold the umbrella, now you can let your head hold it. Or perhaps if you're carrying things with both of you hands, and it's difficult to hold the umbrella, this one works. It just might look silly for now.











13. Hay Fever Hat

We all know how annoying colds can be. The Hay Fever Hat is something you strap on and wear. Just pull out some tissue if you have a running nose.















14. Personal Rain Saver

The personal rain saver umbrella catches the rain and transfers it into a container. It's up to your creativity on how to use this water.
















15. Noodle Eater Hair Guard

When women eat, their hair can get caught with the noodles. This hair guard prevents that and prevents you eating those strands of hair.

16. Eye dropper set                                 Got shaky hands? Well, here is an eye dropper set just for you!

                                                                The set includes a pair of funnels attached to tiny holes in the     

 middle of two glass lenses so that dropping eye solution won't 

be a messy affair. Great for those who wear contact lenses 

or have sore eyes!

Although these inventions do not have much great use, they are still innovative nonetheless! They can be of help to certain people, no matter how narrow the market is for these inventions. This just shows how these innovators (who are mostly Japanese) are actually thinking of ways to help people in their own little way. Not just that, but also, they really are serious and hardworking people who would make an idea happen or turn their wild thoughts into something real. These innovations can actually become precursors to even better and revolutionary innovations out there. So, if you have a brilliant idea in mind, no matter how crazy, don't be afraid to work on it! You might just get those 15 seconds of online fame. Also, it wouldn't hurt to exercise your motivation into turning an idea into a creation.

Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1157762/The-useless-inventions-unless-fancy-motorised-ice-cream-cone-ear-dryer.html
http://www.designboom.com/history/useless.html
http://www.hemmy.net/2006/04/27/useless-japanese-inventions/

Blog Entry #9: Beyond Earth

Our whole universe is in an ancient state and 300-something years ago, industrialization started--wait!

Innovations are not only limited to the earth, because we found some innovations that are out-of-this-world as well! Literally! And, they are crazy good! Check them out!

1. Space Pen

Do you love writing about anything under the sun?
Well, how about writing about anything BESIDE it!

On earth, the reason why you can write with your ordinary ballpens is because gravity forces ink from the ballpen and onto the paper. It is because of gravity that you cannot write upside down either!

But, in a place where there is no gravity, this cannot happen!

And that is why pen manufacturer, Paul Fisher, invented the Fisher Space Pen and presented it to NASA!

The Fisher Space Pen writes at any angle, at any temperature (even below 0), and at any place (even under water or on greasy surfaces). It lasts 3x longer than an average pen. It uses a high pressured ink cartridge and a gooey ink that goes inside.

So, if you want to send aliens a message, it is possible now via space pen!

2. Edible Toothpaste

Are you feeling so happy that you want to smile at the world?

Well, you can do so now...literally! With the help of this edible toothpaste!

(Edible Toothpaste from Google Images)

The guys from NASA developed a toothpaste especially for astronauts when they go to space. They found that brushing one's teeth and spitting has been a messy problem outer space. That is why they created a special foamless toothpaste that was swallowed, rather than spat out. Because of their innovation, toothpaste companies began to make use of the same technology and marketed it to children. However, the idea never took off. Up to this day, only astronauts have been using this.

Because of this innovation, your dentist will never accept your wild, well-rehearsed stories as excuses for not brushing your teeth since dental hygiene is accessible anywhere, even beyond this world!

3. Space Toilet

Want to release some gas in outer space?
Well, there's a toilet for that!

The guys from NASA developed a space toilet that can be used in space. Without this toilet, liquid and solid wastes of astronauts will simply float into the air for display. The space toilet is made up of a vacuum tube that is, on one end, linked to a fan that provides suction and on the other end, a funnel that directly receives the waste. The funnel varies for men and women as men funnels are longer and narrower funnels while women funnels are shorter but wider. Near the rim of the funnel are small holes that will allow astronauts to place their body parts without getting sucked in. The waste goes into a detachable waste collection bag that lets gas but not liquid or solid go through, allowing the fan behind the vacuum chamber to pull the waste into the bag. The astronaut then places the waste-filled bag in the waste storage drawer for storage.

Because of this innovation, one can answer to the call of nature anytime, anywhere! He can do his business without exploding any of his own meteors!

---

There are many more inventions that NASA has invented for space purposes and most of them are inspirations of many things that we use today on earth--such as invisible braces, bar codes in groceries and smoke detectors. This goes to show that there is no such thing as a wild idea. If you are thinking of inventing something that will really defy gravity, then by no means, go ahead. Take the chance to be a renowned innovator of not just the world, but the entire universe.

References:
NASA (2003): "Spin-offs That Rock". NASA.gov. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/home/spinoffs_feature_k_4.html

BBB Fun Feature: The Disney Kid, the Pixar Kid

Most of the people reading this blog probably didn’t grow-up with Pixar stories. Many of us instead probably grew up Disney’s singing princesses, prince charmings and happily ever-afters or singing animals, wild adventures and tales of friendship, bravery and all things warm and fuzzy in between. In well-drawn 2d animated settings from palaces to jungles and from small villages to under the sea, we had tales so pure they could only be called classics. Now we have witty-lined, highly comedic and highly lovable animals and things from A-Z, looking so cartoon-y and yet so real because of amazing CGI animation. For our baby siblings, little cousins or maybe kids, instead of happily-ever-after’s, they grow-up with roller-coaster adventures lined with colorful characters and settings, laughing in glee one minute and experiencing the touching ‘aaaaaw’ factor the next with the friendly value-based themes Pixar so wittily adopts in their stories.

Sure the question might come up on who does these kids tales better, Disney or Pixar, but who can deny how enjoyable they are? The charm of cartoons and cartoon tales was never really lost although styles changed both narrative and art, adjusting to modern personalities and technology. Change comes with innovation but some things remain the same. Things don’t always have to be in extremes, after all. But just out of simple curiosity, which kind of kid are you?

Blog Entry#8 From Disney to Pixar, The innovative story behind Cartoon Animation

 (Pixar and Walt Disney logos from Google Images)

Article based on The Pixar Story

With the market becoming filled with similar products, businesses have to have their own competitive edge in order to stand out and attract its own market, and one way of doing this is through innovation.

For our story today, which aims to show eagerness to innovate help a business to prosper, we will highlight two of the world’s most famous animation studios – Walt Disney and Pixars, through the story of John Lasseter (director of Toy Story, Bug’s Life.) who worked for both
companies.

John Lasseter, after winning an animation competition, was hired as an employee for Walt Disney who was getting popular by producing different hand-drawn 2-D animation. He worked as an animator studios but after quite sometime, he felt that Disney films has already reached its peak and criticized that the studio already lost its magic and therefore needs to innovate.
During this time, Disney is producing a Tron, which at that time uses a state-of-the-are computer imaging system, a more complex camera in filming the said film. It is during this time that he realized that computers can be used to make movies with three dimensional backgrounds where traditionally animated characters could interact to add a new, visually stunning depth that had not been conceived before.

Soon enough, he was granted permission by Disney to experiement with computer animation. This, however led to his career’s demise because Disney executives didn't perceived any benefits from this huge cost. Furthermore, they fear that animators may be replaced and become obsolete once they started to use computer for animation.

While that was happening at Disney, Star Wars director, George Lucas, together with a group of people who were enthusiastic about computer animation, started to study and make a thorough research about computer animation. Soon enough they were able to built a computer capable enough to produce picture like graphics, which they called the Pixar Image Computer.
This is where actually Pixar came from, because these project is requiring Lucas Films huge amount of money, George Lucas and his team decided that they should make it a separate business entity to prevent from George Lucas’ studio from shutting down.

Lucky for them, Steve Jobs, after the success of his Apple computers invested $10 million to Pixar. This investment, however wasn’t enough to allow Pixar produce high quality films so they collaborated with Disney to helped Pixar in producing Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2, The success of this feature films soon become a threat to Disney, who faces the death of 2-D animation. Soon enough, Disney, in order to save the company merges with Pixar giving birth to the brand name “Disney-Pixar” which we saw starting from the Incredibles.

BBB Fun Feature: The Acads of Innovation

Talking about big names like Gates, Jobs and Zuckerberg, it’s easy to get caught up in the magic behind their innovations. But all the sparkle can make us forget the tag-team partner of each visionary innovation: technical skill. Microsoft’s revolutionary office software wouldn’t have come about if Gates wasn’t fluent with programming language; Apple wouldn’t have been able to keep reinventing their products if Jobs didn’t know how to assemble hardware components; and Zuckerberg wouldn’t have been able to get its 700 million subscribers on Facebook if he didn’t know how to, well, build a website.

Execution is definitely one of the bigger challenges to the innovative mind. While it is the phase when an innovative inspiration comes to life, it is also the phase when reality sets its limits. How well we actualize the innovations in our heads is determined in big part to how well we apply the know-how’s related to its creation and operation. For instance, you might be able to picture your dream house in your head but you can never build it yourself unless you have some knowledge in the field of architecture and construction; you might be able to bake your brand of apple pie but never have it as good as your favorite restaurant’s if you don’t know just what right mix of raw materials to prepare; or you might be able to create some ingenious software but lose it to hackers and viruses if you never versed yourself with these kind of computer problems.

So take a look at how some of the things we have studied as students can actually help bring a vision through to reality:

Physics , Chemistry, and Mathematics

Ok, so admittedly, it’s the higher level branches of these that will always come in handier but some grasp of the basics can help you get the shoe out the door at least. Though science and technology can appear like magic to some of us common folk, there’s some equation or principle or some logical physical/chemical make-up that makes a technological innovation work the way it does. Just understanding the science of things helps us understand how things like technological products in particular work and not just see them as these instant wonders of some technological ‘magic.’

Computer Science and Information Technology

When it comes to innovation, technology has become an inseparable tool to making it happen but unfortunately, technology can sometimes speak a different language – and it doesn’t just go for programming. In an age where you facial expressions are expressed in punctuation marks, where Apple doesn’t also have the instant definition of a fruit anymore, and where searching ironically only connotes a quick-second press of a button, there are a lot of new meanings of things to keep up with. By experience we get familiar with terminology like ‘torrent’ or ‘blue tooth or ‘motherboard’

Multimedia Arts

Presentation. The final touch to any vision before it can become a reality. Today where people have become used to technological skill, one can really make that extra ‘oomph’ is, in simple terms, its prettiness. Whether it be in construction, layout, graphics or modeling, the more aesthetically appealing thing can make even the most impressive piece of technology frump. Presentation is a standard for marketability in itself so don’t take those Adobe lessons for granted; they just might help you get that edge for the creative side of innovation. 

So kids, while our idols Gates, Jobs and Zuckerberg are drop-out wonders, don't forget to study hard as it actually does help.