Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Getting Some Thinking Going

I have an idea that I've discussed with a few people, most recently with Chris today. Here's the premise:

-We each think of a question that would lend itself to an answer in the form of a short, expository essay
-We take turns posing questions (or premises, problems, etc.) and answering them thoughtfully, honestly and creatively
-Each person writes their responses BEFORE they read others'; this encourages originality.
-We post our responses and discuss.

Why take the time to do this? I think what we're all looking for with the blog is a way to stay close to each other personally and intellectually during the times that we're spread out around the world. By requiring intellectual buy-in and posing our own questions, we can encourage creative thinking, learn from each others' perspectives, and play around with some challenging ideas and concepts. I think a question-a-month format would probably work pretty well.

So far I've talked to and received feedback from: Chris, Corbin, Mikail, and Dante. Anybody else in?

4 comments:

mattbaranmickle said...

Check the blog!

Chris said...

Thanks for putting this up, I had been thinking this for a while but my laziness has prevented me from doing it myself. Which is a perfect reason for getting this going. It will force us all to tackle perhaps difficult issues in a manner we are not used to (written not for school), or just get us formally thinking and exploring ideas.

Maybe a question a month is a bit too sparse. As much as we like to throw around these great ideas, implementation is always the tough part, and that spacing might be too far apart to maintain interest.

We need to come up with an order for these questions to be asked. I urge anyone with something burning that they think would be a great send off point to stand up and claim the role.

I think it is important to keep this as open ended as possible, at least in terms of the prompts themselves. The creator should feel free to put whatever guidelines on the writing that they see fit, hopefully prompting some creative responses.

Nathan said...

im for it. brussel sprouts... your out.

Nathan said...

I actually think this is a really great idea. I see your point chris that one question a month might not be enough to keep us interested,but perhaps BECAUSE were such erratic posters anything more than a question a month would be unrealistic. Moreover if it was a question of the month then we would have to time think about it, talk to poeple about it, perhaps read a book about it, and ultimately synthesize our own thorough ideas... As long as we have at least a couple weeks I dont think the interval length is all that consequential. the important thing now is for somebody to think of a kick ass opening question, ready, set... go!