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“What Do A Cat And A Refrigerator Have In Common?”
The best creativity book you’ve never heard of was written by a Miami professor who taught the course.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. — Albert Einstein
What do a cat and a refrigerator have in common?
That’s what Doctor Joseph Kayne likes to ask. Adults stare at him like he’s a couple sandwiches short of a picnic. Not the brightest light on the dash.
What kind of question is that?
Nonsensical, that’s what kind.
A cat and a refrigerator?
Funny thing was — when he asked the same question of fourth grade class at A. B. Combs Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina they had no problem coming up with plenty of answers.
— They both run
— They both get dirty
— They both make noise
— They come in many colors
— They both can have milk inside
— They both can scratch up the floor
— You can take both of them when you move.
They had so many answers he had to laugh and shut down the discussion before the kids were done listing all the answers they thought of.
Awww, Mr Kayne. We’re not done… there’s more!
Little hands reaching for the sky… Mr. Kayne, I know another one.
There’s a phrase for that.
Divergent thinking.
It means the ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated things. It’s what creativity is made of.
Professor of imagination…
When the University of Miami hired Professor Joseph Kayne, he was supposed to teach entrepreneurship. It was what he was passionate about…
