This is James L Adams's Typepad Profile.
Join Typepad and start following James L Adams's activity
Join Now!
Already a member? Sign In
James L Adams
Stanford University
Student of technology, innovation, and product quality
Interests: Creativity and Innovation, Design, Quality of Industrial Products, Nature of Technology, Benefits of Working with the Hands, People's foibles,
Recent Activity
A belated merry christmas and Happy New Year
Post Friday January 13, 2021: We are following the California holiday lock down rules, and for Christmas we have traditionally invited all the family members to our house,, including several that live on the East coast. That not being practical, we just invited those in the area, which still consisted... Continue reading
Posted Jan 13, 2021 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Barriers to innovation in large groups – “fond” and “warped” memories and fear of change.
Image
Post Nov.13, 2020 We Homo Demi Sapiens are fortunate, because our minds seem to lighten bad memories over time. I grew up on a small orange grove near to Rialto California, then a town of 1,000, now a town of over 100,000. I remain in contact with my brother, who... Continue reading
Posted Nov 21, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Block to Innovation in Large Groups —Mis-Understanding of Science and Technology
Post - 9/19/2020 In my last few posts, I have brought up several blocks to creativity in large groups, such as nations, religions, and armies. These blocks may have served us thousands of years ago, but are not serving us as well now . I would like to bring up... Continue reading
Posted Oct 19, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Large Groups of People, Leadership. and Creativity
Sept. 15, 2020 Although it is difficult for very large groups of people (countries, religions) to be creative because of comfort with the past, and a tendency to not go through the process of change, it is the key to what we are, for better or worse. The larger the... Continue reading
Posted Sep 15, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Major creativity block for large groups – We don’t change when we should and do when we shouldn’t 2.
Post August 16, 2020 I seem to have been stymied on this one for quite a while. Maybe for most of my life. I have collected a large number of “gimmicks” that enable individuals, groups, and even large organizations to help them vary the amount and character in creativity in... Continue reading
Posted Aug 16, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
We resist change when we shouldn’t, but not when we should
Image
Post July 23,2020 Many of the changes we face, or at least should face, do not have a single right answer. Yet we individuals develop strong beliefs on what should happen. Should we change at all? What directions should we take? If we are going to change, should the change... Continue reading
Posted Jul 23, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Creativity, Large Groups, and Tribalism
Image
Post June 20,2020 The history of the human is tribalism. Still is. Certainly a tribe is easier in which to communicate, sell common values, and flaunt, or try to flaunt superiority. But it if gets large enough, even it will break up into tribes. An example is the tribe of... Continue reading
Posted Jun 20, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Creativity and Leadership
June 4,2020 I realize that I have been talking about the creativity of large groups in previous posts, but I have delayed on writing this post because of the difficulty to grasp the mess we are in due to the juxtaposition of the Covid 19 pandemic and the very believable... Continue reading
Posted Jun 4, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Back To Conceptual Blocks in Large Populations
May 12, 2020 We have discussed a few conceptual blocks in very large groups—short term thinking, desire for power and order, selfishness and competitiveness, and our desire for other people to think like we do. The result of this results in tribalism and resistance to change, two powerful forces acting... Continue reading
Posted May 14, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Covid 19 and Spare Time (whatever that is).
Image
April 29, 2020 My wife and I are following the rules of behavior for living in Santa Clara Valley to the letter, for a number of reasons,the virus is very active here, we are both over 75, and everything seems to be shut down in the area including Stanford, which... Continue reading
Posted Apr 29, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Quick Creativity
Image
April 21, 2020 I had a personal insight, yesterday. I have gotten so fascinated with the difficulty the human race is having as a whole in working on problems requiring worldwide creativity, that I have come to overlook many simple opportunities to improve life as an individual. As an example,... Continue reading
Posted Apr 21, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Large Groups, Creativity, and Covid-19
April 5, 2020 I have been struggling against using the present corona virus pandemic as an example of the first few blocks to creativity in large groups of people I have mentioned in past posts, but it displays several of the blocks we will deal with in future posts. First,... Continue reading
Posted Apr 5, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
What happened to Standardization?
Image
March 29, 2020 When I was young, there was a great deal of standardization, some because of monopolies (remember the black telephone with the dial), but more to ease the processes of manufacturing and repair. Boy is that gone. In the U.S, a tremendous cost is involved by not using... Continue reading
Posted Mar 29, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Too Fast or Too Slow
Image
Post, Mar. 6, 2020 I finished the book by Ross Douthat (The decadent Society – How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success) I mentioned in a previous post, and found it more than interesting. Douthat is a splendid writer with impressive credentials. He has written several thought provoking... Continue reading
Posted Mar 8, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Selfishness, Competitiveness, and Creativity
Post Feb 22, 2000 We homo sapiens, (and in fact many animals) are selfish and competitive. This causes us to have access to works of great value and requiring creativity (Amazon, General Motors, The Ring of the Nibelung, the internet, portfolios and trusts). But the process is not uniform —think... Continue reading
Posted Feb 27, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Different Viewpoint
Image
Post -Feb 15, 2020 I read a different viewpoint (at least different than mine) as to why there is so much angst in the world these days in the Feb 9th Sunday review section of the New York Times, in the form of an essay written by Ross Douthart and... Continue reading
Posted Feb 15, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
More on Power and Order
I am not expecting the perfect world described in my previous post on power and order. But I would like to say a few more things about leadership of large masses of people. We need leaders and people who understand humans and make appropriate rules and regulations. On the surface,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 9, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
The Short Term Thinking Trap
Post Jan 20, 2020 The Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Martin Luther King Day, whatever, holiday is over at the Adams household. Marian’s outrageously large supply of decorations is back in the attic in the proper boxes, and our equally outrageous supply of normal interesting things (to us, at least) is... Continue reading
Posted Jan 21, 2020 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Holiday Greetings
Image
Sorry for not writing posts more often,but the Holidays are overwhelming in our family —4 kids and spouses and 8 grandkids in the area, all being fond of each other. How lucky we are. So for this post, I will merely send you our Christmas card. Follow the instructions on... Continue reading
Posted Dec 21, 2019 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Too much creativity #2?
Post Dec. 10, 2019 I remember loving my TRS 80 "computer"(commonly called a Trash 80) distributed by Radio Shack in the 1970’s. It had a whole 4 kb of memory, expandable to 48 kb with so-called expansion cards. I was the Academic Associate Dean in the Stanford School of Engineering,... Continue reading
Posted Dec 10, 2019 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Too Much Creativity?
Post 2 December,2019 Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. We certainly did with lots of family around, and a full refrigerator with various containers of excellent food left over to keep us in holiday mode until Christmas. It was so nice I became delinquent on writing posts. But I continued... Continue reading
Posted Dec 2, 2019 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Working With the Hands
Image
Time for a break from shortcomings we homo demi sapiens have from changes that occur more rapidly than we evolve. I am sure that you realize that I am not opposed to thinking short term, power, and order. All of the post Neolithic styles of thinking are still necessary. They... Continue reading
Posted Nov 19, 2019 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Power and Leadership
In my fantasies, I sometimes think of a single world, in which all nations , beliefs, and other large groups would cooperate to the benefit of all. Unfortunately, this is probably not going to happen in my life time, or the near future, without the threat of major damage to... Continue reading
Posted Nov 14, 2019 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Homo Demi Sapiens —An Animal in Denial
.I am happy to be an animal. It seems to be more fun than being either a plant or a mineral. Of course, I am biased being an animal, and being equipped with the ability to believe that I as an animal, especially a human animal, outrank other animals. In... Continue reading
Posted Nov 8, 2019 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Me and my Blog
As you may have noticed, I have changed the banner on this blog to include five books I have written. I began this blog when I had completed my Good Products, Bad Products book (briefly described on the left), and was teaching a class with the same name in the... Continue reading
Posted Nov 1, 2019 at James L Adams—People and Products
Comment
0
Subscribe to James L Adams’s Recent Activity
Bobsutton
View all »
Andrew Millstein
Justin Brown
TuPolecam
isorhythmic
kdighg
Jimmy Carroll
View all »
0 Favorites
Blogs and Sites
Around The Web