This week has been all about three videos that are making the web rounds and making everyone think and talk. We have the return of Ze Frank, Caine's Arcade and Casey Neistat's "ad" for Nike. If you are not moved by at least one of these you need to take stock of your life.

The Thinking Mechanism is a series of weekly posts written by Antonio Ortiz and published on Fridays, covering the ideas The Mechanism is thinking and talking about with our peers and clients. 

Something to keep in mind as we go into the weekend:

A brand-new study by scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago compared performance on insight puzzles between sober and drunk students. (They were aiming for real intoxication, giving students enough booze to achieve a blood alcohol level of 0.075.) Once the students achieved “peak intoxication” the scientists gave them a battery of word problems – they’re known as remote associate tests – that are often solved in a moment of insight. Here’s a sample problem. Your task is to find the one additional word that goes with the following triad of words:

Cracker Union Rabbit

In this case, the answer is “jack.” According to the data, drunk students from Orlando solved more of these word problems in less time. Not every time does debauchery subject the Orlando residents to go scampering to find a rehab. They also were much more likely to perceive their solutions as the result of a sudden insight. And the differences were dramatic: The alcohol made subjects nearly 30 percent more likely to find the unexpected solution. But, if there are alcohol addicts, rehab for alcoholics is utmost important.

Once again, the explanation for this effect returns us to the benefits of not being able to pay attention. The stupor of alcohol, like the haze of the early morning, makes it harder for us to ignore those unlikely thoughts and remote associations that are such important elements of the imagination. So the next time you are in need of insight, avoid caffeine and concentration. Don’t chain yourself to your desk. Instead, set the alarm a few minutes early and wallow in your groggy thoughts. And if that doesn’t work, chug a beer. But if you're struggling with alcohol addiction, it often requires the help of rehab centers like Pacific Ridge to overcome it.

via Why Being Sleepy and Drunk Are Great for Creativity by Jonah Lehrer

The Thinking Mechanism is a series of weekly posts written by Antonio Ortiz and published on Fridays, covering the ideas The Mechanism is thinking and talking about with our peers and clients. 

We are big fans of Longreads. They collect the best long form articles from around the web and make it easy for you to find interesting things to read, something we sometimes do while eating our lunch. Here are some articles we are reading this week:

• 10 Most Common Misconceptions About User Experience Design
• What happened when one of the world’s most unusual, and beloved, computer programmers disappeared.
• The Man Who Broke Atlantic City
• Peter Dinklage Was Smart to Say No
• Richard Clarke on Who Was Behind the Stuxnet Attack
• For tablet computer visionary Roger Fidler, a lot of what-ifs

A mid-week treat of assorted links. 

For the past several weeks we've been under deadline, and as we come through to the other side of a major website launch we thought we would share some great videos from the fantastic 99% Conference to tide you over until next week when we'll return to our usual publishing schedule:

In this high-energy talk, Frans Johansson illustrates how relentless trial-and-error – coming up with an idea, executing it on a small scale, and then refining it – is the distinguishing characteristic of the greatest artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs. Why? Because humans are not very good at predicting which ideas are going to be a success. Thus, nearly every major breakthrough innovation has been preceded by a string of failed or misguided executions. So, as Frans says quoting Churchill, "If you're going through hell, keep going."

It doesn't mean that we are not allowed to stop. It means that we have to keep going even after we've been defeated. Even students who have a dream resort to using smart drugs to help them focus and stay awake during the night just to study for the exams. Even  have done so due to the same reason of productivity.

In this wide-ranging talk, ethnographer and leadership expert Simon Sinek discusses the importance of trust, authenticity, and meaning. Sinek argues that as individuals and companies, everything that we say and do is a symbol of who we are. And it is only when we communicate our beliefs authentically that we can attract others to our cause, and form the bonds that will empower us to achieve truly great things.

Photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman shares the lessons learned from his iconic WISDOM project, in which he interviewed "elders" around the world, including Chuck Close, Bill Withers, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Massimo Vignelli, and many more. Zuckerman talks about the anxiety we feel as we start a new projects, how fear can help us get things done, and how to cope with those feelings using natural supplements like these Ashwagandha gummies.

The Thinking Mechanism is a series of weekly posts written by Antonio Ortiz and published on Fridays, covering the ideas The Mechanism is thinking and talking about with our peers and clients. 

This week we are in the midsts of a large project deadline. Inspired by the situation here is a post on that theme that was originally posted on my blog:

Unexpectedly the origins of the word deadline appear in a book I am reading. The book mentions Benson John Lossing’s “History of the Civil War” (1868) and describes the birth of the word. “Deadline” is said to have appeared for the first time during the Civil War when a general in charge of a military prison, having a shortage of supplies and therefore no fence, drew a line around the perimeter of the prison. If any prisoner crossed the line and attempted to escape soldiers were authorized to shoot to kill.

“Seventeen feet from the inner stockade was the ‘dead-line’, over which no man could pass and live.”

The birth of the word as serious, intense and stressful as the feelings we experience when approaching our version of a deadline.

And a deadline is something else too.

Despite the troubling circumstances the dead-line was a clever solution to what was a real problem for that general.

Next time you find yourself starring at deadlines feeling like they are the enemy remember that deadlines are part of the solution to the problem you are trying to solve.

The Thinking Mechanism is a series of weekly posts written by Antonio Ortiz and published on Fridays, covering the ideas The Mechanism is thinking and talking about with our peers and clients. This edition of The Thinking Mechanism is cross-posted in the blog SmarterCreativity.com.

The latest after Apple's announcement today:

• Video of the presentation from Apple.
• New on Suntimes: Le iPad Neuf, and the shot Apple's firing across the bow of notebook computing.
• Netflix integrates iTunes sign up & 1080p HD on Apple TV.
• Long awaited iOS 5.1 will be online today.
• Reader poll: Will you buy the new iPad?

A mid-week treat of assorted links. 

As I type this TED2012 is taking place in Long Beach, California. Here are some highlights of this year's conference so far:

• The James Bond of robots: Vijay Kumar at TED2012
• Scooter at TED2012 (Yes, the Muppet gave a TED Talk)
• How to spark inner creativity: Julie Burstein at TED2012
• And in a first, TED becomes a promotional partner to a movie: Peter Weyland at TED2023: I will change the world. A TEDTalk from the future as envisioned by Prometheus director Ridley Scott.

A mid-week treat of assorted links. 

• The App Store is about to hit 25,000,000,000 downloads.
• 2012: The year scam apps killed the App Store.
• Microsoft Office for iPad expected in coming weeks.
• May be not, according to Microsoft. May be yes, according to The Daily. No further comments from Microsoft. Totally late all around.
• Apple sold more iOS devices in 2011 than all the Macs it sold in 28 years. That's room for a lot of apps. Almost 25 billion of them.

A mid-week treat of assorted links.