What I sacrificed at the altar of efficiency
Its official - I lack creativity!
Of course I knew that. Anyone who knew me knew that. Anyone who didn't know me but was unfortunate enough to spend a few moments with me knew that. But now, I have something that definitely, conclusively, puts the issue beyond any measure of doubt. I couldn't do my 'creativity' assignment!
It's not that I wasn't up to the stratospheresque standards expected of an IIML detainee, or even up to my personal strictly-middle-of-the-pack kind of mediocre ones, or that I absolutely sucked. I-just-couldn't-do-it!
"The above 5 sentences to be included in any kind of write-up, as long as at least one is innovatively used" is not really a tough assignment. You can pick-up a word and play on it. You can armtwist a phrase into meaning something else by interpreting it in an altogether irrelevant context. Heck, in a pinch, you can look to compulsive perverts like Shakespeare for inspiration on how to intentionally molest something into meaning it should never do.
Unfortunately, 4 hours of sitting and staring at my laptop, sometimes gently coaxing my brain to release its creative juices, sometimes letting it just have its way and in occassional moments of madness, threatening to pull it out of miserable habitat and feeding it to slavering dogs, produced nothing. Nada. Zilch!
The sentences just wouldn't make any sense other than what they did. Words obstinately stayed true to their intended meaning, and any alternate contexts simply refused to materialize.
Then it hit me! Its not me. Its what has been drilled into me over the past few decades of my life. Standardization. Uniformity. Sameness. First by way of school-uniforms, then by the rote of faithfully reproducing textbook knowledge into reams of answer-sheets, and subsequently through subjection to the grindstones of efficiency, optimization and refinement (all similar words, I know; thank you for making my point), my brain has developed a bleeding edge matched by few, but that creative stream of innovation... ideation if you will, has lost its way in the sands.
Oh well, goodbye Marketing; hello Operations!
Everybody can not be God and this advertising assignment proved it. If nothing else I had started looking at Ads with lot more respect, no matter how irritating they look. Secondly it also made me understand the concept of outsourcing. This is one function which I would always like to outsource. Another important concept which it materialized for me is Core Competency. And creativity is not my core competency..