August 21, 2011

Solar panels based on trees

Johnnie Moore

I’m Johnnie Moore, and I help people work better together

Gizmodo reports how a 13-year-old boosts the effectiveness of solar panels by adapting the structure of trees.

Did you hear that? All of the smart-guys in the country who spent their time trying to make solar power more efficient were just outsmarted by a thirteen-year-old and a tree.

I love this!

1. The idea emerges not from brainstorming about solar cells but from reflecting on something seen in nature. Classically looking at something we all see (trees) and seeing something more.

2. Change can come from anywhere, anytime. Even in the most everyday situation, we may be only separated from a breakthrough but our habitual thinking.

3. For years, solar panels have been flat… and of course that was sensible, wasn’t it. Linear thinking only gets you so far.

Hat tip: @RoyBlumenthal

UPDATE: Though I may be getting overexcited, if this is true, pointed to by @ninefish

Rambling thoughts on models

I went down to Surrey on Friday for long walk and pub lunch with Neil Perkin. We’d originally planned to run a workshop about agile

Planning as drowning

Antonio Dias offers a fascinating description of what goes wrong when drowning: What separates a swimmer from someone drowning is the way a swimmer acknowledges

Leadership as holding uncertainty

Viv picks out some nice ideas from Phelim McDermott on the subject of leadership. “We love the security of the illusion that someone is in

Concreting Complexity

I’ve been thinking about the urge to scale things lately – see here and here. I understand the concern with being able to effect big

The absurd

In moving house, I radically downsized my collection of books which I can highly recommend. I used to think I’d one day find a reason

Leadership as emergent, co-created and unheroic

I really enjoy Chris Rodgers’ views on leadership. He argues against the assumption that it takes great leadership for organisations to succeed. He suggests that

Rewriting history…

Thanks to my Improvisation friend Kelsey Flynn I rambled into a letter cited in Margaret Cho’s Blog (go to Letter #1): Lately it seems like

Who says fun is dangerous?

I wanted to share this email doing the rounds this morning… AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE After every flight Qantas pilots fill out a form called a gripe

And I thought there was only one

Suddenly there’s another John Moore marketing blog. I realise I’m a bit of an addict for this, but this latest is not mine. It’s produced

Thoughts for the day

These came to be via Tony Quinlan from Terry Tillman at 227company. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than

More Updates

Lessons from “The Logic of Failure”

Fascinating insights into the patterns of failure

20 April 2018

Emotional debt

Releasing the hidden costs of pent up frustrations

30 June 2017

Aliveness

Finding the aliveness below the surface of stuck

3 November 2016

They’ve seen it before…

Don’t get attached to your favourite process

24 September 2016

Keeping it simple

The virtues of stripping back your processes

31 May 2016

In a network, in a mess, or in a mesh?

Sometimes it’s ok to stay confused and entangled

1 May 2016

links for 2006-01-31

Guardian Unlimited Film | News | Fans will fund our next movie say film-makers A smallish step towards a different model for movie production, spotted by Alan Moore. (tags: co-creation

31 January 2006

Get nervous

Gavin Heaton has some good ideas about what works and doesn’t in social media. This one definitely resonates for me. Nervous – Does your content make you nervous? Do you

9 March 2010

Is visionary good?

John Moore at Brand Autopsy asks Is Being Visionary A Good Thing? Being visionary is a double-edged sword. Sometimes you can be so visionary that others can’t relate, understand or

13 July 2004

Social glue, served with elegance. For hire.

I liked this quote: “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” – Camille Pissarro It’s used by Lloyd Davis as an introduction

Solar panels based on trees

Johnnie Moore

Share Post

More Posts

More Updates