LSE Literary Festival 2017 | Ideas Are Your Only Currency

Speaker: Rod Judkins (Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, author)
Host: Neil McLean, LSE
Date: February 23, 2017
Podcast: LSE: Public Lectures and Events
Theme: The value of creative thinking and idea generation in the contemporary world, and why "ideas are your only currency."

Overview

This energizing session explores Rod Judkins’ belief that the ability to generate creative ideas is more valuable than technical skills in today's fast-evolving world. Drawing on his experiences at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and the Royal Free Hospital, Rod discusses how to foster rapid-fire creativity, why embracing "bad ideas" is crucial, and how we might teach future generations to thrive in unpredictable environments. The episode is peppered with hands-on exercises, lively audience interaction, and practical insights for educators, students, and professionals alike.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Shift from Skills to Ideas

• Traditional vs. Modern Education:
  • Judkins started by contrasting art and design education in the past—focusing on learning specific technical skills—with the present, where adaptability and generating new ideas are prized because technical knowledge quickly becomes obsolete.
    • “We used to say, 10 or 20 years ago at St. Martin's, we taught students skills, teach them how to do layouts... But technology and other influences changed society so quickly that these skills... became out of date.” (09:18)
• Creative Adaptation:
  • The students most successful after graduation were those adept at idea generation, not just those with technical prowess.
    • “We found that the most successful students were the ideas people—the students who could think of ideas and adapt to whatever was going on in society or in the cultural world.” (10:24)

Speed and Quantity in Creative Practice

• Quick Projects to Foster Instincts:
  • Encourages students to execute multiple rapid projects—20 a day, 10-minute assignments—to overcome fear of bad ideas and to build inventive instincts.
    • “By giving them 10 minute projects... they became very quick thinkers and lost a lot of their inhibitions about having bad ideas.” (05:42)
• Value of Bad Ideas:
  • Sharing weak ideas can spark new directions for others, highlighting creativity as a collaborative, iterative process.
    • “Having bad ideas actually can be a good thing, because if you put up some weak ideas... other students look at them and see how they can be built on.” (07:47)

Case Studies: Iconic Creatives

• Damien Hirst (Artist):
  • Emphasizes that significant creative achievements start with simple, imperfect forms—his crucial shark-in-formaldehyde piece began as a crude sketch.
    • “He’s not a draftsman... but it's the idea, and it's on paper—it's visualized.” (12:13)
• Philippe Starck (Designer):
  • The design process for the Juicy Salif lemon squeezer encapsulates Judkins' principles: personal passions, fast execution, and a disregard for perfection. Despite its functional flaws, the design became iconic due to Starck’s uncompromised vision.
    • “Whenever he has an idea, he makes it happen... if there’s going to be any delays, he really kind of rushes through things. But there’s a sort of downside... it doesn’t actually work very well. It's a design classic because it's got his personality in it.” (18:52)
• Frank Gehry (Architect):
  • Gehry discards traditional architectural skills and methods, focusing on model building and collaboration—letting engineers solve the technical problems his creative forms present.
    • “He’s abandoned plan drawing, he’s abandoned skill really... Frank Gehry comes up with the idea and then it’s up to the builder to do the technical side of things." (30:49)

Exercises to Stretch Creative Thinking

• Using projects like "Pimp My Mule," designing a “nuclear dustbin” for 10,000 years in the future, and a poster for literacy targeting those who can’t read, Judkins encourages constraint-driven, empathic, and lateral solutions.
  • “A lot of design and a lot of ideas are about taking something that already exists and then thinking how you can change it and improve it or add to it.” (16:52)
• Even in medical education (Royal Free Hospital), Judkins applies similar tactics—getting students to imagine themselves as geneticists or viruses, or invent biological weapons, to sidestep ethical habits and think more originally.

Creativity Beyond Art & Design

• Creativity in Medicine:
  • As medical procedures become automated, what’s valuable is not just knowledge or surgical skill, but the ability to adapt, reinvent, and improve systems or methods.
    • “Hospitals are looking for more creative thinkers…they're training students for what they will need in 10-15 years rather than a year’s time.” (38:23)
• Ethics vs. Creativity:
  • In idea generation, ethical constraints are temporarily set aside to foster truly original thinking, only to be re-applied at the implementation stage.
    • “When you’re thinking of ideas, you need to throw ethics and any restrictions out the window and think very freely. When you come to implement your ideas, that’s when you might think, is this ethical?” (52:21)

The Role of Life Experience, Diversity, and Age

• Linear Thinking vs. Random Connections:
  • Professional experiences (e.g., medicine) can entrench linear thinking, which can inhibit creativity.
    • “If you work in a profession where you have to think in a very linear way, I think it does become more and more difficult to think creatively.” (49:05)
• Age and Creativity:
  • Judkins contends that neither youth nor age guarantees creativity; rather, it’s the learned flexibility and willingness to share vulnerable, incomplete work that matters.
    • “I'm not sure that being young or old is a huge factor.” (53:34)
• Access and Inclusion:
  • Creativity can come from anywhere; the best ideas aren’t always from the most privileged or academic. Creating spaces where it’s safe to fail and to share is key to inclusive idea generation.
    • “I think creativity is a kind of leveler... it’s quite random who is the most creative.” (55:50)

Building Creative Habits

• Generating and Combining Ideas:
  • Techniques include blending disparate objects, iterating quickly, and building on bad ideas—since brilliance often emerges from quantity and community feedback.
    • “You might take a microphone and a glass and then have to put them together in some way to make a new object... A lot of designers have just taken two things that already exist and put them together in a new way.” (59:52)
• Atmosphere of Safety & Play:
  • The importance of creating a permissive, playful environment where failure is accepted and peer discussion is encouraged.
    • “A lot of it has to do with the atmosphere... people feel free to make mistakes.” (62:52)

Relevance in Society and the Future

• AI and Creativity:
  • Judkins argues computers struggle with true creativity—generating novel, meaningful connections across domains remain a distinctly human skill.
    • “They're really struggling with creativity to make computers think creatively... I think it would be very difficult to get a computer to do that.” (70:02)
• Education Reform:
  • Proposes that creative thinking should be taught alongside traditional subjects to foster the ability to solve novel problems in all fields.
    • “Maybe they should teach creative thinking in the way that you have physics or English... a specific topic which was creative thinking.” (73:46)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Creativity and Bad Ideas

• “Having bad ideas actually can be a good thing, because if you put up some weak ideas... other students look at them and see how they can be built on.” (07:47) — Rod Judkins

On Personal Passions Driving Great Work

• “He uses the things that he's interested in, whatever he's designing... animal anatomy and science fiction feed into his work.” (17:42) — Rod Judkins on Philippe Starck

On Ethical Boundaries in Creative Thinking

• “When you’re thinking of ideas, you need to throw ethics and any restrictions out the window and think very freely. When you come to implement your ideas, that’s when you might think, is this ethical?” (52:21) — Rod Judkins

On Overcoming Linear Thinking

• “If you work in a profession where you have to think in a very linear way, I think it does become more and more difficult to think creatively.” (49:05) — Rod Judkins

On Teaching Creative Thinking Like a School Subject

• “Maybe they should teach creative thinking in the way that you have physics or English... a specific topic which was creative thinking.” (73:46) — Rod Judkins

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00–05:42] Introduction & the “Pimp My Mule” exercise
• [05:42–12:13] Speedy assignments and the role of “bad ideas”
• [12:13–22:40] Damien Hirst and Philippe Starck: Case studies in creativity
• [22:40–31:50] Architecture and abandoning traditional skillsets, Frank Gehry example
• [31:50–38:23] Application to medical education; creativity in science
• [38:23–41:56] Further exercises: literacy posters, valuing childhood toys, jewelry as ideas
• [41:56–45:43] The logic for prioritizing ideas over skills
• [47:27–76:46] Audience Q&A on life experience, diversity, ethics, young people, AI, teaching methods, and defending creativity as "currency"

Audience Q&A Highlights

Life Experience and Creativity

• Q: Do life experiences help or hinder thinking "outside the box"?
• A: Experiences and professions (especially those demanding linear thinking) affect creative capacity, often making it harder as habits ossify. (48:11)

Ethics as Inhibitor

• Q: Do ethical norms block or free creativity?
• A: Creative idea generation requires suspending ethics momentarily, then filtering ideas ethically at the implementation stage. (52:21)

Inclusion and Giving Voice

• Q: How to ensure all backgrounds are heard?
• A: Creative spaces are a “leveler”—best ideas don’t follow status. Foster group safety, share work openly. (55:50)

AI and the Future of Idea Work

• Q: Will computers replace creative thinkers?
• A: Computers struggle to connect unrelated ideas and improvise meaningfully; human creativity is hard to automate. (70:02)

Teaching Creativity Systemically

• Creative thinking should be a core school subject—solving problems, learning methods of renowned creatives. (73:46)

Tone and Style

Judkins is accessible, practical, and often wry—his teaching is intentionally playful, fast-paced, and democratic. He repeatedly values imperfection and collaboration over lone-genius mythologies.

Summary Takeaway

Rod Judkins argues that creative thinking outpaces technical skill in value and durability. Offering concrete exercises and lively anecdotes, he demonstrates how generating, sharing, and iterating on ideas equips individuals to thrive in unpredictable environments. For the 21st century, your best asset isn’t what you can do—but the ideas you’re brave enough to try and share.