Inspiration, Caffeination

I find I’ve been thinking a lot about ideas and where they come from. I personally do my best writing when I’m in a certain state of mind, and the ideas and concepts flow and almost create themselves. This state of mind for me is usually caused by caffeine.

Many of the successes I’ve had in the field of writing have been a result of the kick in the pants coffee offers, and I took to the internet to research the science behind it. During this search I found the blog I <3 Coffee, and a wonderful infographic on how both coffee and beer affect the creative idea and inspiration process. In order to better harness your creative ability, check it out below.

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And, of course, everything in moderation. Except coffee.

What Sparks Our Fire: It could be coffee, beer, naps, or music. Whatever it takes to get those creative juices flowing.

How do you get in a creative mindset?

Radioactive Animal Husbandry

The new Godzilla movie comes out today, and I know that everyone has the same question on their minds: Could a gigantic radioactive fire-breathing murder-lizard actually exist in the real world?

The short answer is no. No it can’t.

According to YouTube channel Vsauce, if the bones supporting a beast several times longer, taller, and bigger than the largest animal on earth did not shatter under its own weight, the caloric intake necessary would increase the human mortality rate by 1.3%. So if gravity didn’t kill the thing outright, he wouldn’t have the energy to eat enough to not starve to death.

So yeah, don’t worry about it if a Godzilla actually comes out of the ocean. Just hide and wait for him to starve to death.

What Sparks Our Fire: Knowing that in this world of danger, at least we don’t have to worry about Godzilla.

Are you seeing the movie this weekend?

This Is So Last Decade

So apparently Facebook isn’t cool any more. While the numbers for the website remain high, it simply does not engage adolescents as much anymore. More and more, middle and high school age kids are preferring apps like Snapchat and Instagram to the older social network. We at Canopy theorize this is because their parents are on it, which drives them away and negates the cool-factor of Facebook.

Imagine your parents started hanging out at your favorite spot while you were in high school. It would quickly get uncomfortable and you’d leave to find somewhere new to uphold your sense of privacy.

Personally, my parents and even my grandparents have friend-requested me and I won’t accept, but even then I don’t want them to see my public profile, even though there’s nothing inappropriate. I prefer to have my own space, but my personal network is so tied to Facebook I simply can’t make the switch easily. Teens who are just starting out on the internet can make the choice more easily.

Here’s a chart from Mashable that approximates the breakdown of demographics in both 2011 and 2014. Note, it doesn’t take into account users who aged out of being a teenager during those years, so the “millions of teens” may or may not be significantly less than it appears.

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What Sparks Our Fire:  Watching trends, especially on social networks, is incredibly important to the work we do at Canopy.

Do you find Facebook uncool?

Corporate Oligarchy

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These are an international few, ten mega-corporations whose multi-industry holdings create a situation not unlike the coal and iron trusts of Industrial Revolution America: basically, a few large entities own huge chunks of industry, and whoever can outbuy or undercut the competitors. The fact of the matter is that this is a product of a free market economy, where the larger corporations have the ability to diversify the industries they involve themselves in while increasing revenue and industry influence.

While parallels might be drawn to the monopolies of the early twentieth century, the new supercorporations don’t sell under their own names. Rather, they own, own shares of, or partner with hundreds of thousands of brands, which leads to mass appeal based on what Reddit refers to as “The Illusion of Choice”.  This is a deceptive use of terminology because the fact is that while these brands and companies are all associated, they are not companies within companies, like Russian nesting dolls, as the chart leads one to believe. The reality of the situation is much more complicated than a simple infographic can demonstrate.

What it is effective at showing, however, is that there are several very large, very influential corporations behind the multitude of brands that many people use daily. Whether or not this is a good or a bad thing remains to be seen. However, it’s important to know.

What Sparks Our Fire: Knowing the behind-the-scenes workings of corporate America.

Does this affect the way that you view your favorite brands?

Let’s be honest here

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Let’s be honest, a lot can be said about a company based on its logo and slogan. But do these brands live up to their positioning? Despite honest logos and truthful advertising, brand slogans can be brutally dishonest. Checkout these customer centric slogans above generated by Buzzfeed.

What sparked our fire: The honesty in these slogans is more appealing than the slogans themselves.

Are these slogans realistic?

Enjoy!

-Canopy Team