When the subject for this post came up, I grabbed an index card and pencil and made a list of creative influences. By the time the index card stack was up to the height of the desk, I knew I couldn’t pick just one “most” influential person. And one I couldn’t leave out–this group. From the day I arrived, I knew I’d found my tribe. But we all feel that, so I’ll give props to all of you and not natter on.

One of the influences that makes the most differences in my creativity is finding someone who thinks completely differently from the way I do. When I see how they tackle problems and solve them, I’m amazed. When this new kind of problem solving makes sense to me, I’m intrigued and push myself forward. When it is amusing, clever, and simple, I begin to drool.

Jessica Hagy is a person who explores and explains life with charts and Venn Diagrams. That explanation would make doors slam in my head. Luckily I stumbled upon her site, and saw what she was doing before I had to explain it. So I’m adding two of her images here for an appetizer. For a full meal, visit Jessica’s blog, Indexed.

The first one is called “Not Rocket Science” and the second one “You can buy friends! With T-bonds!” For our international readers, T-bonds are treasury bonds in the U.S. which are actually a promise to repay the nation’s debt. So people who own T-bonds own part of our nation’s debt. If you own only a few, no problem, but China holds about one quarter of America’s debt, and that gives them power over the economy.

Quinn