Neo – Retro - Grasshopper

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “What’s new is old.” The way I like to express that idea is, “Dressing something old in a new suit of clothes.” And I submit a modern way to portray that notion is to say, “Neo-Retro.”

Our culture seems to come up with spiffy words that sound like they’re new but upon inspection have an old meaning.

I came up with a word years ago that redefined “discoveries.” I called it “uncoveries.” When someone claims to have discovered something new, it’s actually been in existence, but it was just covered over.

For example, think of an undiscovered ore buried under centuries of fallen leaves in a remote forest. One day an intrepid explorer traipses into the isolated area and discovers this heretofore unknown substance. They may even name it after him.

Scottish physician Alexander Fleming left the lid off his Petri dish and found something growing in it. It was penicillin. Polish chemist Marie Curie found something that always existed but no one put the same elements together before her and she produced radium.

Kudos to these learned pioneers for uncovering what already existed.

Happy accidents occur every day. But in order for them to happen, what’s been hiding them has to get out of the way.

That’s how creativity works. When that giant pile of leaves know as your incessant thoughts gets raked out of the way, up pops something new in the light of day.

Someone online posted this question the other day: “What’s the cause of creativity?” I responded, “Here's a rule of thumb: When your internal chit-chat calms down, your creativity cranks up. It's that simple.”

Looking for something new (Neo?) Push your litany of thoughts out of the way, and allow a rush of “uncoveries” to come your way.

All the best,