Keith Sawyer Reports:

However, discovering that exposure to corporate logos changed their score on a test is intriguing. I wouldn’t call the “unusual uses test” a measure of creativity; but the experiment makes you wonder, nonetheless. Should Apple feel proud about the results of this research? The headline would be very different if it read “Staring at Apple computers helps you think of strange ways to use a brick.”

I think it is true. When I first got the mac (Dec 1998), I felt it was such a waste that I was only doing internet surfing, emailing and word processing, on a machine that had the potential to make those movies, score soundtracks and record those albums I love. I watched as some of my favourite artists (Jars of Clay in their video for the Eleventh Hour Album) showed their mac experiences and felt so inspired to create. And the fact that I was using a mac instead of PC, made me feel like a rebel. I remember learning all about mac history with the early PPC game where you shoot PCs with a Mac, bullets were apple logos and each level you entered, gave you an upgrade of the Mac machine… thus allowing you to learn all about the history of the mac through form and shape of the machines. Not the hardware stuff.

It was as if the mac had the key to unlock the creative potential within me. Well, maybe I did not have much potential in the end, but still…. I definitely do more creative things than most. I hope the magic can be retained and works on the new generation of mac users…. which happens to be increasing and I think it is time to have a new MacAddict Mac Geek Test to sort out the different user levels.