Charles Leon
The Ghost in the Machine

Welcome to the great creativity cage match of our time: human brains versus silicon chips. The question isn't just academic cocktail-party fodder anymore—it's urgent, existential, and frankly, a bit terrifying for anyone who's ever felt proud of thinking outside the box.

The Ghost in the Machine
Creative Thinking, Brain, Design Thinking, Flow, Mindset
Charles Leon
The Power of Boredom: Why Doing Nothing Feeds ...

We live in an age of perpetual stimulation. Our phones buzz with notifications, our screens flicker with endless content, and our calendars overflow with commitments. The modern world has declared war on boredom, treating every empty moment as an emergency requiring immediate intervention. But in our frantic rush to fill every second with activity, we may be starving the very source of our creative power.

The Power of Boredom: Why Doing Nothing Feeds Creativity
Charles Leon
Inspiration - The Act of Breathing

I’ve always been fascinated by the moment an idea arrives — not the neat, tidy moment when it’s been polished and wrapped in ribbon, but the untidy, slightly breathless instant when something shifts in the mind and a new possibility becomes visible.

Inspiration - The Act of Breathing
Creative Thinking, Design Thinking
Charles Leon
Why Designers Think Differently

When someone eats your last Rolo, you feel a totally disproportionate sense of loss. It’s not about the chocolate. It’s about the gap. The narrative was broken.

So, we became wired not just for survival, but for pattern and narrative. We became restless, creative creatures—itchy with the need to make meaning. We drew patterns in the dirt, scratched stories on cave walls, and eventually, designed complex systems, cities, and even shoes that glow in the dark. All of this because our brains, forever uncomfortable with uncertainty, keep asking, What happens next?

Why Designers Think Differently
Charles Leon
The Transformative Power of Sketching & ...

Sketching has enormous benefits for mental health and for problem solving.

The Transformative Power of Sketching & Creative Pursuits
,

Human-centred Design.

,
Human-centred Design.

Human-centred design leads to breakthrough innovations because of its empathy towards understanding and identifying with the target audience. It is intrinsically optimistic in its outlook but requires courage to hold back judgement, move outside the status quo and cliche and step into uncertainty.

,

Life is just one thing after another. Pattern, predictability, and Jelly.

,
Life is just one thing after another. Pattern, predictability, and Jelly.

Our brains are built for pattern-making, and pattern-making allows us to predict. To say what will happen next and act accordingly. It's a survival and a learning mechanism. Predictability of pattern or sequence gives us the power to accept or change our future. It’s all part of our creative thinking minds.

,

How to get what you want! Your Reticular Activation System

,
How to get what you want! Your Reticular Activation System

I have often wondered how it is that we can focus on one thing rather than another, why we can sometimes focus so clearly that we exclude all other distractions. Like internet algorithms, It turns out that we have a system in our brains that does just that. The Reticular Activation System.

,

The Four Laws of Habit Change

,
The Four Laws of Habit Change

In his remarkable book “Atomic Habits” James Clear suggests that the solution doesn’t lie in trying harder, but instead trying smarter and working with how our brains work. Working in small, simple, and achievable steps is the way to achieve successful and lasting habit change.

,

How Creative Thinking Happens.

,
How Creative Thinking Happens.

Creative thinking involves risk and uncertainty, but it is how we grow as individuals, as communities and as societies. We share information and then step up on the knowledge ladder and add a further step for those following in our footsteps.

Sign Up For Newsletter