I’ve been lucky enough to have a minute to breathe and let my creative juices be inspired yet again. Thank goodness for this handy dandy thing we call twitter. There’s loads of places to be inspired (real world and otherwise), but the one-stop shop for hearing disparate, interesting voices twitter is still incredibly useful.

If you’re not a “twittter person” there’s something called Follow Friday where you tell your followers to follow others (putting that down in words now seems trite and silly). This is inspired by a post by ed boches on his blog that helped illuminate the “why we follow” which gets a little lost in the 140 characters. What they have in common is a fascination with the world, an ability to think in ways that boggle my mind and truly cool peeps that you’d totally want to have a pint with.

So happy Friday and a genuine “thank-you” to all of you (reading and the “FF”s)

#FF

@bbhlabs: tremendously insightful, they are simply the forefront of progressive strategic thought. Something to aspire to be-their great contributors (@malbonnington and @melex are awesome) make all of us think harder. http://bbh-labs.com/

@edwardboches: while he is the master of all things social creativity/communications/the changing advertising world–there are a lot of awesome posts that reflect his broader curiosity of the world and culture. And he is an awesome conversationalist–what a blog *really* should be about. http://edwardboches.com/

@budcaddell: wonderfully cerebral, one of the strongest strategic thought leaders we have. His blog inspires awesome conversations around topics that all of us strategy folk wrestle with. http://whatconsumesme.com/

@brainpicker: freshest, creative inspired tidbits. Amazing finds and thoughtful commentary. If you don’t read her blog, you’re missing something wonderful. http://www.brainpickings.org/

@uberblond: a truly delightful creative strategist. she’s got some amazing projects on the go that are really inspiring creativity: from the wilhelmine project http://thewilhelmineproject.com/ to her new project six items or less (I’m not brave enough to partake in that one…but it fascinates me!) http://sixitemsorless.wordpress.com/

@cshirky: he doesn’t tweet often, but when he does I listen. And his book is out of this world.

@schwartzie14 adverts breaking? He’s got ‘em all on his blog metal potential. Bookmark and see what’s golden (or titanium colored) at Cannes. Reminds me that this is business can still be about being an art form… http://metalpotential.posterous.com/

@stellawongo the the first to break awesomely fresh, creatively driven tech goodies. She’s wickedly smart and finds some awesome things from around the world. Plus she likes baked goods almost as much as I do, which is a total bonus.

@malbonster he’s incredibly wise in the world of strategy/ emerging tech/social communications and creativity. And he’s freaking hilarious.

@tim_leake always has fun stuff, a positive attitude and a great sense of humor. And yesterday I discovered the toothpick sculpture of SF through him. If that isn’t enough reason, I don’t know what is.

@garethk a true strategy rockstar. If you work in advertising and you haven’t seen his presentation from BDW on the evolving brief, take the time to watch it. It will help bring you into the new world and shape your thinking.

(Image via: Polyvore Tumblr)

1. Jobs are the New Assets
2. Recycling the Suburbs
3. The New Calvinism
4. Reinstating the Interstate
5. Amortality
6. Africa as Business Destination
7. The Rent-a-Country
8. Biobanks
9. Survival Stores
10. Ecological Intelligence
(Time Magazine, March 23, 2009)

Of course the underlying message is one that echoes our current economic conditions. But beyond I have to believe that everyone has got to look beyond. It’s not going to be downward forever. And if it is, then how are we just going to learn to DEAL and make the best of the situation rather than just wallow in what could have been. Times like this are on record for being the times for greatest INNOVATION. A few of these allude to it, but I believe that what’s missing is this link of faith in great thinking and great minds. And thankfully we don’t have to look much farther than our new president…