“I was swept away when I walked into these places,” she said. “I found myself taking pictures and not thinking about any consequences. I was seduced.” There were obstacles, though. One was coming to terms with photographing objects, she said, and finding a way to give them some emotion. She began creating close-up images, as with a nightdress worn by Emily Dickinson. Leibovitz zoomed in on the intricate detail.

APE: Tell me about yourself and how you got started as a photographer? Jake Stangel: I was that dude in high school whose hands always reeked of D-76 from processing tri-x and printing in the darkroom without tongs all day long. I was fortunate to go to a public school that had a great photo program and provided all the black and white film I could shoot. Photography is just literally how I’ve identified myself since I was 15 years old, it’s been ten years now. Just constantly shooting, constantly out and about with a camera, always loving it. There’s never been a day I’ve been “over” photography, and I feel really fortunate to have that kind of relationship with the medium.

And automation is not just coming to manufacturing, explains Curtis Carlson, the chief executive of SRI International, a Silicon Valley idea lab that invented the Apple iPhone program known as Siri, the digital personal assistant. “Siri is the beginning of a huge transformation in how we interact with banks, insurance companies, retail stores, health care providers, information retrieval services and product services.”

Creative people, at least the ones we think of as creative, are a little more ready to share that creativity with others. We are not weird when we have a great idea – but we are often afraid of being thought weird by people who are not as brave or open about their ideas.

Vision and Intention drive the creative process. Without them, we flail around randomly. The flailing can be fine, even wonderful: we can find a grip on something, orient ourselves, and make a discovery. In fact, the occasional Random Flail can be a valuable method of grabbing hold of something, pulling ourselves out of a rut. If it weren’t for all the random stuff I have tried, I wouldn’t have discovered quite a few things that I really enjoy.