Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

FOR most of us who may have experienced a brain drain, creativity may seem a remote possibility. We could spend countless hours and sleepless night to come up with even one idea—and it still won’t probably make the cut. In the end, we give up and think we don’t have what it takes.

Javy Galindo thinks otherwise.

Creativity, Javy says, is not just for a select few as these are skills that can be cultivated by anyone who can get a joke. It is, as he explained, an inherent faculty of our brains—as is evident by our childhood.

With this belief, Javy wrote The Power of Thinking Differently, a humorously enlightening book that reminds us how to access our brain’s creative capacities by using fun language, and by the rational lenses of psychology, neuroscience and popular creativity literature. Also, the book exercises the imagination using analogy, fable, jokes, and puzzles.

A self-proclaimed creative thinking dimwit who has a penchant for over-exaggeration, Javy Wong Galindo has had experience in various creative environments. He also gives talks on his research on the creative process and has helped numerous individuals and groups be creative in a wide array of activities and disciplines.

Born in Chicago, Illinois to a Filipino father from Culasi, Antique and a Chinese mother from Zamboanga City, Javy’ family moved to Sunnyvale, California where his father, Reuel Galindo worked as an accountant. His mother, Teresa Wong worked as a registered nurse. While growing up in the heart of Silicon Valley in the 80s, Javy found himself as one of only a handful of Asian Americans in his school and neighborhood. This, he said, may help explain his fascination with diversity and his appreciation for thinking differently.

As a youth, Javy developed a passion for storytelling, creative writing, sketch comedy and performed in various instrumental music ensembles. But this affinity for creative endeavors led him to a decade long career working in a cubicle as an electrical engineer. He holds both a master’s and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UC San Diego with minors in philosophy and music theory.

Javy worked as an engineer for companies such as Motorola and Northrop Grumman and participated in various corporate creativity workshops. At the same time, he continued to feed his creative hungers by being an educator for several Southern California non-profit youth arts organizations and as a San Diego high school music instructor. Javy took a hiatus from his engineering career in 2007 to pursue an academic investigation of the creative process at JFK University in Pleasant Hill.