Now There’s An Idea

A few weeks back, Jools and I were discussing “where do ideas come from”? It’s one of those weird little questions that doesn’t really have an answer. If you type “where do ideas come from” into Google it generates a ton of hits.

Here are a couple of nifty ones…

Nicholas Negroponte- MIT Media Lab

“The best way to guarantee a steady stream of new ideas is to make sure that each person in your organization is as different as possible from the others. Under these conditions, and only these conditions, will people maintain varied perspectives and demonstrate their knowledge in different ways. There will be a lot of misunderstanding – which is frequently not misunderstanding at all, but the root of a new idea.

My advice to graduates is to do anything except what you are trained for. Take that training to a place where it is out of place and stimulate ideas, shake up establishments, and don’t take no for an answer. ”

Neil Gaiman-Writer
“You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.

You get ideas when you ask yourself simple questions. The most important of the questions is just, What if…?”

The definitive collection of idea generation methods
About my Idea Generation Methods website By Martin Leith

This website lists and explains every idea generation method I’ve encountered during the past 15 years. It is the result of extensive research; my many sources include books, management journals, websites, academics, consultants and colleagues.

The methods have been drawn not just from the worlds of creative problem solving and innovation, but also from other worlds such as organisational change, strategic planning, psychotherapy, the new sciences and the creative arts.

It’s an intriguing question. Robert Pirsig noted in “Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” that if you were out of hypotheses just wait and one would appear followed by another. I think I will have to drag it out again and have another read. Now there’s an idea.

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