FC Now reader Robert Moss comments:
James Webb Young wrote a great little book for his students in 1939 called A Technique for Producing Ideas. It was first distributed in 1965. While the dates are old, the ideas are not.The gist of it is as follows:
Knowledge is only rapidly aging facts. Principles and method are everything.
Ideas are only new combinations of old elements. Look for the relationships.
- Gather raw material. Specific and general.
- Listen for meaning in relationships in the material. Don't look at them too directly. Turn them around. Try fitting the puzzle together differently. Write down the partial ideas. Burn yourself out. Keep going.
- Take a break. Put it out of your head. Let your unconscious work on it. Do something else that stimulates your imagination.
- Out of nowhere your ideas will appear.
- Be merciless with your ideas. Do they hold up? Are other people excited by them? If not, rework them.
Thanks, Robert! That's a useful blast from the past. Just goes to show that some ideas age more slowly than others. Young's work is still applicable.
Related Stories: | Topics:Innovation, innovation + creativity, James Webb Young, Robert Moss |
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Recent Comments | 4 Total
August 28, 2003 at 10:02am by steve
As long as the human mind strives for something more, new ideas will be generated by old methods, new methods, and methods just made up 5 minutes ago. Ideas are the minds' right to vent. The best ideas are formed before any sort of judgement or bias.
August 28, 2003 at 4:36pm by Herb Mitchell
I purchased James Webb's Producing Ideas Books in 1965 when it was first published. It is still in my active book file and I refer to it often to keep my mind fresh about the idea producing process.
August 28, 2003 at 5:35pm by J. Leslie Booth
There is nothing 'new' under the sun .. and there was only one 'original contract' .. everything since then has been cut-and-paste. Webb's words of wisdom are, as he states himself, not new, just new ways of looking at that which already in front of you; only now you actually 'see' them.
This information never grows old .. it's only forgotten and awaiting to be recovered and introduced to a new audience's eyes.
We must be into another cycle on the wheel. It's about time ... but, of course, everything is, isn't it.
September 3, 2003 at 9:48pm by Leslie Rigg
This is an example of receiving just one, good, useful idea -- while sifting through a lot of other stuff. Robert Moss' sharing may not be new, but the presentation of the idea is very helpful to me at present!