Answer: Connect more!
Steven Johnson explains:
How can I improve a good idea?
October 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Answer: Use the SCAMPER random question generator.
SCAMPER is a technique you can use to spark your creativity and help you overcome any challenge you may be facing. (for details, check the SCAMPER guide.)
It’s really simple to get started:
- State a problem you’d like to solve or an idea you’d like to develop.
- Click the button below to get a random question to spark new ideas.
The questions are great for freeing up the mind. Some of the random questions include:
- What can be made higher, bigger or stronger?
- What can be duplicated? Can I make multiple copies?
- Can I combine different talents to improve it?
How can I generate a good idea?
October 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Answer: Generate lots of ideas.
Set yourself an ideas quota.
For example, you might decide, “I will think up at least three new ideas for my website each day for the next 30 days.”
These ideas don’t have to be brilliant; they just have to be generated. If all goes according to plan, out of that pile of 90+ website ideas you think up over the month, a couple of your ideas will be impressive and a few more will be more than good-enough!
Michael Michalko explains:
GENIUSES PRODUCE.
A distinguishing characteristic of genius is immense productivity. Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents, still the record. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. His own personal quota was one minor invention every 10 days and a major invention every six months. Bach wrote a cantata every week, even when he was sick or exhausted. Mozart produced more than six hundred pieces of music. Einstein is best known for his paper on relativity, but he published 248 other papers. T. S. Elliot’s numerous drafts of “The Waste Land” constitute a jumble of good and bad passages that eventually was turned into a masterpiece. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Kean Simonton of the University of California, Davis found that the most respected produced not only great works, but also more “bad” ones. Out of their massive quantity of work came quality. Geniuses produce. Period.
Here’s an interesting study that supports this productivity of ideas strategy: (I can’t find the reference to this study at the moment):
School children were asked to make clay pots. One group was told to make one pot as perfectly as they could. The other group was told to make as many pots as they could, no matter the quality.
The first group was told it would be graded on how good the one pot was. The second group was told it would be graded on the number of pots it produced.
The second group not only produced more pots, but their best pot was more likely to be better than the first group who spent all their time producing one pot.
How can I generate good ideas?
September 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Answer: Let Stephen Johnson tell you how in this 4-minute clever, animated RSA video.
From RSA’s intro to the video:
With Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson. . . address[es] an urgent and universal question: What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.
