Unearth the timeless wisdom of a 1939 classic as we delve into a 5-step technique for idea generation. Discover how this vintage approach can still spark creativity and innovation in today's fast-paced, digital world.

The habit of mind which leads to a search for relationships between facts becomes of the highest importance in the production of ideas

James Webb Young in 1939: A Technique for Producing Ideas (public library)

  • An idea is a new combination
  • The ability to generate new combinations depends on the ability to see relationships between different elements
  • In a chapter on training the mind, Young offers two key principles
  • Principles and method are everything
  • What is most valuable to know is not where to look for a particular idea, but how to train the mind

Step 3: Conscious Processing

Turn the problem over to your unconscious mind and let it work while you sleep.

  • Drop the problem completely and turn to whatever stimulates your imagination and emotions. Listen to music, go to the theater or movies, read poetry or a detective story.

The A-HAMOMENT

Out of nowhere the Idea will appear.

Gathering raw material

Young emphasizes the importance of building a rich pool of “raw material” – mental resources from which to build new combinations

  • Instead of working systematically at the job of gathering raw material, we sit around hoping for inspiration to strike us
  • The future belongs to the curious
  • Curiosity is the root of all things creative

Step 5: Idea meets reality

It requires a lot of patient working over to make most ideas fit the exact conditions, or the practical exigencies, under which they must work.

  • Do not make the mistake of holding your idea close to your chest at this stage. Submit it to the criticism of the judicious. When you do, a surprising thing will happen.

Step 2: DIGESTING THE MATERIAL

Take the different bits of material which you have gathered and feel them all over with the tentacles of the mind

  • You take one fact, turn it this way and that, look at it in different lights, and feel for the meaning of it
  • Finally, bring two facts together and see how they fit

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