Anyone who knows an answer to this question should have a great deal of everything … fame, money, respect, or whatever. Such a person might be able to write such articles & we all may pay for it! It would be gorgeous life for him or her!
Let me tell you, I am not “that” person. Else I wouldn’t be spending my time to write this article. Instead I would be working on my “novel” ideas. Well the first part is certainly true but the later is only partially true. I do generate novel ideas; probably a lot more than I can follow up on. But that would be a subject for another article.
So “How do you generate novel ideas?” I do not have a recipe or a guaranteed solution that I can share. But I do have an answer to “how can we try to generate novel ideas?” And “what could be considered as some of the ingredients needed to generate novel ideas?”
Let’s start with a story that I had read as a kid. I was always; always fascinated by great scientists, leaders & historic figures. And of course, even today, I still am.
I was reading a story about Einstein’s childhood. Not sure if it’s true but it goes like this. When Einstein was a small kid, his uncle or someone gave him a flash light or a torch. Einstein was very fascinated by it. He played with it all the time. He had fun pressing the button and see a beam of light coming out and shining on the wall. Sometimes in the night he would try to shine it to the sky and he would see a beam of light disappearing in the darkness and in the vast expanse of the universe. That’s when it occurred to him, the story said, that if he was sitting at the top of the beam, what would he see or where would he go? Such a seemingly simple question but gave him an idea to explore the light, time & space etc. Such a simple yet transformational question!
That’s when it occurred to him. “If I was sitting at the top of a beam of light, what would I see & what would I pass along the way or where would I go?” Little Einstein might have wondered!
I was amazed by the story. I remember telling this story to everyone I could meet. Even after decades; I am still amazed by this story but in a different way. If the story is true then surely little Einstein had a lot of fun with the flash light alright. Hundreds of ideas & questions might have come to his mind. He might have generated a question or an idea each time he pressed the button or just at the plain sight of the flash light. But after a while his questions might have got deeper and deeper and more & more difficult to answer. And then might have come “THE” transformational question. He might have played with that question and who knows might have decided to save it for a rainy day. Well… I don’t know what really happened and the story didn’t elaborate on it either.
Why am I telling you this? Please hang on to this thought for a minute until you read the next story.
Recently I came across an article on listening. The author argued that in order for someone to start listening one needs to listen a whole lot. If you are expecting something substantial to come out of someone, you need to give that person a chance to express anything before you can actually hear something valuable.
It’s like finding a gem stone; tons of ugly coal needs to be unearthed. Well the ugly coal too is useful in some other ways as we all know.
Now coming back to my story on Einstein and why I shared that with you.
I strongly believe that in order to get “that” millennium idea (or question) he must have had to generate a tons of ideas. And as a matter of fact, in my personal experience it certainly works for me.
I generally get ideas when I am quietly having my early in the morning tea. I just let the ideas come out without being judgmental about them. But then sometimes, suddenly, a strange idea comes out and just sticks. I can’t move away from it and that’s when I realize that, that’s the idea I need to follow. And I normally do. When I realized this, I have made a habit to get up early and have a cup of tea quietly. I have been doing this for several years. Whether its a weekend of weekday, vacation or busy schedule, I still, to date, get up early and have a cup of tea quietly. Its fun to sit in the dark sipping hot tea and just let your mind wander. Try it sometime.
There is another technique I practice. I try to think of problems. It doesn’t matter if those problems are small or large, simple or complex, local or global, personal or social, technical or not. And sometimes one problem stands out and just grabs me until I have saved it in my memory box. Yes, I do have a list of such problems in my savings.
I think, creating a surrounding or atmosphere that let’s you wander your mind, is more important than a specific recipe I described above. Which comes down to a personal experience after all. Being curious, asking questions (to yourself rather than others) and trying to think of answers is the automatic next step.
Wandering thoughts to ideas and questions to more powerful ideas and then comes the idea of the day or idea of the life. Unless you let “the ugly coal” out of your mind, you wont be able to get “a gem of an idea”.
It’s a game and one needs to play it. I play it all the time and not that I get prize winning ideas or anything but sometimes a seemingly simple idea makes my day.
I feel an Einstein for that day. And to me that is THE reward!
If scientists are the modern day Gods, could this be a way of worshiping? Or is that why they say “God helps those who help themselves”.
So are you helping yourself and playing the game of idea generation?
Picture Credits: Original pictures from https://newvitruvian.com/