A Technique for Producing Ideas
One book, placed in its field — what James Webb Young's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · bicycle.guide/guides/profile-a_technique_for_producing_ideas
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A Technique for Producing Ideas
One book, placed in its field — what James Webb Young's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · bicycle.guide/guides/profile-a_technique_for_producing_ideas
The problem
Emergence of the Idea erodes when it is left to instinct instead of method.
You were taught the moves piecemeal, never the whole model.
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The model
- 01Speculative (Reconstructor) Disposition
- 02Specific Material Gathering
- 03General Knowledge Reservoir
- 04Habit of Seeing Relationships
- 05Mental Working-Over of Materials
- 06Unconscious Incubation
- 07Emergence of the Idea
- 08Idea Refinement and Adaptation
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 1 of 5 · Speculative (Reconstructor) Disposition
The inability to leave well enough alone is the engine of the whole technique, not a personality quirk.
Misconception
People assume this disposition is a fixed gift you either inherit or lack, so those without it excuse themselves from creative work.
Reality
Pareto's speculator type is partly acquired; the itch to disturb settled arrangements can be trained by repeatedly refusing to accept 'good enough' and by rewarding your own curiosity until dissatisfaction becomes reflexive.
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 2 of 5 · Specific Material Gathering
New ideas come from a new combination of specific and general knowledge—you must have both, and specific first.
Misconception
Practitioners believe they already know enough about a familiar product or audience to skip serious gathering and jump to thinking.
Reality
Familiarity breeds superficial knowledge; the individuality of relationship between a specific product and specific people only surfaces when you dig past what you assumed you knew into concrete, unglamorous particulars.
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 3 of 5 · General Knowledge Reservoir
Ideas are new combinations of old elements, and the general reservoir supplies most of those old elements.
Misconception
People treat general knowledge as background enrichment that is nice to have but not part of the actual work of producing ideas.
Reality
General knowledge is literally the other half of every new combination; ideas are new juxtapositions of the specific with the general, so a rich, varied reservoir directly determines how many combinations are even possible.
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 4 of 5 · Habit of Seeing Relationships
A fact treated as a link in a chain is worth more than the same fact treated as an isolated bit.
Misconception
Practitioners think connections will occur spontaneously if they simply know enough facts.
Reality
The capacity to see relationships is a trained sensitivity, not a byproduct of accumulation; the person who habitually searches for how facts relate finds combinations invisible to the person who merely collects them.
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 5 of 5 · Mental Working-Over of Materials
Reaching a hopeless jumble is a sign you have done the stage correctly, not incorrectly.
Misconception
People believe that reaching a hopeless jumble with no answer means they have failed and should give up.
Reality
The jumble is the intended endpoint, not a failure; you must work the materials until you can go no further, because that exhausted, saturated state is precisely what triggers the unconscious to take over.
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The cheat sheet
- Speculative (Reconstructor) DispositionThe inability to leave well enough alone is the engine of the whole technique, not a personality quirk.
- Specific Material GatheringNew ideas come from a new combination of specific and general knowledge—you must have both, and specific first.
- General Knowledge ReservoirIdeas are new combinations of old elements, and the general reservoir supplies most of those old elements.
- Habit of Seeing RelationshipsA fact treated as a link in a chain is worth more than the same fact treated as an isolated bit.
- Mental Working-Over of MaterialsReaching a hopeless jumble is a sign you have done the stage correctly, not incorrectly.
- Unconscious IncubationThe most productive thing you can do after hard mental work is stop and genuinely forget the problem.
- Emergence of the IdeaThe idea arrives after you stop working, not while you are trying hardest.
- Idea Refinement and AdaptationAn emerged idea is raw material for the last stage, not a finished result.
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Sources
- A Technique for Producing Ideas — James Webb Young
A Technique for Producing Ideas · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide