Firstly, so that everyone reading understands what I'm talking about:
14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas
The above link is to a very interesting and fascinating article by the author Mitch Ditkoff. The beginning makes a brief mention about the need for innovation in today's modern job market, from which it segues into a look at two different ways of coming up with innovation, which it labels as a "western" approach (or as the article puts it, "I think, therefore I am) and an "eastern" approach ("I am, therefore, I think").
Progressing from this point, the article begins listing the eponymous 14 Ways, some of which include fantasizing and daydreaming about what your creative thought (5), taking a break from working in order to get focused on it at a later time (8), and suspending our sense of logic (13). Coincidently, these are the three concepts that I really want to look at more in depth.
#5: Fantasize
The article mentions that many new ideas and innovations are born when people just fantasize about things, and this is something that I agree completely with. I feel that many ideas that I've had have occurred when I just daydream, although this usually happens when I need to study so that puts me in a bit of a problem at times when it's ten minutes until my test and I start fantasizing about an epic battle between a T-rex and a washing machine with legs. I do feel that the example with Gary Kasparov was a poor choice, but it ultimately ties in with the overall idea of the passage that dreaming about something ultimately beats having a computer try to achieve the same result.
One thing that I did enjoy about this passage was the note about companies and innovations. I felt it was kind of funny that CEOs expect great new ideas and then they don't give any time or motivation to actually look for those innovations. It's like a man telling you to grow crops but he won't give up the seeds that actually make those crops. But sometimes, we already have the seeds to our innovations, we just find it when we do other things, like....
#8: Taking a Break
I'll admit, this one really appeals to me, but that's partly because I'm a lazy guy. Truth be told, I only started work on this blog post after the original due date, which might come back to bite me in the near future. But what I did take from this passage was that taking a break may actually help me when I'm trying to think of new things. Plus, it can really relieve stress that comes with the day and with trying (really hard) to find something new.
I do feel that the example with Seymour Cray is actually one of the more relevant examples that I've read in this article. The passage really got how this worked with people, although I'm a bit surprised that a computer expert works on tunnels whenever he takes a break.
Also, I've been to Wisconsin multiple times, and I wish I could see elves in those trees. It would make the trips up there so much more exciting. But logic dictates that there are no elves in Wisconsin. Speaking of logic, that brings me to my next passage....
#14: Suspend Logic
One thing about this passage that I found interesting was the mention that most people in the world want to find or witness something fantastic, something that completely destroys what logic dictates. Another interesting bit was when it mentioned that kids tend to live in this state more often than adults, which may indicate that we may find our ideas when we look into our past. Although that isn't exactly what the article is talking about.
I would argue that this way may be one of the best ways to get an innovation or an idea, as it works well with some of the other tips that the article presents. For example, when we daydream, we tend to suspend our logic so that we can imagine fantastic and frightening thoughts that we wouldn't be able to experience in real life. Suspending logic can also work in tangent with suggestion #9: Noticing and Challenging existing patterns, because logic at times dictates what we follow and why we follow it.
With that being said, if there is one prompt that I would like to take, it would be the prompt to suggestion #14, which goes like this:
"What can you do this week to suspend practicality, logic, and rationality in service to birthing your big idea?"
One thing that I can do is to continue to daydream about various things that make absolutely no sense in any way, shape, or form, which would be a good start. Another thing I could do would be to break my traditional routine, or as my Sociology class puts it, "breaking away from the script." What this means is that I would need to find something that I could just subvert or invert so that I could find something of meaning out of this. Unfortunately, finding that will be tough, since my schedule is already very ingrained into my head and it would be tough to really get anything out of doing this.
Or maybe this is what they mean by suspending logic; just finding something strange about our ordinary routine. After all, some of the things that we do on a regular basis may not seem logical to other people and this also occurs in the opposite way. Maybe we can find something out of that, by having looking at the illogical actions of other people. That could definitely work out well in an office style setting.
That's all I have for this blog post, I'll see you guys later.
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