x-xi information's real value - aside from helping you understand things better - comes only when it is
combined with other information to form new ideas: ideas that solve problems... ideas that enlighten... If you don't use this
fortune of information to create such ideas, you waste it.
p.4 An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.
p.16 It's not by chance that I list having fun as my first suggestion on how to get your mind into idea-condition.
p.20 Having fun unleashes creativity. It is one of the seeds you plant to get ideas.
p.26 Charles Baudelaire described genius as childhood recovered at will. He was saying that if you
can revisit the wonder of childhood you can taste genius. And he was right; it is the child in you who is creative,
not the adult.
p.27 "If you would be more creative," wrote the psychologist Jean Piaget, "stay in part a child,
with the creativity and invention that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult society."
p.30 when searching for a solution to a problem [children] look and see freshly for themselves. Every
time... [Children] constantly see the new relationships among seemingly unrelated things... [Children] study ordinary things
intently... and have a sense of wonder about the things that most of us take for granted.
p.33 Let the child in you come out. Don't be afraid... one of the ways to come up with new ideas
is to be more like a child.
p.38 The ones who come up with ideas know that ideas exist and know that they will find those ideas;
the ones who don't come up with ideas don't know that ideas exist and don't know that they will find ideas.
p.39 Nothing is done. Everything waits for you to do it.
p.41 "I came to realize that when faced with a problem most people look for the one right solution because
that's the way they were brought up... when they can't find a solution that looks perfect they give up.
"But most problems aren't like exam questions in school. Most problems have many solutions.
And as soon as I forced my students to realize that, they found those solutions."
p.41,42 "Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will become so," said Emile Coue... Dr. Norbert
Wiener noticed the same thing: "Once a scientist attacks a problem which he knows to have a solution, his entire attitude
is changed. He is already some 50% of his way toward that answer." ... There's always another idea, always another
solution. Accept it.
p.45 you must accept that what you think about yourself is the single most important factor in your success...
You act like the person you imagine yourself to be. It's as simple as that.
p.48 tell yourself every day that you are a font of ideas, that ideas bubble forth from
you like water from a spring. Every day. No, many times every day. Eventually you will begin living up to this new mental
image you have created of yourself.
p.49 Getting an idea depends on your belief in its existence. And upon your belief in yourself. Believe.
p.61 Emulate race car drivers... Go too fast. Go too far. Let your mind wander into dangerous ground, into
silliness, absurdity, stupidity, impossibility. Surprise your teachers. Astound your friends. Embarrass your parents. Thumb
your nose at the laws of nature and science and common sense. Crash. Burn.
p.62 Perhaps Jerry Della Femina, the famous advertising man, said it best: Failure is the mother
of all creativity. My advice to anybody who wants to be creative is to get into something that will fail. I've failed
at a lot of things in my life and I hope to fail at a lot more. Most people are afraid to fail, but once you've done it you
find out it's not that terrible. There's a sense of freedom that you get from taking chances.
p.68 Over the years I worked with hundreds of creative people in advertising agencies...
these were people who got ideas for a living. On demand. Every day... they all had two characteristics in common.
First, they were courageous... Second, they were all extremely curious. They had an almost insatiable curiosity about
how things work and where things come from and what makes people tick.
p.69 if "a new idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements," it stands to reason
that the person who knows more old elements is more likely to come up with a new idea than a person who knows fewer old elements.
p.90 "Creative achievement is the boldest initiative of the mind," said Robert Grudin,
"an adventure that takes its hero simultaneously to the rim of knowledge and the limits of propriety."
p.104 many of the creative people I worked with also think with pictures instead of with words... they think
pictures, they think relationships, they think metaphors, they think ideas.
p.109 If you're like many people, many times your thinking is inhibited because you unconsciously
assume that a problem has restrictions and boundaries and limitations and constraints, when it fact it doesn't.
p.113 Next time you have problems solving a problem ask yourself: "What assumptions am I making that I don't
have to make?" "What unnecessary limitations am I putting on myself?"
p.114 In The Courage to Create, Rollo May... explained "that creativity itself requires limits,
for the creative act arises out of the struggle of human beings with and against that which limits them."
p.118 If "a new idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements," it stands to reason
that the person who knows how to combine old elements is more likely to come up with a new idea than a person who doesn't
know how to combine old elements.
p.119 Every activity has its rules and conventions and ways of doing things. They may not
be etched in stone but they are etched in people's minds. Depend on it.
Most of the great advances in the sciences and arts - indeed, in everything - are the result
of somebody breaking those rules.
p.124 In A Whack on the Side of the Head, Dr. Roger von Oech wrote this insightful paragraph:
...often the best ideas come from cutting across disciplinary boundaries and looking into
other fields for new ideas and questions. Many significant advances in art, business, technology, and science have
come about through cross-fertilization of ideas. And to give a corollary, nothing will make a field stagnate
more quickly than keeping out outside ideas.
p.126 Something is going on right now in some other field that could help you solve your problem,
that could give you a fresh insight, that could turn your thinking in a new direction, that you could combine with something
you already know, that you could use to unlock your mystery.
Keep your eye and ear out for it.
p.126 Getting an idea usually means combining things that were never combined before - in other
words, taking chances. So by definition you must take a chance if you are to get an idea.
p.132,134 Since all problems have solutions, it's critical that you define your problem correctly.
If you don't you might solve the wrong problem.... So take care in what questions you ask, in how you define your problem.
p.167 Grant Wood said: "All the really good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."
[JLJ - so, just wondering, how much does a cow cost and how much per year to maintain it? From answers.com "The cost varies
considerably based on your location, the breed, weight and age of the cow. But you can look to pay between $700 and $1000
for a decent quality milk cow." ]
p.168 Rollo May believes that inspiration comes from sources in the unconscious that are stimulated by conscious
"hard work" and then liberated by the "rest" that follows it.... So when you get stuck on an idea or a project or a problem...
forget about it and work on something else.
p.177 Make a list of the things you have to do if you are going to put your idea into action.
