A Technique For Producing Ideas

An idea occurs when you develop a new combination of old elements. The capacity to bring old elements into new combinations depends largely on your ability to see relationships. All ideas follow a five-step process of 1) gathering material, 2) intensely working over the material in your mind, 3) stepping away from the problem, 4) allowing the idea to come back to you naturally, and 5) testing your idea in the real world and adjusting it based on feedback.

A Technique for Producing Ideas

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So with the art of producing ideas. What is most valuable to know is not where to look for a particular idea, but how to train the mind in the method by which all ideas are produced and how to grasp the principles which are at the source of all ideas.

Here, I suspect, is where minds differ to the greatest degree when it comes to the production of ideas. To some minds each fact is a separate bit of knowledge. To others it is a link in a chain of knowledge. It has relationships and similarities. It is not so much a fact as it is an illustration of a general law applying to a whole series of facts.

An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements [and] the capacity to bring old elements into new combinations depends largely on the ability to see relationships. The habit of mind which leads to a search for relationships between facts becomes of the highest importance in the production of ideas.

Gathering raw material in a real way is not as simple as it sounds. It is such a terrible chore that we are constantly trying to dodge it. The time that ought to be spent in material gathering is spent in wool gathering. Instead of working systematically at the job of gathering raw material we sit around hoping for inspiration to strike us. When we do that we are trying to get the mind to take the fourth step in the idea-producing process while we dodge the preceding steps.

It requires a deal of patient working over to make most ideas fit the exact conditions, or the practical exigencies, under which they must work. And here is where many good ideas are lost. The idea man, like the inventor, is often not patient enough or practical enough to go through with this adapting part of the process. But it has to be done if you are to put ideas to work in a work-a-day world.

[T]he production of ideas is just as definite a process as the production of Fords; that the production of ideas, too, runs on an assembly line; that in this production the mind follows an operative technique which can be learned and controlled; and that its effective use is just as much a matter of practice in the technique as is the effective use of any tool.

The second important principle involved is that the capacity to bring old elements into new combinations depends largely on the ability to see relationships. Here, I suspect, is where minds differ to the greatest degree when it comes to the production of ideas. To some minds each fact is a separate bit of knowledge. To others it is a link in a chain of knowledge. It has relationships and similarities. It is not so much a fact as it is an illustration of a general law applying to a whole series of facts.

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In the first part, as you begin to mentally feel out the materials, little tentative or partial ideas will come to you. The goal is to get these done on paper, no matter how crazy or incomplete they seem.

The second is that in our increasingly fast paced world, we can often give in to pressures to not give each of these steps their proper time (or even skip over them). It is important to try and fight against this in order to ensure we continue to create great ideas as an industry.

Pros: Great book, well written, concise!Cons: None.TLDR: A good book for anyone interested in creative work & making your own stuff. If you need ideas or a process for getting ideas, get this book for a perspective from 1940 that is still relevant now.

Kirby Ferguson has written a summary for the book A Technique for Producing Ideas. Generating good idea is a fine art, if you have mastered it you will be successful in many fields. The author of the book, James Young, describes five steps on a technique of combining old elements together:

yepSbX0wOTBiypm7RRQ3A[R.e.a.d] A Technique for Producing Ideas Full FreeDownload Or Read PDF A Technique for Producing Ideas Free Full Pages Online With Audiobook. This short but powerful book has helped thousands of writers, artists, scientists, and engineers to solve problems and generate ideas. Now let James Webb Young's unique insights help you be more creative in every area of life. Advertising mogul William Bernbach wrote, "James Webb Young is in the tradition of some of our greatest thinkers when he describes the workings of the creative process. The results of many years in advertising have proved to him that the key element in communications success is the production of relevant and dramatic ideas."This is THE classic on creative thinking, written with the clarity, knowledge, and experience of a skilled advertising man. A Technique For Producing Ideas is a step-by-step technique for sparking creativity in advertising and marketing or ANY other field....  [*] Download PDF Here => A Technique for Producing Ideas [*] Read PDF Here => A Technique for Producing Ideas

This technique of the mind follows five steps. I am sure that you will all recognize them individually. But the important thing is to recognize their relationship and to grasp the fact that the mind follows these five steps in definite order-that by no possibility can one of them be taken before the preceding one is completed, if an idea is to be produced.

In this stage you have to take your little newborn idea out into the world of reality. And when you do you usually find that it is not quite the marvelous child it seemed when you first gave birth to it. It requires a deal of patient working over to make most ideas fit the exact conditions, or the practical exigencies, under which they must work. And here is where many good ideas are lost. The idea man, like the inventor, is often not patient enough or practical enough to go through with this adapting part of the process. But it has to be done if you are to put ideas to work in a work-a-day world. Do not make the mistake of holding your idea close to your chest at this stage. Submit it to the criticism of the judicious.

Since its publication in 1965, A Technique for Producing Ideas has helped thousands of advertising copywriters smash through internal barriers to unleash their creativity. Professionals from poets and painters to scientists and engineers have also used the techniques in this concise, powerful book to generate exciting ideas on demand, at any time, on any subject. Now let James Webb Young's unique insights help you look inside yourself to find that big, elusive idea--and once and for all lift the veil of mystery from the creative process.

"James Webb Young is in the tradition of some of our greatest thinkers when he describes the workings of the creative process. The results of many years in advertising have proved to him that the key element in communications success is the production of relevant and dramatic ideas. He not only makes this point vividly for us but shows us the road to that goal."--William Bernbach, Former Chairman and CEO, Doyle Dane Bernbach Inc.

This short book has helped hundreds of folk to generate new ideas across different fields and industries. It's often cited. I recently got my hands on a copy and wanted to document the highlights for you, my audience - but it's well worth buying the book and reading it for yourself. Grab a copy here

This step happens entirely inside the mind. Like a jigsaw puzzle, you bring elements of the information gathered in step one and peice them together, looking for relationships, connections and new combinations. For example taking 2-3 facts and seeing how they fit together. When partial ideas come which could work, Young suggests you write them down. It is in this step though that, after a while, the mind becomes exhausted but Young encourages us to not give up - because the magic happens in Step 3. 041b061a72