Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Breeding Ideas

According the Merriam Webster online dictionary one possible definition of the word ‘idea’ is a “formulated thought or opinion”. So if you are looking for new ideas you need to think about it because they do not just come by themselves. Even if sometimes you think you got an idea spontaneously that’s not true, it is only an illusion. In reality your subconscious was busy working on it and was waiting for some sort of event or trigger to send it to your conscious.

So how ideas are created? Usually ideas are issued from unsolved problems or unsatisfying solutions. People who are having trouble with certain matters on a daily basis are more likely to think about new ways to improve the way to perform their day to day tasks.

If they succeed in finding a solution then the idea is born and might appear genius to some people and irrelevant to others. Not every idea will be a success at the business level, it all depends how the market reacts towards it. However, if you have solved a problem that you were facing, there are big chances that some others out there are facing the same issue and might be looking for the solution that you have invented.

The above is one approach for breeding ideas. But that’s not all! There is at least one other way to create new ones and innovate. Needless to say every approach requires intellectual efforts and brainstorming.

So another way to breed more ideas is to combine several existing one to create a new hybrid one. At start, there might not be an immediate need for this new idea, but as the time goes on and the idea is put to use, the public might discover that it is serving them in a way they did not expect.

Combining several ideas into one is straightforward. All what is needed is to draw a table in which you put current inventions in rows and their features or uses in columns.

Consider the following example: A mobile is used for making calls and send SMS at a long range; a remote control is used to control a device such a TV or Stereo at a small distance. One possible combination is to merge them into one instrument that allows people to make calls and control their home machinery over a long distance. This way when they get home they have everything in place as desired; like music is on, plate heated in the oven, the AC is working etc…

Is it useful or will it gain acceptance? This is a different story. The important is that you created the idea and now you can work on it to make it appeal to people.

You can also read an interesting blog “How to unlock your creative genius” written by Don Dodge in which he exposes his opinion about how genius ideas are born.

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