Idea Generation and Evaluation
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How can you generate stunning new ideas?
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Our approach to idea generation is based upon Arthur Koestler's insight that the essence of creativity is the discovery of a new pattern of existing elements:
"The creative act is not an act of creation in the sense of the Old Testament.
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It does create something out of nothing; it uncovers, selects, reshuffles, combines, synthesises already existing facts, ideas, faculties, skills.
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The more familiar the parts, the more striking the new whole."
Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation
Koestler's definition is enormously important:
â– Firstly, it states that you don't have to be a genius, or lucky.
â– Secondly, it tells us that the progress underlying idea generation is the formation of a new pattern of parts that already exist.
Together, these two insights lead to a powerful conclusion. We are all naturally creative - as any observation of children readily demonstrates - and we all have great ideas. No one is excluded. And the key to discovering new ideas is to combine features, which already exist, into a new pattern.