Do you want to have great ideas? You could try waiting to see if they're going to pop in your head someday, and they could honestly. However, if you want a more systematic method that you can use today, there are three simple steps:
1. Get the knowledge in the area where you want the ideas.
2. Use an idea-generating technique.
3. Choose some of the best ideas from the results.
Great ideas to start with knowledge
If you had no knowledge of physics or mathematics, you wouldn't expect to come up with a new theory of relativity. You need some level of knowledge in the area where you want new ideas. It helps to have a lot of knowledge for truly great ideas.
For example, to create a new transport device, you would like to have general knowledge in this field as well as more specific knowledge. This could include a little knowledge of all the current modes of transport. You might add to that a list of things that have been tried and failed, and a list of all the things people want in their transportation.
Great Ideas From Techniques
Ideas and inventions start in the mind, and the mind follows certain patterns and rules. This is why tools such as problem solving techniques and other idea generating techniques work so well. Consider the “concept combination” technique, for example. Tell your mind that you need a useful combination of a plane and a motorcycle, and it will search until it finds it. This mind took twenty seconds to imagine wings that expand out at high speed from a motorcycle, allowing it to glide right off the edge of a cliff.
The technique of redefining problems in many ways can open whole new areas to explore. Redefining “inexpensive homes” as “ways to help people afford homes” has lead to all sorts of new financing methods that have made it easier to buy a home even as prices have risen. If “better job” becomes “better way to make money” you open a whole range of possibilities. There are dozens of great idea generating techniques to choose from, each with it’s own advantage.
There are many ideas to choose from
The more ideas you come up with, the more likely you are to find the right ones to work with. That's why you need to learn systematic ways to make new concepts. In the end, if "great" means "important" to you, you need to work in important areas. There's nothing wrong with inventing a better clothes hanger, but if you want to change the world, start working on new ways to save the environment, ways to end hunger, new political processes that prevent wars and other great ideas.
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