(how to treat cancer, organize a profitable business...), while others are absolutely useless.
The question arises: how to learn to generate useful ideas?
First, you need to figure out what an idea is and where it comes from: do ideas have some kind of storage or is it an absolutely unique product of the work of the human brain.
Where unique ideas arise
Great Inventor Nikola Tesla(1856-1943), whom contemporaries call “the man who invented the 20th century,” could generate hundreds of new ideas a day. But everyone was shocked by his confession: "I am not the author of these ideas". He stated:
My brain is just a receiving device. There is a certain core in outer space from which we draw knowledge, strength, and inspiration. I have not penetrated the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists
"Many people believe in God. For some it is Jesus Christ, for others it is some kind of information world that knows everything and understands everything"- says D. Strebekov, Doctor of Technical Sciences.
“Tesla’s creative method makes us believe that there is a certain global data bank, which in particular is called the information field of the Universe, and Tesla knew how to connect to this source, drawing the necessary information from there. He dreamed that every person would find access to it.”- says Yu. Mazurin, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
Increasingly, scientists are recording the ability of people to consciously connect to this information field and receive from there information about objects that do not yet exist in our world. To do this, they enter a state altered consciousness.
In the normal state, people can also connect to this field, but this happens much more slowly and unnoticed by humans. This connection is made by the subconscious when it is required to generate an idea, but not enough information. In this case, the subconscious interacts with supraconsciousness, which helps generate a new idea. The subconscious transmits it to the consciousness and a person can only implement it in our world.
Method for generating useful ideas
Based on these studies and statements, the following method for generating ideas can be formulated to increase their usefulness.
Necessary to focus on on some one important object (goal, problem, subject, phenomenon...) and obtain the maximum amount of information about it, which will be processed consciousness. The Internet will be very useful in this, now playing the role of a global knowledge bank for all humanity.
If this information is not enough for consciousness to develop a reaction, then it will transmit it preconscious. Then you will have to wait a little to get an idea. At such moments you can concentrate on another object, because the preconscious can simultaneously process information about several objects (4-10). Or you can take a break for 5-10 minutes so that the preconscious calmly processes this information and generates an idea.
If the object turns out to be quite complex, there is too much information about it or, on the contrary, not enough information, then the generation of ideas will take place subconscious. In this case, the idea can be obtained after a fairly long period of time (day, week, month...). It all depends on the scale of the object. Then you will just have to wait and periodically “pump up” your consciousness with new information about him.
If it is necessary to generate a unique idea, the subconscious will produce connection to the superconscious and receive from it the required information about the new object.
Until the required idea is obtained, it is necessary materialize everything that comes to mind about it. For a simple idea, you can keep notes on paper or a computer using plain text or drawings.
Don't know what to surprise your guests at your next event? Believe me, the lack of original ideas is not a reason to doubt your own talent, because even geniuses have periods of creative stagnation. Instead of getting upset, it’s better to turn to tips that will bring back inspiration and direct your thoughts in the right direction.
Quantity matters
The first way to find a brilliant solution is to have as many ideas as possible.
If you have 100 ideas and 99 of them fail, you still have a chance to win
Unfortunately, many of us mistakenly believe that a great idea comes out of nowhere, and all great people are blessed with the gift of generating great thoughts without much effort.
It's time to face the truth: any success is achieved through hard work. Before becoming famous, Einstein published hundreds of scientific papers on a variety of topics, and only a small part of them brought him real recognition.
Looking inward
Understand your own interests and goals.
In pursuit of the next big idea, people often look at things globally instead of looking inward.
Some successful projects began because people simply wanted to find a cheaper hotel or build an interesting route for a walk.
Before planning an event, think about how you would like to spend your time, what snacks you prefer at a banquet, what irritates you, and what, on the contrary, causes positive emotions in events of this format. Knowing yourself will help you find the right organizational solutions.
The habit of writing down
The habit of recording ideas will protect you from your own forgetfulness.
Write down your thoughts. It won’t take much time, especially now that you always have a smartphone or tablet at hand
Use a note-taking app or carry a notepad with you. You need to be prepared, because inspiration is an unexpected guest.
About once a week, review your accumulated list of ideas, concentrating on the main ones and crossing out those that have lost their relevance over time.
The world around you
When trying to formulate an important thought, almost all of us tend to go deeper into ourselves.
Taking a break from the computer screen for at least five minutes, you can come up with many more ideas than after an hour of routine work
What happens around us can be a great inspiration. While sitting at work in a cafe, try to write a short story about the visitors or what is happening outside the window. The more information your brain analyzes, the more ideas it can generate.
Shock therapy
Getting used to certain rhythms, the brain begins to work on autopilot, which makes fresh ideas come to mind less and less often.
Disruption of established routines will be useful shock therapy
For example, if you are used to sleeping until lunch, try waking up early in the morning. You may experience some discomfort, but the resulting jolt will direct your brain function in the right direction.
Traveling, playing sports and studying will help you break out of your usual circle. As a bonus, you will receive a bunch of fresh ideas and a good mood.
Scribble
The whimsical drawings we leave in a notebook while thinking are not just meaningless scribbles, but a way to develop cognitive functions such as memory and attention.
So let your mind float freely, and it will definitely find the answer to all your burning questions.
Trial and error
In Japan there is a proverb: “fall seven times, get up the eighth time.”
Failure is just part of the process. All successful people have experienced failures
Don't be afraid of losing: it's unlikely that you'll succeed the first time. Instead of bemoaning your own inadequacy, it is better to work on your mistakes and avoid making them in the future.
A good way to organize your experience is to make a list of mistakes and correct decisions. Gradually add ideas that brought success and contributed to failure into two columns. As the list of successes grows, the column with errors will be lost in its background.
New impressions
New experiences go hand in hand with creativity and a fresh perspective on things.
The more you travel and the more new things you learn, the more ideas are born in your head
It is not necessary to immediately embark on a trip around the world. It’s enough to go to a show, start a conversation with a stranger, or take a walk to places in the city where you have never been before.
Rest and meditation
When fatigue makes itself felt and you feel creatively empty, take a break and devote time to enjoyable activities. Even if there is a deadline looming before your eyes and there is absolutely no time to rest, find at least five minutes for yourself.
Huge doses of caffeine will not help achieve the desired result. You will be bursting with ideas, but none of them will ultimately be useful.
Creativity and business processes contradict each other because “creativity” implies trial and error, and in business you need a clearly developed plan.
But these two seemingly opposite concepts can be combined. Nikolay Dobrovolsky, co-founder and vice president of PC virtualization at Parallels, talks about how to streamline creative processes without crossing work boundaries.
Deadline for creativity
Business and creativity have been antagonists since the dawn of time. There is still debate about whether it is possible to create an environment in which employees remain motivated to generate new ideas rather than simply follow endless deadlines and rigid KPIs. This “creative” option is necessary not only for companies that directly work with “creative” products, but also for companies engaged in the production of the most ordinary products.
Creativity and business processes contradict each other because “creativity” implies trial and error, and business needs a clearly developed plan, where there is no place and time for this. However, without creativity, you risk falling behind in the competitive race and being left without commercially successful products in the near future.
There are several opportunities that allow you to include the generation of new brilliant ideas in your work plan.
There is such a profession
There is a profession where specialists do exactly what they think, read, study the market and needs, talk with clients and developers, organize brainstorms, develop ideas, even if at first glance they seem unrealistic. And in the end, they come up with “sellable” ideas and new functions. These are program managers (or product managers).
In Russia, such specialists are rarely found on company staff, but in the West, almost no software project is launched without this third party. But our companies, when they become mature enough and operate in the international market, begin to understand that they need to listen to themselves and their clients, and analyze interactions.
Prototype this
Any idea contains a certain number of unknowns. They can only be clarified through research and practical testing. Therefore, it is necessary in the development plan to allocate time for this and be prepared for the fact that 80% (or even 100%) of the developments and prototypes made, on which time, money and efforts of developers were spent, can be thrown into the trash.
Did you know that Apple made about 30 prototypes for the iPhone keyboard? A lot of research, practice with users, 2 years of work - and 29 prototypes had to be abandoned. For the first version of the Parallels Access mobile remote access application, we ourselves made more than 40 prototypes of various functionality (how a mouse, cursors, magnifying glass should behave), half of which remained in the product.
It is necessary to plan for these possible “losses,” especially if we are talking about some radically new thing: a new user experience, a new way of processing information.
On record
In a business environment, more than once or twice a person who has a good idea will at some point have to step on the throat of his own idea in the interests of business and push it until better times (the end of the release and so on). This is a psychological moment that can lead to the fading of the desire to invent.
It's very easy to deal with this. You should always write down all your ideas, have this list at hand, and do not forget to constantly review it. A good idea, postponed either for 2-3 months or for 2-3 years, will not deteriorate.
For example, for Parallels Desktop we have a list of almost 500 potential features that we have come up with over the years. Every time we start planning a new version, we always review it. And it very often happens that, in addition to something completely new, several ideas from this list end up in the next release.
Give it time
And not just any time, but a very specific time in the schedule, allocated specifically for creative tasks. Yes, this is extremely difficult to do when the developer is busy with current projects, and even if the release time is close...
“Free time for ideas” is practiced by LinkedIn, Apple, Microsoft and many others. For example, 80% for current tasks, 20% for developing ideas. At Google, the 20% rule allowed the creation of products such as Google News, Gmail and AdSense. Unfortunately, now at Google this practice has been nullified by the requirement that you agree with your manager on what you will do in these 20% of your working time.
Our colleagues in the Parallels holding, Plesk, host a “Research Day” once every two weeks, when engineers are freed from current tasks and spend time studying new technologies, creating prototypes, and searching for alternative solutions. But they are not working on personal projects, but on things that will benefit the company in one way or another.
As a result, spending only 10% of their working time every month, they implemented projects that were hanging on TODO lists for months and years. In less than a year, they conducted more than a hundred studies (under normal conditions this would have taken 4 times longer). There was an understanding of how to develop internal infrastructure management and change the technology stack in the product. This is important for those companies where engineers have been working on one product for many years.
But a truly passionate employee will do what interests him, even in his personal time. If you do not have the opportunity to allocate time, then you need to closely monitor employees’ personal projects and encourage them. Quite often, the technology born from such a project becomes part of the product. For example, the latest version of our Parallels Desktop for Mac solution now includes Vagrant support. Initially, our employee Mikhail Zholobov did it in his free time, then he started doing it during work, but for the needs of our engineers, and, in the end, it became a function of the product.
Pay for ideas
The vast majority of employees constantly have ideas during their work - if not brilliant ones about the latest technologies, then rationalization ones. But most of them are forgotten or lost. Financial incentives (even small ones) can encourage an employee not to give a damn about his ideas, but to write them down and think about them. In addition (and this is very important!) an idea stimulation program helps teach employees how to clearly put an idea on paper, and also push them towards a more seriously developed idea in the form of a patent application.
At Parallels, we pay our employees to come up with invention ideas and work on patents. A small amount of 3000 rubles - for a well-designed idea on 1-2 Word pages, more serious money - if it is worthy of filing a patent application. And, of course, remuneration upon receipt of a patent. We spend several hundred thousand dollars annually on this program.
The results are as follows. Firstly, the number of ideas (patent candidates) has increased 3 times. Secondly, “new faces” appeared (initially there was a very limited number of inventors) and young employees who previously preferred to keep quiet about their discoveries began to show themselves. But, most importantly, I think we were able to organize the process of collecting ideas - and this is more difficult to do in a large company than in a startup.
For employees, recognition of their ideas and implementation in practice is also an important incentive. In addition, for an inventor, a patent is the path to a good career and salary.
Group interview
A fairly large percentage of employees prefer to remain silent about their ideas. Some believe that they are not doing something extraordinary, others are afraid of criticism, others are embarrassed, and some consider the idea of patenting evil.
Perhaps the reason is also the lack of self-presentation skills, so well developed in the West, as well as ignorance of one’s rights and responsibilities, lack of information on how to correctly present one’s ideas. For example, many people do not know that the right to an invention belongs to the company, and the person is the author or co-author of the patent.
Therefore, inventors need to be sought out, persuaded and talked to. Moreover, one-on-one conversations are not the case, because the implementation of an idea initially implies publicity.
Therefore, we regularly, 2-4 times a year, conduct collective interviews. Together with the heads of departments, we gather a team and, in an informal setting, try to identify what interesting things these people have in development. It is quite difficult to conduct such meetings. After all, people stubbornly remain silent, but we need to make sure that they speak up and begin to freely express their ideas. But it's a necessary part of the job.
Let your users create
You can also use the creativity of your users. Especially if you have a corporate product: then it’s not the employees’ ideas that are much more important, but a careful conversation with customers and drawing up a list of features based on what they say. First of all, because the developer himself often either does not use a B2B product at all, or uses it in one configuration specific only to his company.
There was already such a mistake in our history: we planned to make a B2B product Parallels Mac Management (managing multiple Macs in a corporate environment), but the functions in it were invented based on our understanding of how it should work and on the functions of analogues. The first two versions practically failed, because during the demonstration, clients asked: “Do you have this function that we really need? And this? We basically don’t need most of what you have now.”
As soon as we began to carefully survey users, ask them to prioritize the features that were important to them or add new ones, the product went very well.
But even in a consumer product, you get a rich environment for ideas: in fact, how many users you have, there are so many ways to use your product. There are a lot of options for how to organize this: from email surveys and meetings at exhibitions and conferences to special portals where users can write their ideas for product development, or vote for the ideas of others they like. We also analyze ideas received from users through various technical support channels. Another question is that processing such feedback is labor-intensive work and a topic for a separate article.
Teach people
Coming up with an idea is only 1% of the whole job. An idea begins to live only when it itself becomes a business project: when it has a work plan, the same deadlines, implementation tools, and a team. For your idea to work, it will have to be formalized in the same way that the release of a company's products is formalized.
Unfortunately, in Russia little is taught about the basics of such project activities. In universities, IT students are taught to write algorithms very well, but not how to correctly formulate their thoughts, ideas, functions of their solutions, and moreover, to work them out from the point of view of users: whether it looks good or bad and how it works for clients.
In the meantime, the situation is such that there are only two options - to look for such specialists abroad or to help raise them here in Russia. We are for the second option, which is why Parallels invests in training students at universities, including teaching them how to properly conduct research and formulate projects.
Almost all large companies are trying to raise such specialists in Russia, especially if their solutions are presented on the world market: Kaspersky Lab, ABBYY, Acronis, Acumatica, Mail.ru, Yandex, 1C, IBS, and so on. Many have their own basic departments at universities (Parallels has such a department at MIPT), or laboratories (we have them at MIPT, MSU, NSU, SPbAU RAS) and courses. People with design and research knowledge are incredibly highly valued in companies and will never be left without work.
Or maybe, to hell with this creativity? Many companies quietly make the same products that bring real money. Why risk investing in a potentially good but crude idea? But here I will remember our own history. Known to all Mac owners, the flagship solution that brings the lion's share of our company's profit, Parallels Desktop for Mac, was once a “startup within a startup.” And where would we be if we had not taken a risk and continued to develop custom solutions for the financial and banking sector?
Neuropsychologist Estanislao Bachrach - about how to learn to think outside the box and how the thinking process works in general. The Village publishes an excerpt on learning how to generate ideas
How ideas come to mind
Creativity is fueled by ideas that have to come from somewhere. They, in turn, are born in the brain. One of the most interesting works that explains the emergence of ideas is Cognitive Neuroscience and the Study of Memory by Eric Kandel. In 2000, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this research. Dr. Kandel and his colleagues propose a new model of the brain, the so-called smart memory. Since the advent of this model, most neuroscientists have rejected Dr. Roger Sperry's theory of two hemispheres of the brain - right and left. According to Kandel's theory, analysis and intuition function simultaneously in all thinking models. There is no left brain and right brain - only learning and memories in various combinations in a single brain.
I won't bore you with scientific complexities. The theory says something like this: from the moment of birth, everything, absolutely everything that happens in life is registered in one part of the brain or another. This is smart memory. Not only experience, but everything we learn: what we read, what we see, what we are told. To better understand this theory, imagine: the brain has many boxes. Every incident in your life is stored in one of these smart memory boxes. Therefore, the brain works as an archiver.
Boxes open and close and memories are connected randomly. And the more relaxed we are, the more often they open and close and the more memories get mixed up. When this happens, we have more ideas at a certain point in the day or night than at other times. This is individual for everyone: for some - in the shower, for others - while jogging, playing sports, driving a car, on the subway or bus, while playing or swinging your daughter on a swing in the park. These are moments of mental clarity.
When the brain is relaxed, more thoughts appear in it. They may be ordinary, familiar, or unimportant, but sometimes ideas seep into their ranks that we call creative. The more ideas there are, the more likely it is that one of them will be non-standard. In other words, ideas are a random combination of concepts, experiences, examples, thoughts and stories that are sorted into mental memory boxes. We are not inventing anything new. The novelty is in how we combine the known. Suddenly these combinations of concepts collide and we “see” an idea. It dawned on us. The higher the level of mental clarity, the greater the opportunity for discovery. The less extraneous noise in our heads, the calmer we become, enjoying what we love, and the more insights appear.
Creativity is not some magic light bulb that can be turned on anywhere, it is closely related to the environment. Creativity requires a stimulating environment.
What prevents you from generating ideas?
We have already mentioned productive thinking, when new thoughts come to our minds, as opposed to reproductive thinking, when what is already known is reproduced. Productive thinking promotes creativity. But how do you generate a lot of ideas, how does Messi carry out a lot of attacks, hoping that one of them will end in a goal?
When Edison perfected the light bulb and created the battery, one of his assistants asked how he managed to continue working on these inventions after thousands of failed attempts. Edison replied that he did not understand the question, since for him these attempts were not unsuccessful. He learned ways that don't work. Picasso created about 50 thousand works, including paintings and drawings. Not all of this huge number of works are known. But the artist knew: he had to write a lot to create something new. You should produce many ideas, rather than try to come up with one good or unusual one. To do this, you need to think freely, without criticizing yourself, without evaluating, without condemning. First you need to relax, free your thoughts and start thinking. There is nothing more harmful to creativity than criticism or condemnation. It's hard for us to avoid this. Our education and environment teach us to think critically and we make judgments all the time. We immediately evaluate our new ideas and thoughts, obeying instinct, as if we were driving a car with one foot on the gas pedal and the other on the brake. As a result, when we produce a large number of ideas, such as during a brainstorming session, we then spend a lot of time (sometimes too much) coming up with reasons why the idea won't work or can't be implemented.
In fact, you should try to work out all possible ideas. As soon as you or others begin to evaluate an idea, creative thinking becomes paralyzed. In this case, what little has emerged will slip back into familiar, tried-and-true, conservative thought patterns. Thinking without judgment is a dynamic and free process. Ideas collide when discussed, creating new combinations and associations, and creative possibilities increase endlessly.
Another obstacle to creativity: when you come up with a good idea, it can prevent you from coming up with a better one. Therefore, you need to produce ideas without thinking about whether they are good or bad, whether they can be implemented, or whether they will solve the problem. Give yourself time to think without censorship. To do this, I always advise setting yourself a time and number of ideas goal. Thus, you direct creative energy in the right direction.
Seven Commandments for Creating Ideas
Don't judge: let your thoughts float freely, be flexible.
Do not comment: any negative comment or criticism will spoil the mood and affect the creative process.
Don't edit: Don't let your internal editor influence the process. Editing is the work of the left hemisphere of the brain, and it is not involved in the creation of ideas.
Don't execute: you come up with an idea, and then another part of your brain gets distracted, thinking about how you can implement it. It is not right!
Don't look back: don't tell yourself, “I already tried that two years ago and it didn't work.”
Don't lose motivation: It's very easy to lose passion and interest in something you've been doing for a long time. Avoid this.
Have you ever been in a creative block? Coffee won't help you wake up! Let's explore techniques that will help you generate ideas easily!
1. The first classic and sensational method that is used everywhere is brainstorming!
Everyone get on the boat and let's go! I find this method effective. Just imagine, you get together with a team, and everyone comes up with an idea, even the most stupid one. But you will be surprised, when you write down all the ideas from the participants, you will move on to an active discussion, and even the stupidest idea can turn out to be “candy”. Don't be afraid to come up with stupid ideas, that's how brainstorming works! Storm Olympus easily!
2. Another classic method is the method of associations
Of course, everyone has heard about it, especially designers. The principle is simple: there is a topic of discussion - there is an association and another association and another.
The ice has broken, gentlemen of the jury! The ice has broken!
Many designers and others work according to this principle. This principle is suitable for absolutely everyone who needs to “urgently” generate an idea. You can build a whole chain of associations and find that you have gone far from the intended topic. But it doesn’t matter, these are “deep associations” that are somehow related to your topic, try using them too.
3. Mind maps
I was lazy to use them at first. But as always, you need to turn it into a habit and you will see the results. The intrigue is over! About the method of mental maps: we draw plans for today with you, we draw them. You are in the center, lines come from you, and you do not write down the task, but draw it, so that you can later figure out what it is. For example, one of the tasks for today: go to the cinema. This means that by resorting to the same method of associations, you and I draw little people in front of the big screen.
4. Bus, bed, bath
The method invites us to generate ideas in unusual places; if you are in the office, let’s work in the fresh air, waiting for the long-awaited apple to fall on us. Let your ideas come out, you need to help them, and like Archimedes in the bathroom, shout “Eureka”!
5. Decoding, sir!
We take an incomprehensible inscription or drawing, for example, a hieroglyph, and look at a friend’s tattoo. And “in the old fashioned way” we create associations about what it is! This is a great exercise for every day, after which you will make associations on the go!
6. Catching ideas with a net!
It's simple: we write down ideas in a notebook or read them into a voice recorder. Everyone knows that ideas come suddenly when you are not prepared for it! Be vigilant and, like a detective or doctor, write down all your ideas. The most important thing is to find the recording later!
7. I love hats! Six hats for everyone!
The technique of trying on six hats will help you get rid of creative chaos in your head. We mentally put on a white hat and analyze the facts and figures with a serious face. We put on a black hat and look for negativity, criticize and look appraisingly. Finally, we try on the yellow hat - smile and look at everything positively. Then we’ll try on a green hat, which will help us generate new ideas. The red hat makes us emotional, more emotional. In the end, after trying on a blue hat or a sky blue hat, we sum it up with you. More color!
How to generate ideas easily is a pressing question with a vast ocean of solutions. These 7 self-tested methods will help you breathe new life into your creativity without much preparation!
I wish everyone inspiration every day and in an unusual environment!
