to contact STEVE GILLMAN visit Creative Ideas for more techniques, and visit the homepage to get the Brain Power Newsletter and other free gifts.
PS: sponsor poetry
visit Poetry Sponsors
  |
STEVE GILLMAN
Creative Ideas - Six Ways To Have Them
Would you like more creative ideas? Maybe you want to exercise more
creativity in solving problems at home, or in your work.
Perhaps you just like the thought of having the most interesting ideas the
next time you are with a group of friends. Either way, you can quickly
become a font of creative ideas by using a few simple techniques. Start
with the following.
1. Look at opposites.
What if instead of being bad for your teeth, candy was actually good
for them? Could someone develop a candy that prevented tooth decay
and perhaps even strengthened teeth? What if exercise wasn't necessary
to strengthen muscles? Could the muscle-building process that takes
place from exercise be duplicated without the exercise?
2. Make things bigger or smaller.
Look at things and ask how they could be bigger or smaller and what
the advantages would be. As an example, how could a refrigerator be
smaller, and how would that be useful? Perhaps there could be a small,
high-power, countertop drink cooler. Put your can of soda in it for a
minute, and it's chilled.
3. Challenge assumptions.
People assume that poverty causes higher crime rates. Of course there
are places where there is more poverty and less crime. What are the
possible explanations, and how could these hypothesis be tested?
4. Mentally move things around.
Looking at the exhaust fan in the bathroom and imagining it over the
shower, immediately suggests that there might be less steaming up of
the mirror if the fan was closer to the source of the steam.
5. Take things to extremes.
Nothing but action scenes would be too much action in a movie, right?
This suggests the problem of how to have the right amount - of action
and other elements. Could a study of past movies, measuring their
financial success in relation to various elements in the movie be used
to determine an "ideal" formula for a movie?
6. Follow silly ideas to see where they go.
I was sitting here wondering what would happen if two strong gusts of
wind going in opposite directions met. Would they cancel each other
out, cause massive turbulence, or what? This triggered the thought of a
car with high-powered fans that send a sheet of air from the front end
out to the roof above the windshield. Could this create a virtual surface
that would make the car more aerodynamic?
©2007 STEVE GILLMAN |
 |
|
|
|
