A Technique for Producing Ideas

A tiny book – not even sure it was actually a book. An essay? It was written by an advertising executive in the …40s? 50s?

It’s a wonderful method for coming up with ideas in five steps. There’s no magic to it, and it’s almost comical in its simplicity, but it vibes with most of the things I’ve ever read about creativity.

The key is to absolutely immerse yourself in the subject matter, try to draw out relationships between pieces of it, then…step away. When you step away, you gain perspective, and the ideas come to you.

Along the way, he makes some good points about ideas – namely, an idea is just some new way of relating two things.

A short, enjoyable read.