Have Lots of Ideas

Written By Jeremy Utley

Linus Pauling, the only person in history to win two individual Nobel Prizes, succinctly describes the essence of productive creativity: “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”

Pauling’s claim has been supported by various research efforts over the last several decades. One recent study claims, "We found that higher number of responses on the divergent thinking task was significantly associated with higher creativity (r = 0.73) as independently assessed by three judges." Which is to say, having lots of ideas is the best way to have good ideas.

Sounds simple enough. But just how many is “lots”?

By one man’s measure, that number is 5,127. That’s how many iterations James Dyson undertook to perfect the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner. The exact number varies by field, but suffice it to say, “lots” means hundreds, if not thousands of ideas.

Which is to say, “lots of ideas” is likely lots more than you’d normally think.

I’m curious to know: what are folks’ favorite tactics to stimulate imagination and feed the flow of ideas? Drop your comments below, if you’re interested in the conversation, too.

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