Great Ideas

How do you have great ideas? You could wait and see if they pop into your head someday, and they honestly might. If, however, you want a more immediate and systematic method, here it is in three steps:

1. Gather knowledge.

2. Apply idea-generating techniques.

3. Pick out and refine the best ideas from the results.

Great Ideas Come From Knowledge

Really, you wouldn't expect to come up with a new theory of relativity if you had no knowledge in physics or mathematics, would you? Of course not. You have to have some knowledge in the area in which you want new ideas. If you want great ideas, you should probably have a great deal of knowledge.

If, for example you want to create a new transportation device, you would want general knowledge in that field. The more specific things that would be helpful, would be a listing of all the current modes of transportation. Add to that a list of things that have been tried and failed, and a list of all the things that people want in their transportation.

Great Idea Generating Techniques

Inventions start in the mind, and the mind follows certain patterns and rules. This is where tools such as problem solving techniques and other idea generating techniques come in. Take the "concept combination" technique, for example. If you tell your mind that you need a useful combination of a plane and a motorcycle, it will search for it until it finds it. It took this mind twenty seconds to imagine wings that expand out at high speed from a motorcycle, allowing it to be used as a glider.

The technique of redefining problems can open whole new areas...

( continued at http://www.999ideas.com/great-ideas.html )