Ideas That Don’t Match: How to Find New Problems and Solutions
Creativity is the art of connecting ideas that shouldn't work together. Artists create something new by combining visual ideas in ways that no one thought to do before--and by making it work. Programmers find new algorithms by managing to get two previously incompatible ideas to work together in a more efficient or useful way. Designers find new customer problems and combine them to find new solutions.
Some people combine ideas based on different ways of thinking, such as how Freeman Dyson combined two major theories in physics into something new. Some people find ideas that don't match, which then reveal problems with how people think about the problem, such as how Isaac Newton created his theory of gravity by breaking with mechanical philosophy.
Whatever your calling, if you want to create something new you're not going to get there by following best practices, but you have to know those rules before you can break them successfully.
The Three Stages of Creativity
In a 1996 book, scholar Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, well-known for his concept of flow productivity, found that the creative process was surprisingly similar in different fields after conducting dozens of interviews with creative masterminds. (books.google.com/books?id=aci_Ea4c6woC&dq. He found that painters, writers and physicists all followed the same basic three-stage process of creativity: preparation, insight and elaboration.
Many creatives reach their breakthroughs in a moment of insight--known popularly as a eureka moment. But this moment of insight doesn't come from nowhere. Newton wouldn't have come up with his theory of gravity after watching an apple fall if he hadn't already spent much of his life studying mathematics and natural philosophy. Newton was prepared for his insight, and the insight wasn't the end. He still had to spend endless nights of calculation evaluating and elaborating on his insight to complete his theory.
Finding New Ideas, Problems and Solutions
Beyond simply putting in the time and effort, to get truly new and innovative creative insights, you have to spend that energy wisely during the preparation and study phase. To be creative and efficient at the same time, you have to always be searching for new ideas and problems in your field and in the wider world.
You should know enough about the wider world to understand what is useful while knowing enough about your own field to see where new ideas and insights could be combined. Steve Jobs once wrote in his book, I, Steve, that, "A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem." (books.google.com/books?id=KQGSGXSYql4C&) The more ideas you have the more possible combinations there are.
Combining Contradictory Ideas
Creativity often comes from combining ideas from different frameworks, or ways of thinking. In 1948, physicist Freeman Dyson combined two major theories in physics. He got his insight during the middle of the night on a long-haul bus trip, but that was only after spending months crunching equations.
This way of combining ideas is clear in artistic ventures. Picasso helped blow open the world too abstract art by combining the visual ideas he found in African masks with traditional European painting. Hip-hop musicians combine bits of old music with bits of new music to create something that sounds very different. Cult film directors, such as Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino, find their creativity by recombining old plots and genres to make something that stands out.
Breaking Ideas to Find New Ideas
Trying to combine ideas that don't match often reveals problems with the framework of thinking itself. Many people stop here. They might be aware of the problem, but they're trapped in their limited framework of ideas. In addition to his three-step process, Csikszentmihalyi also notes that many creative people often have a childish side--they never stop asking "why" to anything and everything. Where other people put up boundaries around their thoughts, creative people keep probing beyond.
Newton famously said, "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." Much of the theory of gravity was already there, waiting to be put together, but other 17th-century thinkers couldn't see beyond their mechanical philosophy framework of the universe. Even though they could do the calculations, they could not accept or did not even consider the idea that some invisible force could pull objects together without direct contact.
On the other hand, Newton, who spent just as much time on alchemy and theology as mathematics and physics, didn't have these same mechanical boundaries to his thought. As biographer David Berlinski notes, by coming up with an invisible force that could act unseen across space, "Newton was filling space with mystery." (books.google.com/books?id=dRvU0ubr_1oC&dq) By doing so, Newton created a whole new framework that lasted for two centuries, until Albert Einstein, another physicist noted for being a little childish, finally came along to blow it all up again.
How to Rebuild Your Ideas with Solutions to Problems
Combining contradictory ideas often creates more problems than solutions. Artists trying to combine styles might have to spend months elaborating on their combination of ideas before they're satisfied. Programmers trying to combine two different algorithms might not come up with anything that works until they've gone back to basics and completely rebuilt their program from the ground up. This is the evaluation and elaboration phase of creativity that comes after insight.
Problems are part of the process. Problems are good, because if you can solve them, you will be creating value where no one else has created value before. But remember your goals. Some wandering during creativity is good. But spending weeks of app development trying to make one unimportant module more efficient probably isn't worth it.
If in doubt about your ideas, see what other people think. Feedback is probably the one step in creativity that people avoid the most. Other people might be stuck in a framework that they can't get out of, but most people recognize a good idea when they see one, even if they react with objections and resistance.
Only by searching wide and far to find and combine ideas will you be able to come up with something new. Creativity and innovation don't come out of nowhere. They come from hours of study and preparation that finally lead to that great new innovative idea. Spend your time exploring, learning and mashing together ideas that shouldn't match, and eventually, you'll find that insight that solves an unsolved problem.
Article by Stewart Konrad