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The Creative Thinking Habits of Thomas Edison : Page 3 of 3
The Creative Thinking Habits of Thomas EdisonBy Michael Michalko “Einstein believed that every new idea is some addition or modification to something that already exists. You take a subject and manipulate or change it into something else.”
Edison would often jot down his observations of the natural world, failed patents and research papers written by other inventors, and ideas others had come up with in other fields. He would also routinely comb a wide variety of diverse publications for novel ideas that sparked his interest and record them in his notebooks. He advised his assistants to make it a habit to keep on the lookout for novel and interesting ideas that others have used successfully on other problems in other fields. To Edison, your idea needs to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you are working on. Edison's lesson is to record your ideas and other novel ideas in a notebook — call it "The Bright Ideas Notebook." When confronted with a problem, review your notebook and look for ways to cross-fertilize ideas, techniques and conceptual models by transferring them from one problem to the next. 5. CONSTANTLY IMPROVE YOUR IDEAS AND PRODUCTS AND THE IDEAS AND PRODUCTS OF OTHERS. Contrary to popular belief, Edison did not invent the light bulb: his genius, rather, was to perfect the bulb as a consumer item. Edison also studied all his inventions and ideas as springboards for other inventions and ideas in their own right. To Edison, the telephone (sounds transmitted) suggested the phonograph (sounds recorded), which suggested motion pictures (images recorded). Simple, in retrospect, isn't it? Genius usually is. Einstein believed that every new idea is some addition or modification to something that already exists. You take a subject and manipulate or change it into something else. There are nine principle ways you can manipulate a subject. These ways were first formally suggested by Alex Osborn, the father of brainstorming, and later arranged by Bob Eberle into the mnemonic SCAMPER. S = Substitute You isolate the subject you want to think about and ask the checklist of SCAMPER questions to see what new ideas and thoughts emerge. Think about any subject from improving the ordinary paperclip to reorganizing your corporation and apply the "Scamper" checklist of questions. You'll find that ideas start popping up almost involuntarily, as you ask:
Edison was tireless in his persistence to change a subject into something else through "trial and error" until he found the idea that worked. In Edison's laboratory there is a staggering display of hundreds of phonograph horns of every shape, size and material. Some are round, square, angular, thin, short, squat while others are curved and as long as six feet tall. This collection of rejected ideas is a visual testament to Edison's approach to creativity — which was, in essence, to try out every possible design he could possibly conceive of. Once asked to describe the key to creativity, he reportedly said to never quit working on your subject until you get what you're after. 6. BE EXPLORATORY. Whenever Edison was working on something and found something else "interesting," he would drop everything else and explore it. In developing the electric light Edison and his assistants decided to use platinum for the filament, but it stayed lit only briefly and was scarce and expensive. One day Edison absentmindedly rolled some lampblack in his fingers while working with a platinum filament. He looked at the twisted piece of lampblack and got his "Eureka" moment — why not try to use carbon for the filament. His first carbon bulb burned for thirteen hours with the power of thirty candles; a few days later he got it up to one hundred hours by twisting and shaping the filament like a horseshoe. The interesting aspect of carbon to Edison was the fact that he could twist it like rope. Edison was not the first person in his lab to notice that you could twist carbon, but he was the first to pursue it. Whenever Edison found something interesting, he would explore it intellectually before he applied his emotions and prejudices. The others working on the light bulb had emotionally decided that the filament should be platinum and were blind to the "interesting" aspects of carbon. They lacked the will to explore carbon, once they had made a decision that platinum was the answer. Finally, if you want to become more creative, start acting like you are creative. Suppose that you wanted to be an artist: You would begin behaving like an artist by painting every day. You may not become another Vincent Van Gogh, but you'll become more of an artist than someone who has never tried. Similarly, to increase your creativity start acting like Thomas Edison. Cultivate the following creative-thinking habits:
You may not become the next Thomas Edison but you'll become much more creative than someone who has never tried. • © Michael Michalko
06/17/08 |
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