Want a formula for getting inspired? Try one plus one.
The best new ideas often come from old ones.
TRAINING INSPIRATION (part two)
TO GET A GLIMPSE into the heads of our distant ancestors, it helps to drill down into the words they used. Etymology—the biography of words—lets us tap into the memory of ideas past.
In other words, let’s use the Oxford English Dictionary again. To see how western civilization thought of inspiration, I turned to another “I” word in the same volume: “invention.” Our English word comes straight from the Latin inventio, meaning, yes, “invention.” But the ancients also defined inventio as “discovery.” Long before the Romans used the word, the ancient Greeks and Jews were employing the concept that new ideas often come from employing old things in new ways. Aristotle defined rhetoric as the art of applying the “available means” of persuasion. The biblical Ecclesiastes (a pen name that’s Greek for “rhetor”) was saying pretty much the same thing as Aristotle when he wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
I asked the AI Muse to make me a thought molecule. Thank you, AI!
When I think about the best ideas I’ve had, most of them didn’t come out of the blue. Instead, my new idea simply combined two other ideas—usually not my own. It’s a matter of compounding, combining two elements to make a different…thought molecule?
When you think of history’s greatest inventions, they usually come from combining existing things or concepts. Economists will tell you that the modern world began in 1300 when an accountant in Florence invented double entry bookkeeping, combining two forms of accounting, income and expenses. Subtract expenses from income, and you get zero—another concept, presumably invented by ancient Arabs.
Or take the iPhone, a complex molecule of existing inventions—GPS, microchips, the Internet, streaming services…Steve Job’s genius was in packaging things that were not so new under the sun.
Many great ideas come from the need to solve a particular problem. This lets you apply an old idea to a novel setting. My idea to write a novel came from a problem: How do I make my wife relax after her first day on the job—besides a cocktail?
Years ago, I relaunched an inflight magazine for Southwest. The airline had a problem at the time. Unlike its competition, Southwest didn’t offer onboard movies. (This was before it brought on wifi.) So I proposed an idea: print tiny pictures in the lower right-hand corner of each page, forming a flipbook, a virtual inflight movie! When a passenger discovered it, flipping through the pages and chuckling at the witty moving picture, other passengers would want to do the same, and more people would read the magazine! My idea was instantly rejected, in part because advertisers wouldn’t appreciate silly pictures encroaching on their expensive real estate. But I still love the idea. It combined existing concepts—inflight movie, flipbook—to create something new. The fact that it was utterly impractical doesn’t make it any less inspired. Inspiration doesn’t have to be practical, after all.
I googled “exercise rug” and got this. Sigh.
EXERCISE: Let’s invent things, at least in our heads. Take a notepad or create two columns in a document on your computer. On the left column, list things you have around the house. On the right column, list things you do every day—certain chores, work, things with kids, rest, play or entertainment. Now draw arrows from one item on the left to one on the right. (Example: Take a routine and combine it with something in your house; say Rug + Exercise. Exercise rug! I bet there’s a market for that. Or combine a household item with a pet. Bookshelf + Cats. Bookshelves that convert for cats!) OK, you do better.
In the previous post, I listed the four prompts for getting inspired. In this one, we invented things by taking existing ideas or elements and combining them into a sort of idea molecule. The next post shows how a brilliant idea can come from the unlikeliest-sounding source: rhetoric, the art of persuasion.
