A Technique for Producing Ideas
by James Webb Young
A 1940 pamphlet by an advertising man: gather raw material, work it over, drop it, let it incubate, then catch the idea and shape it. Forty pages, five steps, still the clearest description of how ideas arrive.
Read it if…
you want the whole method in half an hour.
See the book →
Skip it if…
you want exercises; it is a description.
Try instead: The Creative Curve →
Three things you will actually use
- An idea is a new combination of old elements.
- Gathering is the step everyone skips.
- Incubation needs real distraction.
Do this first
Read it, then gather material on one problem for a week before trying to solve it.
Our verdict
Five steps, forty pages.
See the book →
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