Ideas have Enemies

Tom Carroll kindly handed me a copy of John Hunt's book 'The Art of the Idea ...and how it can change your life'.

I have a lot of time for John Hunt, especially given the fact that he made a trip from South Africa to South Beach Miami to speak at a conference I co-chaired for the AAAAs and he delivered a thoughtful piece on sparking ideas.

John's book title promises to be a celebration of ideas but turns out to be a rant on what feels like a lifetime of ideas being killed by one thing or another.

Every chapter points to the potential threat on an idea but occasionally it delivers a gem of advice on how to ensure an idea doesn't get killed.

His first chapter talks to two types of people - the sunrise and the sunset people. This book seems to focus on the sunset of ideas and that's probably the most effective way to make his point but I would love there to be a second book on where or how ideas originate for him. Maybe he would just agree that such a book already exists and to this day it's still one of the best on the subject "A Technique for Producing Ideas" by James Webb Young. 

Some key quotes that I liked from John's book:

Sunset people don't kill ideas, they just take away all the oxygen surrounding them.

It's the reassuring nature of habit that produces its stickiness.

Most of the world's greatest ideas were first very fragile thoughts.

Disband the politburo and declare an idea democracy - we are all equal before an idea.

Those with the thickest files and the most saved documents on their desktops are often those furthest from crisp, clear thinking.

Ideas don't come from existing facts but from the holes we drill through them.

It's critical to aim high. No matter the context, an idea needs a decent arc. It needs to leap out of the present sameness and clearly carry everyone who's following it to the other side. Even with an original thought [idea] wrapped tightly in your head, it's tough to leap an abyss in two bounds.

Expediency is extremely corrosive to ideas. It allows you to marinate in the mediocre. Everyone is content, but no one is ecstatic.

An idea is a paradigm shifting moment that forward projects future potential in an initially ethereal but progressively tangible manner.

A faux intellectual wouldn't know an idea if he sat on one, but quickly recognizes a thought that, in discussion, could make him look smart.

Just because the wheel was such a breakthrough, doesn't mean is has to stay in stone or wood. Some ideas are so fundamental and powerful they are reincarnated year after year. Others are destined to bloom for a few months and then die.

Thinking without a sense of urgency rarely sees the light of day.

At the beginning of the process [developing ideas], the closer everyone is physically the better. Even if the thought is clearly articulated [by email or phone] it's not attached to the mood. And an idea in its early stages, without the positive atmosphere around it, is tough to float.

Genius is nearly always the outside view looking in; the clever coupling of two or more seemingly disparate things.

We don't know what we don't know until we do what we don't usually do.

The gap between what you already know and what you're exploring is often where the best ideas pop up.

No one orders a bouquet of beige flowers.

I now strongly believe ownership is much less important than portability. Even if it's your idea, the smartest thing to do is hand it over immediately and declare it their idea.

The world rallies behind a cause not an instruction.

* Yes the picture is intentionally upside down and refers to a chapter in John's book about disrupting the commonality around you. Uncomfortable isn't it?