Quantity Leads to Quality when it comes to Generating Ideas
Legend has it that physicist https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/01d4917590ca54a0bb9b7f3b7727f4b2.jpg was relaxing under a tree when an apple fell on his head.
In a flash of brilliance, Newton was inspired to develop his law of universal gravitation.
Unfortunately, great @Ideas like this usually don't fall from trees!
New ideas require hard work.
When it comes to idea generation, what's more important – quantity or quality?
As it happens, they're equally important, specifically because quantity paves the way for quality in brainstorming.
Psychologist @DeanSimonton , renowned for his study of creative productivity, demonstrated in his research that highly creative individuals don't necessarily produce better ideas; rather, they just make more of them.
By creating a larger volume of work, they had a higher probability of developing a small handful of brilliant ideas.
For instance, https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/9cb1bb6c3ec98e86b2ffa3dc88f3a8fe.jpeg 's entire body of work includes countless rugs and prints, 2,800 ceramics, 1,800 paintings, 1,200 sculptures and more than 12,000 drawings.
And yet, only a small number of these pieces gave Picasso his success and status as an international art icon.
In other words, when it comes to quantity and quality, you can't have one without the other!
Another of Simonton's findings demonstrated that even geniuses can't tell which of their works will become timeless classics and which ones will flop.
So, again, the more ideas you produce, the better.
Simonton found that https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/62968f6fd1102177f3163089e56b2f05.jpg judged his work quite differently than later experts did.
Comparing letters where Beethoven rated 70 of his own compositions with the evaluations of contemporary critics, Simonton calculated that Beethoven had disagreed with them about 33 percent of the time!
Generating ideas, and lots of them, is the first step to unlocking your creative potential.
But you shouldn't see your brain as a creativity factory, pumping out original ideas the way cars are manufactured on an assembly line.
To create great ideas, we need to take it slow.
That could mean taking a detour and procrastinating, or just making the time here and there to relax under a tree!
Quantity Leads to Quality when it comes to Generating Ideas
Legend has it that physicist https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/01d4917590ca54a0bb9b7f3b7727f4b2.jpg was relaxing under a tree when an apple fell on his head.
In a flash of brilliance, Newton was inspired to develop his law of universal gravitation.
Unfortunately, great @Ideas like this usually don't fall from trees!
New ideas require hard work.
When it comes to idea generation, what's more important – quantity or quality?
As it happens, they're equally important, specifically because quantity paves the way for quality in brainstorming.
Psychologist @DeanSimonton , renowned for his study of creative productivity, demonstrated in his research that highly creative individuals don't necessarily produce better ideas; rather, they just make more of them.
By creating a larger volume of work, they had a higher probability of developing a small handful of brilliant ideas.
For instance, https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/9cb1bb6c3ec98e86b2ffa3dc88f3a8fe.jpeg 's entire body of work includes countless rugs and prints, 2,800 ceramics, 1,800 paintings, 1,200 sculptures and more than 12,000 drawings.
And yet, only a small number of these pieces gave Picasso his success and status as an international art icon.
In other words, when it comes to quantity and quality, you can't have one without the other!
Another of Simonton's findings demonstrated that even geniuses can't tell which of their works will become timeless classics and which ones will flop.
So, again, the more ideas you produce, the better.
Simonton found that https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/62968f6fd1102177f3163089e56b2f05.jpg judged his work quite differently than later experts did.
Comparing letters where Beethoven rated 70 of his own compositions with the evaluations of contemporary critics, Simonton calculated that Beethoven had disagreed with them about 33 percent of the time!
Generating ideas, and lots of them, is the first step to unlocking your creative potential.
But you shouldn't see your brain as a creativity factory, pumping out original ideas the way cars are manufactured on an assembly line.
To create great ideas, we need to take it slow.
That could mean taking a detour and procrastinating, or just making the time here and there to relax under a tree!
#QuantityLeadstoQuality