014: Mining for ideas

And stating the problem…

#journaling #ideas #process

We have ideas.

First we have no idea.

Then suddenly the idea is there, a treasure that’s fully formed ready to go.

The consensus is you can’t make ideas.

But you can mine them.

Here’s a list of 10 ways you can mine for ideas. But before you start here’s a primer, if you want to mine for ideas, you need a problem. Fill in the blanks and use the problem statement as your map.

10 ideas for Idea-mining

1. Take a red pencil through your notes, journal, and sketchbooks and circle anything that might contribute. Let’s call these ' Red materials’.

2. Take a red pencil through any books you have lying around, circling, and collecting Red Material.

3. Make a list of existing solutions (Any color pencil, pen, or whatever you can find). Then list the biggest problem of each of the existing solutions with a red pencil -more red material.

4. In black - Doodle, just try to fill a page with marks, word ideas, etc. Circle the Red Material

5. Saturate yourself in the problem, listen to podcasts watch documentaries, and take notes. Then go over the notes and collect Red Material

6. Re-write the problem statement with a different (who)

7. Re-write the problem statement with a different (what)

8. Pick the best problem statement to solve

9. Ask, “what would this look like if this was easy”

10. Write a header like “10 ideas for X” then make a list.

Closing the gap

When you have ideas, it pays to write them down. It’s the only way to have more ideas than the next guy when it comes to idea-mining. The point of the black and red pencils is one is for collecting and the other is for mining.

Ps: you could modify this list to generate a Holiday Shopping list.