Innovators distinctive behaviors

  • everybody have ideas as they encounter recurrent problems and have some free time to try to solve the situation
    • natural innate rationally economical behavior
      • analogous to remove a thorn from a finger
    • but very few write them down (see OriginsOfGenius on production)
      • and even less build prototypes that they can test
    • writing it down allows to wander on other ideas
      • whereas the mind try to rehearse what is important and not safely stored
        • thus blocking other ideas
  • most of those ideas are at least
    1. already existing (see TheMythsOfInnovation#Chapter5 on simultaneous discovery)
    2. infeasible
      1. in general (fundamentally wrong, e.g. perpetual motion engine)
      2. because they are too costly
        1. as they would not interest enough people
      3. because the technology is not available yet
  • thus the difference between Da Vinci, Edison and his idea factory (cf InformationFeudalism#Chapter3) and MIT students (cf Jean-BaptisteLabruneOnCreativity) today is
    • they write down "crazy" ideas without too much stress
    • they clarify by
      • testing with a prototype
      • share with their competent surrounding
      • realistically estimate the costs
    • they track
    • they can put a project in stasis until a roadblock disappear
      • by actively researching was is missing
      • by letting the technology being build by somebody else
      • by induce and promote societal change

To do

  1. add several references
  2. check own Quora answers
  3. CreativiteArtificielleParadigmShift2011
  4. Cognition#DedicatedCreativityTime