A Technique for Producing Ideas

By James Webb Young

PREFATORY NOTE
These thoughts were frst presented to graduate students in
advertising of the School of Business at the University of Chicago,
and later before several gatherings of active advertising
practitioners. This accounts for the informal tone. The subject is
properly one which belongs to the professional psychologist,
which am not. This treatment of it, therefore, can have value
only as an e!pression of the personal e!perience of one who has
had to earn his living by producing what"were alleged to be ideas.
t was frst prepared one Sunday afternoon when had to consider
what should say to a #onday class. $o literature on the subject
was at the moment available% nor had any recollection of having
seen any. Since then have discovered that &raham 'allas in his
(rt of Thought has a chapter on this process of the creative
thin)er. n it he arrives at, somewhat the same conclusions as
here given. But as *rof. 'allas+ boo) is now reported out of print,,
and as what follows has seemed to have a particular usefulness
for wor)ers in advertising , am emboldened to publish it.
OW IT !TARTE"
-ne day in my last year as an advertising agency e!ecutive in
Chicago had a telephone call from the western advertising
manager of a well")nown maga.ine. /e as)ed if he could see me
immediately on a matter of importance. Shortly thereafter he
arrived in my o0ce, somewhat out of breath. 1'e are having a
meeting today,1 he said, 1of our entire western sales sta2. ts
purpose is to discuss how we can improve our selling. 1n our
discussions we have tried to analy.e the selling methods of other
successful publications and salesmen. (nd among these we have
been particularly impressed by the success of #r. 3obler in his
selling of the (merican 'ee)ly.4 1(fter studying just how he is so
successful we have come to the conclusion that it all rest just one
thing5 he doesn+t sell space5 he sells deas.4 1(nd so,1 he
continued, with enthusiasm, 1we have decided that that is just.
what we are going to, do. 6rom here oil 'e are not going to sell
spa at all. Beginning tomorrow morning every single one of us is
going to sell deas71 said thought that was just dandy, but
wondered what it was that he wanted to discuss with me. 8'ell,1
he said% somewhat ruefully 1we could see that what we ought to
do is to sell ideas, all right. But that is where we sort of got stuc).
1'hat we are not clear about is just how to get ideas. 1So said
maybe you could tell us, and that is what am here for. 19ou have
produced a lot of advertising ideas. :ust how do you get them;
The boys are waiting for me to come bac) and tell them.1 $ow
)now that if had not been so <attered by this =uestion, and if
my =uestioner had not been so obviously serious in as)ing it,
would have had a hearty ft of laughing at this point. thought at
the time that had never heard a funnier or more naive =uestion.
(nd was completely unable to give any helpful answer to it. But
it struc) me afterward that maybe the =uestion 1/ow do you get
ideas;1 wasn+t as silly as it sounded. #aybe there was some
answer to it. (nd o2 and on thought about it.
TE FOR#$%A OF E&PERIEN'E
(n idea, thought, has some of that mysterious =uality which
romance lends to tales of the sudden appearance of islands in the
South Seas. There, according to ancient mariners, in spots where
the charts showed only deep blue sea"there would suddenly
appear a lovely atoll above the surface of the waters. (n air of
magic hung about it. (nd so it is, thought, with deas. They
appear just as suddenly above the surface of the mind% and with
that same air of magic and unaccountability. But the scientist
)nows that the South Sea atoll is the wor) of countless, unseen
coral builders, wor)ing below the surface of the sea. (nd so
as)ed myself5 1 an idea% too, li)e this; s it only, the fnal result of
a long series of unseen idea"building processes which go on
beneath +the surface of the conscious mind; 1f so, can these
processes be identifed, so that they can consciously be followed
and utili.ed; n short, can a formula or techni=ue be developed in
answer to the =uestion5 /ow do you get ideas;1 'hat now
propose to you is the result of a longtime pondering of these
=uestions% and of close observation of the wor) of idea"producing
men with whom have had associations. This has brought me to
the conclusion that the production of ideas is as defnite a
process as the production of 6ords% that the production of ideas,
too, runs on an assembly line% that in this production the mind
follows an operative techni=ue which can be learned and
controlled% and that its e2ective use is just as much a matter of
practice in the techni=ue as is the e2ective use of any tool. f you
as) me why am willing to give away the valuable formula of this
discovery will confde to you that e!perience has taught me two
things about it5 6irst, the formula is so simple to state that few
who hear it really believe in it. Second, while simple to state, it
actually re=uires the hardest )ind of intellectual wor) to follow, so
that not all who accept it use it. Thus broadcast this formula
with no real fear of glutting the mar)et in which ma)e my living.
TE PARETO TEORY
$ow, we all )now men of whom we have said5 1/e never had an
idea in his life.1 That saying brings us face to face with the frst
real =uestion about this subject. >ven assuming that there may
be a techni=ue for producing ideas, is everybody capable of using
it; -r is there, in addition, some special ability for producing
ideas which, after all, you must be born with"li)e a color sense or
tone sense, or card sense; -ne answer to that =uestion is
suggested in the wor) #ind and Society, by the great talian
sociologist, *areto. *areto thought that all the world could be
divided into two main types of people. These types he called, the
the 6rench, which he wrote, the, speculator and the rentier. n this
classifcation speculator is a term used somewhat in the sense
our word 1speculative.1 The speculator is the speculative type of
person. (nd the distinguishing characteristic of type, according to
*areto, is that he is constantly pre"occupied with the possibilities
of new combinations. *lease hold that italici.ed defnition in
mind, because we shall return to it later. $ote particularly the
word5 pre"occupied, with its brooding duality. *areto includes
among the, persons, of this speculative type not only the
business enterprisers ? those who deal with fnancial and
business schemes"but those engaged with inventions of every
sort, and with what he calls 1political and diplomatic
reconstructions.1 n short, the type includes all those persons in
any feld who @li)e our #r. AooseveltB can not let well enough
alone, and who speculate on how to change it. The term used by
*areto to describe the other type, the rentier, is translated into
>nglish as the stoc)holder"though he sounds more li)e the bag
holder to me. Such people, he says, are the routine, steady"going,
unimaginative, conserving people, whom the speculator
manipulates. 'hatever we may thin) of the ade=uacy of this
theory of *areto+s as an entire e!planation of social groups,
thin) we all recogni.e that these two types of human beings do
e!ist. 'hether they were born that way, or whether their
environment and training made them that way, is beside the
point. They are. This being the case suppose, it must be true
that there are large numbers of people whom no techni=ue for
producing ideas will ever help. But it seems to me that the
important point for our purpose is that the speculators, or
reconstructors of this world, are a very large group. Theirs at
least the inherent capacity to produce ideas, and it is by no
means such a rare capacity. (nd so, while perhaps not all &od+s
chilluns got wings, enough have for each of us to hope that we
may be among those that have. (t, any rate, propose to assume
that if a man @or womanB is at all fascinated by advertising it is
probably because he is among the reconstructors of this world.
Therefore he has some creative powers% and these powers, li)e
others, may be increased by ma)ing a deliberate e2ort to do so,
and by mastering a techni=ue for their better use.
'O#BININ( O%" E%E#ENT!
'ith regard to the general principles which underlie the
productions of ideas, it seems to me that there are two which are
important. The frst of these has already been touched upon in
the =uotation from *areto5 namely, that an idea is nothing more
nor less than a new combination of old elements. That is, perhaps
the most important fact in connection with the production of
ideas. /owever, want to leave the elaboration of it until we
come to a discussion of method. Then we can see the importance
of this fact more clearly, through the application of it. The second
important principle involved is that the capacity to bring old
elements into new combinations, depends largely on the ability to
see relationships. /ere, suspect, is where minds di2er to the
greatest degree when it comes to the production of ideas. To
some minds each fact is a separate bit of )nowledge, To others it
is a lin) in a chain of )nowledge. t has relationships and
similarities. t is not so much a fact as it illustration of a general
law applying to a whole series of facts. (n illustration of this
might be ta)en from a relationship between advertising and
psychiatry. (t frst blush it might be hoped that there is no
relationship. But the psychiatrists have discovered the profound
in<uence which words have in the lives of their patients"words as
symbols of emotional e!periences. (nd now Cr. /arold Dasswell
has carried over these word"symbol studies of the psychiatrists to
the feld of political action, and shown how word"symbols are
used with the same emotional force in propaganda. To a mind
which is =uic) to see relationships several ideas will occur, fruitful
for advertising, about this use of words as symbols. s this, then,
why the change of one word in a headline can ma)e as much as
EF per cent di2erence in advertising response; Can words,
studied as emotional symbols, yield better advertising education
than words studied as parts of rhetoric; 'hat is the one word"
symbol which will best arouse the emotion with which wish this
particular advertisement to be charged; (nd so on. The point is,
of course, that when relationships of this )ind are seen they lead
to the e!traction of a general principle. This general principle
when grasped, suggests the )ey to a new application, a new
combination, and the result is an idea. Conse=uently, the habit of
mind which leads to a. search for relationships between facts
becomes of the highest importance in the production of ideas.
$ow this habit of mind can undoubtedly be cultivated. venture
to suggest that, for the advertising man, one of the best ways to
cultivate it is by study in the social sciences. ( boo) li)e Geblen+s
Theory of the Deisure Class therefore becomes a better boo)
about advertising than most boo)s about advertising.
I"EA! ARE NEW 'O#BINATION!
'ith these two general principles in mind ? the principle that an
idea is a new combination, and the principle that the ability to
ma)e new combinations is heightened by an ability to see
relationships ? with these in mind let us now loo) at the actual
method or procedure by which ideas are produced. (s said
before, what am about to contend is that the in the production
of ideas the mind follows a method which is just as defnite as the
method by which, say, 6ords are produced. n other words, that
there is a techni=ue for the use of the mind for this purpose% that
whenever an idea is produced this techni=ue is followed,
consciously or unconsciously% and that this techni=ue can
consciously be cultivated, and the ability of the mind to produce
ideas thereby increased. This techni=ue of the mind follows fve
steps. am sure that you will all recogni.e them individually. But
the important thing is to recogni.e their relationship, and to grasp
the fact that the mind follows these fve steps in defnite order
that by no possibility can one of them be ta)en before the
preceding one is completed, if an idea is to be produced. The frst
of these steps is for the mind to gather its raw material. That,
am sure, will stri)e you as a simple and obvious truth. 9et it is
really ama.ing to what degree this is ignored in practice.
&athering raw material in a real way is not as simple as it sounds.
t is such a terrible chore that we are constantly trying to dodge
it. The time that ought to be spent in material gathering is spent
in wool gathering. nstead of wor)ing systematically at the job of
gathering material we sit around trying to get the mind to ta)e
the fourth step in the idea"producing process whale we dodge the
preceding steps. The materials which must be gathered are of
two )inds5 they are specifc and they are general. n advertising,
the specifc materials are those relating to the product and the
people to whom you propose to sell it. 'e constantly tal) about
the importance of having an intimate )nowledge of the product
and of the consumer, but in fact we seldom wor) at it. This,
suppose, is because a real )nowledge of a product, and of people
in relation to it, is not easy to come by. &etting it is something
li)e the process which was recommended to Ce #aupassant as
the way to learn to write. 1&o out into the streets of *aris,1 he
was told by an older writer, 1and pic) out a cab driver. /e will
loo) to you very much li)e every other cab driver. But study him
until you can describe him so that he is seen in your description
to be an individual, di2erent from every other cab driver in the
world.4 This is the real meaning of that trite tal) about getting an
intimate )nowledge of the product and its consumers. #ost of us
stop too soon in the process of getting it. f the surface
di2erences are not stri)ing we assume that there are no
di2erences. But if we go deeply enough, or far enough, we nearly
always fnd that between every product and some consumers
there is an individuality of relationship which may lead to an idea.
Thus, for e!ample, could cite you the advertising of a well"
)nown soap. (s frst there appears nothing to say about it that
has not been said for many soaps. But a study made of the
relation of soap to s)in and hair ? a study which resulted in a fair"
si.ed boo) on the subject. (nd out of this boo) came copy ideas
for fve years of advertising% ideas which multiplied the sales of
this soap by ten in that period. This is what is meant by gathering
specifc materials. -f e=ual importance with the gathering of
these specifc materials is the continuous process of gathering
general materials. >very really good creative person in
advertising whom have ever )nown has always had two
noticeable characteristics. 6irst, there was no subject under the
sun in which he could not easily get interested"from, say,
>gyptian burial customs to #odern (rt. >very facet of life had
fascination for him. Second, he was an e!tensive browser in all
sorts of felds of information. 6or it is with the advertising man as
with the cow5 browsing, no mil). $ow this gathering of general
materials is important because this is where the previously stated
principle comes in "" namely that an idea is nothing more nor less
than a new combination of elements. n advertising an idea,
results from a new combination of specifc )nowledge about.
products and people, will general )nowledge about life and
events. The process is something li)e that which ta)es place in
the )aleidoscope. The )aleidoscope, as you )now, is an
instrument which designers sometimes use in searching for new
patterns. t has little pieces of colored glass in it, and when these
are viewed through a prism they reveal all sorts of geometrical
designs. >very turn of its cran) shifts these bits of glass into a
new relationship and reveals a new pattern. The mathematical
possibilities of such new combinations in the )aleidoscope are
enormous, and the greater the number of pieces of glass in it the
greater become the possibilities for new and stri)ing
combinations. So it is with the production of ideas for
advertising""or anything else. The construction of an
advertisement is the construction of a new pattern in this
)aleidoscopic world in which we live. The more of the elements of
that world which are stored away in that pattern"ma)ing
machine, the mind, the more the chances are increased for the
production of new and stri)ing combinations, or ideas.
(dvertising students who get restless about the 1practical+ value
of general college subjects might consider this. This, then, is the
frst step in the techni=ue of producing ideas5 the gathering of
materials. *art of it, you will see, is a current job and part of it is a
life"long job. Before passing on to the ne!t step there are two
practical suggestions might ma)e about this material"gathering
process. The frst is that if you have any si.able job of specifc
material gathering to do it is useful to learn the card"inde!
method of doing it. This is simply to get yourself a supply of those
little H ! E ruled white cards, and use them to write down the
items of specifc information as you gather them. f you do this,
one item to a card, after a while you can begin to classify them
by sections of your subject. >ventually you will have a whole fle
bo! of them, neatly classifed. The advantage of this method is
not merely in such things as bringing order into your wor), and
disclosing gaps in your )nowledge. t lies even more in the fact
that it )eeps you from shir)ing the material"gathering job% and by
forcing your mind to go through the e!pression of your material in
writing really prepares it to perform its idea"producing processes.
The second suggestion is that for storing up certain )inds of
general material some method of doing it li)e a scrapboo) or fle
is useful. 9ou will remember, the famous scrapboo)s which
appear throughout Sherloc) /olmes stories, and how the famous
detective spent his spare time inde!ing and cross"inde!ing, the
odd bits of material he gathered there. 'e run across an
enormous amount of fugitive material which can be grist to the
idea"producer+s mill"newspaper clippings, publication articles, and
original" observations. -ut of such material it is possible to build
a useful source boo) of ideas. -nce jotted in a boo) the
=uestion5 1'hy does every man hope his frst child will be a boy;1
6ive years later it became the headline and idea for one of the
most successful advertisements ever produced.
TE #ENTA% "I(E!TI)E PRO'E!!
$ow, assuming that you have done a wor)manli)e job of
gathering material ? that you have really wor)ed at the frst step
? what is the ne!t part of the process that the mind must go
through; t is the process of masticating these materials as you
would food that you are preparing for digestion. This part of the
process is harder to describe in concrete terms because it goes
on entirely inside your head. 'hat you do is to ta)e the di2erent
bits of material which you have gathered and feel them, as it
were, with the tentacles of the minds. 9ou ta)e one fact, and turn
it this way and that, loo) at is in di2erent lights, and feel for the
meaning of it. 9ou bring two facts together and see how they ft.
'hat you are see)ing now is the relationship, a synthesis where
everything will come together in a neat combination, li)e a jig"
saw pu..le. (nd here a strange element comes in. This is that
facts sometimes yield up their meaning =uic)er when you do not
scan them too directly, too literally. 9ou remember the winged
messenger whose wings could only be seen when glanced at
obli=uely; t is li)e that. n fact, it is almost li)e listening for the
meaning instead of loo)ing for it. 'hen creative people are in this
stage of the process they get their reputation for absent"
mindedness. s you go through this part of this part of the process
two things will happen. 6irst., little tentative or partial ideas will
come to you. *ut these down on paper. $ever mind how cra.y or
incomplete they seem5 get them down. These are foreshadowings
of the real idea that is to come, and e!pressing these in words
forwards the process. /ere again the little H!E++ cards are useful.
The second thing that will happen is that, by and by, you will get
very tired of trying to ft your pu..le together. Det me beg of you
not to get tired too soon. The mind, too, has a second wind. &o
after at least this second layer of mental energy in this process.
3eep trying to get one or more partial thoughts onto your little
cards. But after a while you will reach the hopeless stage.
>verything is a jumble in ,your mind, with no clear insight
anywhere. 'hen you reach this point, if you have frst really
persisted in e2orts to ft your pu..le together, then the second
stage in the whole process is completed, and you are ready for
the third one.
,,,
n this third stage you ma)e absolutely no e2ort of a direct
nature. 9ou drop the whole subject, and put the problem out of
your mind as completely as you can. t is important to reali.e that
this is just as defnite and just as necessary a stage in the process
as the two preceding ones. 'hat you have to do at this time,
apparently, is to turn the problem over to your unconscious mind,
and let it wor) while you sleep. -ne defnite thing you can do in
this stage that will help, both to put the problem out of
consciousness and to stimulate the unconscious, creative
process. 9ou remember how Sherloc) /olmes used to stop right
in the middle of it case, and drag 'atson o2 to a concert; That
was a very irritating procedure to the practical and literal"minded
'atson. But Conan Coyle was a creator and )new the creative
process. So when you reach this third stage in the production of
an idea, drop the problem completely, and, turn to whatever
stimulates your emotions. Disten to music, go to the theatre or
movies, read poetry or a detective story. n the frst stage you
have gathered your food. n the second you have masticated it
well. $ow the digestive process is on. Det it alone"but stimulate
the <ow of gastric juices.
*'ON!TANT%Y TIN+IN( ABO$T IT,
$ow, if you have really done your part in these three stages of
the process you will almost surely e!perience the fourth. -ut of
nowhere the dea will appear. t will come to you when you are
least e!pecting it " while shaving, or bathing or most often when
are half awa)e, in the morning. t may wa)en you in the middle of
the night. /ere, for instance, is the way it happens according to
#ary Aoberts Ainehart. n her story 1#iss *in)erton1 she ma)es
this character say5
1(nd it was while was folding up that copy of the >agle and,
putting it away for later reading that something came into my
mind. have had this happen before% can pu..le over a thing
until am in a state of utter confusion, giving it up, and then
suddenly have the answer leap into my mind without an apparent
reason.4 (nd here again, in the way it happened in the discovery
of the half"tone printing process, as told by #r. ves, the inventor
of it5 8'hile operating a photo stereotype process in thaca
studied the problem of half"tone process @frst step.B went to bed
one night in a state of brain fag over the problem @end of the
second and beginning of the third stepB and the instant wo)e in
the morning @end of third stepB saw before me,projected on the
ceiling% the completely wor)ed out process in operation.4 @6ourth
stepB This is the way ideas come5 after you have stopped
straining for them, and have passed through a period of rest and
rela!ation from the search. Thus the story about Sir saac $ewton
and his discovery of the law of gravitation is probably not the
whole truth. 9ou will remember that when a lady as)ed the
famous scientist how he came to ma)e the discovery he is said to
have replied, 1By constantly thin)ing about it.1 t was by
constantly thin)ing about it that he made the discovery possible.
suspect that if we )new the full history of the case we should
fnd that the actual solution came while he was ta)ing a wal) in
the country.
TE FINA% !TA(E
-ne more stage you have to pass through to complete the idea"
producing process5 the stage might be called the cold, gray dawn
of the morning after. n this stage you have to ta)e your little idea
out into the world of reality. (nd when you do you usually fnd
that it is not =uite the marvelous child it seemed when you frst
gave birth to it. t re=uires a deal of patient wor)ing over to ma)e
most ideas ft the e!act conditions, or the practical e!igencies,
under which they must wor). (nd here is where many good ideas
are lost. The idea man, li)e the inventor, is often not patient
enough to go through with applying this adapting path of the
process. But it has to be done if you are to put ideas to wor) in a
wor)"a"day world. Co not ma)e the mista)e of holding your idea
close to your chest at this stage. Submit it to the criticism of the
judicious. 'hen you do, a surprising thing will happen. 9ou will
fnd that a good idea has, as it were, self"e!panding =ualities. t
stimulates those who see it to add to it. Thus possibilities in it
which you have overloo)ed will come to light.
, , ,
This, then, is the whole process or method by which ideas are
produced5 6irst, the gathering of raw materials ? both the
materials of your immediate problem and the materials which
from a constant enrichment of your store of general )nowledge.
Second, the wor)ing ,over of these materials in your mind. Third,
the incubating stage, where you let something beside the
conscious mind do the wor) of synthesis. 6ourth, the actual birth
of the dea ? the 1>ure)a7 have it++ stage. (nd ffth, the fnal
shaping and development of this idea to practical usefulness.
!O#E AFTER-TO$(T!
Det me e!press my gratifcation at the number of letters which
have come to me from readers of the previous editions. The most
gratifying ones have been from people who say the darn thing
actually wor)s that they have followed the prescription and
gotten results. #any have been from other creative people, in
advertising and out"including one poet"who say have described
their own e!perience. This supporting evidence will, hope,
encourage the beginner. ( few correspondents have been good
enough to send me references to other literature in which they
have run across discussions of this subject. This has helped
e!pand my own )nowledge of it. 6rom my own further e!perience
in advertising can fnd no essential points which would modify
in the idea"producing"process5 There is -ne, however, on which
would put greater emphasis. This is as to the store of general
materials in the writers reservoir. shall beg leave to illustrate
this by it personal reference. Some years ago established my
home in $ew #e!ico, and have been living there part of each
year since. (s a result got interested in a whole new range of
subjects, including ndian life, our Spanish history, native
handicrafts, fol)ways of primitive peoples, etc. -ut of this grew
some ideas about the possibilities of mar)eting some of the
products of that region by mail. started with one of them"hand"
woven nec)ties"wrote some advertisements about them, and
copy"tested them. The result is a very tidy and interesting little
business. The point is this5 not only did the idea for starting the
business come out of a general )nowledge of the Southwest and
its people, but all of the particular ideas for individual
advertisements come from this source. f had never gotten
interested in ndian lore, Spanish"(merican history, the Spanish
language, the handicraft philosophy, and so on, for their own
sa)e, would have none of the reservoir of material which
believe ma)es this advertising e2ective. have seen the truth of
this principle a thousand times in practice. There are some
advertisement you just canIt write until you have lived long
enough ? until, say, you have lived through certain e!periences
as a spouse, a parent, a business man, or what not. The cycle of
the years does something to fll your reservoir, unless you refuse
to live emotionally. But you can also enormously e!pand your
e!perience, vicariously. is li)e the author of Sand /arbor,
believe, who had never been to South (merica, yet wrote a
cor)ing good adventure boo) about it. am convinced, however
that you gather vicarious e!perience best, not when you are
honing up on it for an immediate purpose, but when you are
pursuing it as an end in itself. -f course, if you consider that your
education was fnished when you left college, and wouldn+t be
caught dead with a copy of, say, one of :ane (usten+s novels
under your pillow, go no farther. n that case you will probably
never )now how the landed gentry of early nineteenth century
>ngland scorned people 1in trade,1 nor have any ideas about why
the /udson Galley S=uire strain in this country does the same.
(nd that just possibly, some day, might )eep you from producing
a really e2ective series of 1snob appeal1 advertisements for the
1carriage trade.1 -f course, this is a disappearing race, so maybe
it doesn+t matter. But the principle of constantly e!panding your
e!perience, both personally and vicariously, does matter
tremendously in any idea"producing job. #a)e no mista)e about
it. (nother point might elaborate on a little is about words. 'e
tend to forget that words are, themselves, ideas. They might be
called ideas in a state of suspended animation. 'hen the words
are mastered the ideas tend to come alive again. Ta)e the rather
recent wor) 8semantics4 for e!ample. The chances are you will
never use it is an advertisement. But if you have it in your
vocabulary you will have a number of symbols which will be of
very practical value indeed. Thus, words being symbols of ideas,
we can collect ideas by collecting words. The fellow who said he
tried reading the dictionary but couldnIt get the hang of the story,
simply missed the point that it is a collection of short stories.