By Scott Thorne
How to Think Like Einstein:
- Find the right problem
- Answers need questions, so ask them
- Write it down (lists are good)
- Create an enabling problem – don’t pick something that’s impossible (like
launching a product in a week) or you will fail - Identify the real issues
- Ignore limitations
- Eliminate old answers
- Simplify
- Motivation – have a reason for sticking with it
- Re-size the problem – if you lack motivation, it may be too big or too
small - Evaluate your motivation
- Do you believe it can be solved
- Can you solve it
- Would you enjoy solving it?
- Have a new attitude – find the right mask to hide behind. literally, you can
create an alter ego that allows you to break through walls - Focus – define your problem and maintain focus on it through
motivation - There are no bad ideas
- Don’t abandon new ideas
- Record your ideas
- More ideas are better
- Break the pattern
- Embrace seed ideas – it should have little relation to the problem you want
to solve, but it allows you to ask questions and think outside logical confines.
Kids are great for providing seed ideas - Use humor
- Use visualization
- Break down the seed idea into components and say why reasons will or won’t
work (write it down) - Application – now use the seed idea as the solution
- Metaphors – Combinations
- Just basically start thinking outside convention
- Seed ideas to use:
- Use random nouns
- Talk to someone with a different world view from yours
- Use random verbs
- Watch TV and look for something
- Talk to a friend and drape a handkerchief over an object. Tell him it’s the
solution. Ask him to guess what it is. - Call in reinforcements
- Breaking rules
- Intentionally violate rule and see the consequences
- Circumvent the rule
- Grow the solution
- Suspend judgment
- Ignore inconvenient facts
- Challenging the experts
- Mistakes are milestones to solutions
- Avoid martyrdom
- Understand why there’s resistance
- Persistent bad ideas
- People can be right without benefit
- Avoid heresy
- Give someone else the idea and credit
- Create a benefit for the powerful
- Allow an outsider to break the news
- Claim your due
- Be generous