The idea hunter excerpts

The Idea Hunter: How to Find the
Best Ideas and Make them
Happen by Andy Boynton, Bill
Fischer and William Bole (Apr,
2011) Jossey-Bass

Dr. Ricardo Sosa (sosa.ricardo@gmail.com)

George Bernard Shaw

“If you have an apple and I have
an apple and we exchange these
apples then you and I will still
each have one apple.

But if you have an idea and I have
an idea and we exchange these
ideas, then each of us will have
two ideas.”

“idea-gaps”

“A nation that lacks physical
objects like factories and roads
suffers from an object gap.

A nation that lacks the knowledge
“Idea gaps and object gaps in used to create value in a modern
economic development” Paul
Romer, University of California,
economy suffers from an idea
Berkeley gap.”


The Hunt

“A search for ideas that's open-
ended, ongoing, and always
personal.”

T.A. Edison described his search
for solutions as “the Hunt”.


Brilliance not required

“High-value ideas are not
necessarily created... more often
than not, they're already there,
waiting to be spotted and then
shaped into an innovation.”



“Almost anyone can hand you an
incredible idea...

Curiosity will take you further
toward your goals than
cleverness or even brilliance.”



“Idea work requires a wide
intellectual bandwidth and a
desire to span distances... the
operative assumption should be
that ideas are everywhere.”


Know your gig

“If you're an accountant, what
separates you from the rest?
What makes you stand out? How
would you like to stand out?
“What do I want to stand for?
Does my work matter? Am I What's your vision to become the
making a difference?”
-Tom Peters
best?”


Know your gig

I am known for:
1) _________________
2) _________________
3) _________________

By this time next year I plan to be
known for:
4) _________________
5) _________________

Warren Buffett

“There’s a whole bunch of things I
don’t know a thing about. I just
stay away from those. I stay
within what I call my circle of
competence. Tom Watson [IBM
founder] said it best. He said, ‘I’m
no genius, but I’m smart in spots,
and I stay around those spots.”


Know your gig

“The gig usually stays in the back
of your mind, but it's always
there.

When fully assimilated, it's an
ever-present preoccupation, a
switch that goes on automatically
often unconsciously.”


Know your gig

“There are not one but two
products of the work that people
do. The first is the actual thing
we make or the service we
provide or the process we
manage.

The second product, no less
essential is what we learn along
the way.”

Be interested

“A curious mind is on the lookout
for surprises. It embraces them
and finds a way to learn from
them.

Such thinking has a leavening
“I have no special talents. I am effect on how we look at things...
only passionately curious.”
- Albert Einstein
we are less likely to take
something for granted.”

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/birdseye.html


Repurposing

“The full repurposing of an idea:
see an idea and find a
dramatically different purpose
“Without lifetime learning, you for it.”
people are not going to do very
well.”
- Charlie Munger


Be interested

“Be interested in more than just a
particular subject matter, or
even a host of subject matters. It
is hard to go very far with ideas
unless you are also deeply
interested in other people,
“Good artists copy. especially in what they know and
Great artists steal.”
- Pablo Picasso
in their potential as
collaborators.”

“My brain is open”

“One of the most reliable ways of
coming up with ideas is to make
sure the people around us are
coming up with ideas. Lots of
them.”


Activity

“Ask participants to spend 15
minutes talking to at least 4
people in the group. Each one is
asked to learn something that is
valuable to him/her
professionally.”


Diversifying the Hunt

“Part of being different is to get
new ideas from a wide mix of
sources, not just in all the usual
places.
“I almost never look to the
existing discipline for new Differences can produce a lively
ideas.”
- Jack Hughes
flow of ideas.”


John Stuart Mill

“It is hardly possible to overrate
the value... of placing human
beings in contact with persons
dissimilar to themselves, and
with modes of thought and
action unlike those with which
they are familiar.”


http://www.accenture.com


“Invention is the source of innovation”

“This myth can lure people away
from potentially valuable ideas
that already exist, and it can send
them off on a maddening search
for that elusive goal: pure
originality.”


Beyond a specialized world

“Stay close to your specialty but
work on developing closer ties to
people outside that area.”


Mastering the habit

“People learn by doing... and by
reflecting on what they are
doing.

Training yourself to notice things
is part of the observational
platform.”


Mastering the habit

“Writing down your thoughts and
observations -and keeping them
in a readily accessible place- are
necessary habits of the Hunt.”


Mastering the habit

“Prototyping should begin as
early as possible in the process,
not just when it's time to show
clients a few carefully crafted
versions of what's being
developed.

Early prototyping and recording
begins to set your ideas in
motion.”

Mastering the habit

“Tangibility is the essential
quality of any prototype. That's
what allows you to start thinking
in practical terms about an idea.

Because prototypes can be very
rough versions of an idea, you
can think more freely and seek to
innovate more boldly.”

Mastering the habit

“Creating something that another
person can evaluate is the other
key advantage of tangibility.

It's the secret to effective and
efficient conversations with
people who might be able to help
develop your idea.”


The idea hunter excerpts

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