The Alberton Papers
Volume II, #4
By Dick Darne 6-25-06
Good ideas, bad ideas, brainstorms, incubation and the devils advocate.
Someone once said that there are no bad ideas. He was wrong. Most bad ideas started life as a good idea (or at least at the time it seemed so) and then went awry. Perhaps it is due to a flawed method of presenting and processing them. Many years ago, while not settled on my course in life, I took a college class, ( it seems like business 101 or something basic like that) and a few things stuck with me even though I never became a big business tycoon. To keep from having good ideas go bad and to properly solve problems, we should approach them in this fashion: 1) Consider that there may be other ideas or solutions. Identify what the goal is, and if it will affect others, have a "brainstorm". This is the only time that all ideas are good. Write them all down. 2) Now comes the "devil"s advocate", one or more of the best brains participating will attack each idea, until all but the best few are remaining. 3) If possible, break, or move to other matters, for now our brains can process the ideas or problems internally in a process known as "incubation"(I’m not making this up) 4)Return and apply the "devil’s advocate until a plan is formed. If it is a truly good idea it will survive. At the time our country was formed, the absolute best brains in the world worked on it. It was no accident that government was set up to be slow and deliberative, (not to be confused with the present incompetence that passes for our national deliberative bodies). These same wise men also believed that only men with time on their hands could have good ideas, which being retired and having time on my hands should uniquely qualify me to write on such matters. Keep-a-thinking, dd 722-4575 aldermandarne@hotmail.com Http://albpap.blogspot.com/