The South by Southwest event has been on this month, with many people flocking to Texas to try and uncover the latest hot technology. Sites like Twitter have found their path to the mainstream after appearing at SXSW. The venture capital industry have been in attendance at the event, trying to find the latest gem that will make them millions. Is there a process you can go through to determine the good ideas from the rubbish though?
After all, history is littered with people who on one hand have put all of their time, resource and ingenuity behind world beating ideas, whilst at the same time backing lame ducks. This befalls even the best. But what is it that gives the inspired the confidence in their convictions? What is it that makes them so sure that they're right that they leap from their bath tub, yelling Eureka down the street? After all, this same conviction must be present during the duds just as much as during the hits.
Content curation was a major theme of SXSW this year, with sites like Pinterest getting significant attention. What interests me however is not content curation but idea curation. How do we process and filter our ideas so we reject the duffers and keep the winners?
A study released recently attempts to shed some light on the matter. The research team conducted several experiments to test our creative processes. The first saw participants given a few minutes to come up with creative solutions to a problem. At the end they were split into two groups, half of which went straight to task implementing their ideas, the other half were asked to do something else for two minutes. This was done to give the unconcious mind time to think critically over the ideas created and filter the wheat from the chaff.
And the results? Well both groups produced the same number of ideas (roughly), but where it gets interesting is in the implementation of those ideas. You see both groups were asked to write down their ideas and rate the best ones. Here there was a clear divide between those that went straight ahead and those that had time to reflect, with the latter group proving much better at singling out the best ideas (as chosen by a panel of experts). The spontaneous group only got it right 20% of the time, vs 55% for the group that waited a while. That's a big difference.
Lessons for us
So how can this study help the rest of us with our idea curation? Obviously the key lesson is that taking our mind off of the task at hand is a great way of curating our ideas and filtering out the rubbish. The study shows that when we are in the moment we are pretty rubbish at picking out the really good ideas. The Eureka moment is a great image of creative inspiration, but research such as this suggests that a lot of the time you'll simply end up naked in the street with a poor idea for company. The better approach would appear to be to take some time to towel off, maybe put the kettle on and take your mind off of your idea to let your mind mull it over in the background.
- Take a break
- Do something you enjoy
- Come back to your idea in the cold light of day
Early in my photography career, I participated in a workshop by a well-known and highly successful photographer. The wisdom that I most remember from that workshop many years later: " the difference between an amateur photographer and a professional is the size of their garbage can." In other words, edit brutally and only show your best work. Then they'll think you're a great photographer.
This makes sense but is not really all that new is it? I've always believed that sleeping on an idea did the world of good.
Not all that surprising really. It's the old conscious vs unconscious brain thing isn't it.
I've always found asking people with no emotional connection to the idea at all is a good barometer. Even after a break you're still attached to the idea because it's one you've proposed.
Taking breaks, doing other things then coming back to the idea at hand –a great way to flesh out ideas and solve complex problems, no doubt. But outside creative circles this process is perhaps regarded as tantamount to procrastination.
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