creative thinking

Found a really super book, Jump Start Your Brain, by Doug Hall. This fellow was a master marketing inventor and creator for Proctor and Gamble and has all kind of amazing ideas. He has a ton of activities that help create better ideas. Here is the gist of one of them.

Ask people to brainstorm a bunch of ideas on chosen subject: e.g. healthy eating. They will come up with a bunch.
Now give them a bunch of words for stimulus, like, say.... family, game, filing system, scrapbook, (you figure out some more that you think would start the brain jumping) and see how many more ideas they come up with. I really love this idea.

So, this fellow, Doug Hall, has a ton of ideas, each one better than the last. He is also pretty open about his failures, which I really respect. He tried to bring to market an idea called "Stinky Pig" a game for kids kinda like that one called "Operation". If the tweezers touched any part of the pig while removing stinky items inside it, the pig let out a bart from its rear end, a powerfully strong aroma. Surprise, surprise, this idea just didn't pan out.

So, put this book on reserve at the library or do Doug a favour and go out and buy it. The trick, I believe, is to actually put into practice some of his ideas. That is what I am working on.