Page 156 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

CHAPTER 14

Accidental Genius

A big part of being a highly realized creative person is having an open
mind and being able to recognize great ideas even when you aren’t
looking for them, perhaps even when they are the last thing you are
looking for.

New ideas come about almost entirely in one of two ways: (1) when
someone thinks up a new idea and (2) when mistakes happen, that is,
mistakes in action or mistakes of the mind. Most of this book is about
the first method—purposefully coming up with fresh ideas. But being
open to the gifts of what I call accidental genius is also a way to discover
new things, and often the only effort it takes is being open to them
when they present themselves. This is something that is much easier
said than done for most people.
In the chapter about 180° Thinking, we talked about mistakes often
leading to better results than what you had in mind when you went
looking for a new idea or a solution to a problem. We cited Post-it
notes and NyQuil as being two examples of unintentional 180° Think-
ing. These and thousands of other less purposefully discovered new
ideas and new ways of thinking and doing could also be categorized as
accidental genius. Here are a few other examples.

MELTDOWN OF AN OLD PARADIGM

The story of how the concept behind the microwave oven was “dis-
covered” is a perfect example of accidental genius. It seems a certain