Page 99 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

CHAPTER 7

100 MPH Thinking:

Thinking at the Speed

of Enlightenment

If you’re looking for an easy, foolproof way to come up with big ideas,
try a technique that’s so basic to creative thinking that it’s been prac-
ticed by some of the world’s greatest thinkers since time began. It’s a
process I call 100 MPH Thinking.
First let me explain how you do it: You come up with lots of ideas
in a short amount of time.
Let me repeat that. Because it sounds much too simple. You come up
with lots of ideas in a short amount of time. Actually, you come up with lots
and lots of ideas in a short, short amount of time.
Gee, it still sounds pretty simple. Could that be because it is simple?
Could be.
Well, let’s try to make it a bit more complicated, so it will feel like a
much greater accomplishment when you master it.

100 MPH Thinking is an ideation method that combines two funda-
mental concepts of creative thinking: quantity and speed.

Quantity simply means that you make as your goal the number of
ideas and not the quality of ideas. I believe that it’s much easier to come
up with 50 ideas than it is to come up with the perfect idea. And I
believe it’s nearly impossible to come up with 50 bad ideas. The sheer
quantity almost ensures that some have to be good. I mean, even a blind
squirrel can find a nut if he looks in enough places.
And I believe it’s easier to come up with 50 good ideas quickly (say
in 15 minutes) than it is to do it over a longer amount of time. But I