My brain is like the Ford factory. Part II: The process.

As promised, here is James Webb Young's outline of what idea-making looks like, exactly. He says, "...the production of ideas is just as definite a process as the production of Fords; that the production of ideas, too, runs on an assembly line..."

And this is what the assembly line looks like:

"First, the gathering of raw materials - both the materials of your immediate problem and the materials which come from a constant enrichment of your store of general knowledge. Second, the working over of these materials in your mind. Third, the incubating stage, where you let something beside the conscious mind do the work of synthesis. Fourth, the actual birth of the Idea - the 'Eureka! I have it!' stage. And fifth, the final shaping and development of the idea to practical usefulness."

Really? That's it?

He addresses scoffing of simplicity in his book: "...the formula is so simple to state that few who hear it really believe it in...while simple to state, it actually requires the hardest kind of intellectual work to follow, so that not all who accept it use it."

I want to be one who accepts and uses it. It seems the reward will be amply worth the work.

If you want to know more about each of the above stages, I highly encourage you to buy and/or read more about his book, A Technique for Producing Ideas.