“Instead of observing the flower, become the flower.” A lovely prompt if you’re at a transcendental workshop, but less helpful if you’re trying to have an idea at work. This flower nugget is real-life advice lifted from a book on innovation. A respectable book with a proper publisher and excellent stitching. The creativity books are filled with crackers like these: go for a walk, step back, have a shower, prepare yourself to be surprised. It’s all trying to unlock a noble goal, the latent strengths of your subconscious mind. But it’s horrible advice because it misses a crucial step.
“Feed me, Seymour”
To unleash your subconscious creative powers, you first have to feed it the right ingredients. Let’s imagine your subconscious is a slow cooker. You’ve smugly put it on low for a delicious dinner in eight hours’ time. You would have done one very important step to make this happen—you would have filled it with INGREDIENTS! Simply telling people to become better at ideas by taking a walk, or showering, is the equivalent of getting you to turn on your slow cooker with nothing inside. It’s just a recipe for hot, onion-scented air.
What to put in your subconscious slow cooker.
In order for your idea slow cooker to marinate and percolate, it needs to be filled with quality ingredients. This is because your subconscious works by engaging Chaos Mode. Contrary to the name, this is a relaxed state, where your brain is freed to be chaotic, exactly because you are so chilled. Your brain needs this state to explore new connections and to marinate. It is in this state that your brain asks, “What happens if I plug this neuron into this one over here? Or here?” If you don’t have any ingredients in your slow cooker, there are no new connections to explore. So, your chances of a eureka! moment go up exponentially when you add just two ingredients: a clearly defined problem statement and inspiration for solving your problem.
The problem ingredient
Without the problem statement, how will you know what you are looking for? How will you know if you have found it? How will you assess the merit of a new connection in your mind? Give your subconscious a filtering device. Be explicit. “Hey subconscious, this is my problem….” Like this excellent problem statement from the world of prosthetics: “How can I make an artificial foot that works like a foot, but doesn’t have to look like a foot?”
The inspiration ingredient
The next crucial ingredient is inspiration for how you might solve your problem. Your brain can’t play around with new connections if there are no materials to work with. Spread the net widely, as your chances of a novel idea increase the more novel your ingredients are. As always, your problem statement will be your compass for where to look, e.g., diving boards have lots of spring; how could we re-create that propulsion? A cheetah’s leg gets its spring force from the way it bends; what if a human leg could be more like a cheetah’s? Ancient Chinese swords are curved for more strength and flexibility; could our design be curved?
Then let your subconscious simmer. A very practical place to start is by putting your subconscious slow cooker on right before you go to bed. You go to sleep, but your subconscious gets to work. Neuroscientist Ullrich Wagner researches potential for dream states. His conclusion? “Sleeping on the problem works,” because dreams (REM sleep) = Chaos Mode. Crucially here, it’s not just the dreaming, daydreaming, or walking that’s working, rather they’re working on your ingredients.
So what happened with the foot that works like a foot but doesn’t have to look like a foot? These were the inputs that helped amputee Van Phillips invent the Flex-Foot, which revolutionized the prosthetics industry, put the first amputee on Mount Everest, and enabled Phillips to run every day of his life.
Source: Intelligence and EEG Phase Reset
Source: Sleep Inspires Insight
Source: Artificial Parts: Van Phillips