Where Do Ideas Come From?

Vantage Point - the podcast for critical thinkers.

You have hundreds of thoughts a day and almost no ideas. The guy who invented pizza had an idea; the guy who orders it for lunch has a nice thought. What separates the two — and why does every organization starve for the first?

In this episode
A definition and a hard look at the episode's theme, plus 5 of Eli's aphorisms, Dr. Jonas Salk from great minds, and a "What If?" to ponder.

Eli’s Aphorisms
“God Bless America was written by Irving Berlin. Irving Berlin was an immigrant. God Bless America was written by an immigrant. Just saying.”
“In 2021 I had my COVID shot, first dose; my COVID shot, second dose; my pneumonia shot; my shingles shot, first dose; my shingles shot, second dose; my flu shot; and my COVID booster. When I was younger, doing shots was a much different activity.”
“A day feels like a year when you haven't accomplished anything. And a year feels like a day when you have.”
“The guy who invented pizza had an idea. The guy who orders it has a nice thought. Big difference.”
“The most valuable asset any organization has is its employees' creativity. Creativity generates ideas. Ideas generate value.”

From Great Minds
“the man who invented the polio vaccine and changed the world. Salk was a very disciplined, thorough researcher who also believed in intuition. His words: "Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next." It was certainly the case with him, and he moved forward from there.” — Dr. Jonas Salk
“Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.” — Jonas Salk

What If?
What if Jonas Salk had agreed with the lawyers at the University of Pittsburgh to go after a patent for the vaccine? The whole remainder of the twentieth century would have been different. He refused to let it take that long and pushed straight into distribution, which he could do because the vaccine was under his control — and he never made a dime on it beyond the salary he was already being paid. Many hundreds of thousands of people were spared the disease, or death from it. Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.

This episode is supported by Vantage Point's Executive Sponsor, Stephen Bozer, SVP of Human Health at Flavine.

Also supported by Major Sponsor Bergen Volunteers, neighbors serving neighbors across 70 towns in Bergen County since 1966.

Also supported by Major Sponsor Kardam Consulting, strategic counsel for the business of making medicine.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. More at eliamdur.com.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:05

This is Vantage Point, the podcast for critical thinkers where we make sense of and excel in our lives, our jobs, and our world. We're not political, just critical. Thanks for joining each week as we continue in our campaign to revive critical thinking. I'm your host, Ellie Amdur. Happy to have you with us and looking forward to continuing our march together. If you've enjoyed the journey so far, if you've gained something from it or believe you will, or if you know someone who might, please forward this or repost it. Send it to friends, neighbors, business associates, or someone you love. But do it now before you forget. Today we'll take a close look at what critical thinking looks like when put into action. But before we do, let's refer to last week's discussion about cognitive bias, that nefarious force that keeps us from spawning good ideas, making good decisions, and creating a creative climate. Let's assume for now that we've got all that. With that, let's look at twelve ways that leaders generate ideas. I taught a graduate level leadership course at Fairley Dickinson University in both the MBA and the MAS programs for 15 years. We relentlessly looked at what leaders do to get their organizations moving forward. This is the practical part of critical thinking. In his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, a highly heralded book, Thomas Kune argued that transformative ideas and with them scientific progress don't arise from the day-to-day process of experimentation and data accumulation, or from ongoing staltified thinking. Well, it's no different outside the world of science. Let me ask you a question. What's the difference between an idea and a thought? We have hundreds of thoughts every day, but few ideas. A thought is a mental process that takes us from a premise to a conclusion. And we have hundreds of those a day. An idea is an original novel thought that changes our mental construct, a construct of our universe, planet, business, or even cubicle space. A thought doesn't necessarily have that effect. A pizza for a group lunch may sound like a good idea, but it's merely a fleeting thought. Here's the difference. The guy who invented pizza had an idea. The guy who orders it has a nice thought. Big difference. So where do ideas come from? The most valuable asset any organization has is its employees' creativity. Creativity generates ideas. Ideas generate value. Yet there isn't a CEO who won't say we need more ideas around here. Well, if ideas are so valuable, why are they so rare? Well, that answer has two parts: individual and organizational. Individually, most employees don't consider themselves creative because their schooling and their work experiences, all highly routinized, don't reward creativity. They reward conformity. They reward compliance, whereas being creative and being rebellious rewards defiance. Properly channeled, that's a powerful force. I'll get into the world of creativity in a future podcast, but creativity, suffice it to say, does not get spawned by compliance or obedience. Therefore, most people do not feel they're creative, whereas most children feel they are. This is, frankly, how babies figure out their world. They crawl around, they eat dirt, they look up, they explore, they try to stand up. Ultimately, they try to ride a bike, then they try to learn how to play the guitar. But these are all creative measures about which they don't believe they are capable. They are. And the fact is that he never made a dime on the vaccine other than his salary that he was being paid, because he agreed or disagreed with the lawyers and forced the fact that they were going to go ahead with the release of the drug. And many hundreds of thousands of people were saved from the disease or death from the disease. That'll do it for me right now. And uh I want to thank you as always for taking a part of your day and your future by sticking with us and listening to the podcast. Share it with somebody you know, somebody you love, a business associate, a family member. We would really appreciate your helping us to spread the word of Vantage Point. Thanks again. See you next time. Until then, keep questioning, keep learning, keep thinking critically.