How does someone come up with a new idea or a new product?
How does a person push culture and ideas forward?
There are few things more valued in our society than a truely original thinker. Many people read and regurgitate the ideas of others but it is rare that a person comes up with truly new ideas that push human thought forward.
John Boyd is an example of a person that pushed military ideas forward in a time of relative peace. He came up with ideas and theories that first revolutionized fighter jet design, then revolutionized the modern approach to warfare.
In between, changing fighter plan design and changing the approach to modern warfare. Boyd became obsessed with creativity. He questioned where creativity comes from because he was trying to understand what made himself different from others. The question at the root of his quest was “Why did I come up with these new theories instead of people before me?”
The result of his studies is a paper called creation and destruction.
The beginning of creation is observation. There is a relationship between the observer and the observed. When one observes a situation you change it inherently. When you make observations you break the system down into components.
Once component are separate we can deduce and try to understand how the system works or you can rearrange the components into something that is entirely new. The rearranging of components is the act of creativity.
The example that Boyd uses is he shows how you can breakdown things from different domains such as: A skier on a slope, a bike, a boat, and a toy tank. Then break each into components and then forget about each of the distinct domains of the components, in a process called by Boyd “Destructive Deduction” Once you have all of these components floating in a sea of anarchy you can rearrange the components and you have a snowmobile!
There is the act of creativity.
You observe the world in lots of different domains. Break it down to components. Then destroy the original links between the components and then rearrange them into a new concept or idea that hasn’t previously been done.
Once you understand this process you can more effectively engage with the process of creation.