Notes from A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Young

[A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Young](https://kindle.amazon.com/work/technique-producing-ideas-ebook/B000AJYAPW)

A good friend and great designer pointed me to this book, a pithy summary of James Young’s learnings from years in advertising. After reading [Steven Johnson’s extended treatise on the subject](http://www.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=4043), this resonated with me personally much more.

*Looking around*

> I venture to suggest that, for the advertising man, one of the best ways to cultivate it is by study in the social sciences. A book like Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class or Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd, therefore, becomes a better book about advertising than most books about advertising. – 120

> Gathering raw material in a real way is not as simple as it sounds. It is such a terrible chore that we are constantly trying to dodge it. The time that ought to be spent in material gathering is spent in wool gathering. Instead of working systematically at the job of gathering raw material we sit around hoping for inspiration to strike us. – 129

> This, I suppose, is because a real knowledge of a product, and of people in relation to it, is not easy to come by. Getting it is something like the process which was recommended to De Maupassant as the way to learn to write. “Go out into the streets of Paris,” he was told by an older writer, “and pick out a cab driver. He will look to you very much like every other cab driver. But study him until you can describe him so that he is seen in your description to be an individual, different from every other cab driver in the world.” – 134

> There are some advertisements you just cannot write until you have lived long enough-until, say, you have lived through certain experiences as a spouse, a parent, a businessman, or what not. The cycle of the years does something to fill your reservoir, unless you refuse to live spatially and emotionally. – 227

> The principle of constantly expanding your experience, both personally and vicariously, does matter tremendously in any idea-producing job. – 235

(reminds me of [Steve Job’s quote about diversity and design](http://www.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=3880))

*Combining things*

> With these two general principles in mind-the principle that an idea is a new combination, and the principle that the ability to make new combinations is heightened by an ability to see relationships-with these in mind let us now look at the actual method or procedure by which ideas are produced. – 121

> If the surface differences are not striking we assume that there are no differences. But if we go deeply enough, or far enough, we nearly always find that between every product and some consumers there is an individuality of relationship which may lead to an idea. – 139

> In advertising an idea results from a new combination of specific knowledge about products and people with general knowledge about life and events. – 148

*Stop trying so hard*

> So when you reach this third stage in the production of an idea, drop the problem completely and turn to whatever stimulates your imagination and emotions. Listen to music, go to the theater or movies, read poetry or a detective story. – 188

> This, then, is the whole process or method by which ideas are produced: 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. – 212

*Follow up*

> The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas.

> Science and Method by H. Poincare.

>The Art of Scientific Investigation by W. I. B. Beveridge.