A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young (1965)
Young proposes that all ideas are the result of five identifiable stages of rumination, whether they are followed consciously or not:
- Gather information, and not just what is specific to your problem domain. Novelty comes from mashing seemingly unrelated concepts together.
- Review the information — collate your information in some fashion and go over it. A lot.
- Do something else. Get distracted from whatever problem you are trying to solve.
- “Eureka! I have it!”
- Refine your idea — first drafts are never perfect, so keep polishing.