The Hedgehog and the Fox

Take an actual design problem, find its obvious solution and eliminate it. Now think of an alternative solution. Repeat, and set in motion a chain reaction of ideas. Remember, though, sometimes being creative requires just a small alteration of what’s been done before. Also, the better you understand the problem you want to solve, and the more experience you have in you're field of new ideas, better solutions are likely to emerge. Indeed, carrying erroneous assumptions, or misunderstanding the problem itself, may limit or hinder your ability to ideate and therefore find a solution to the problem. So, ideators, and to evoke the fable of the hedgehog and the fox, should transform themselves to foxes rather than hedgehogs. That is, in Isaiah Berlin's version of the fable, foxes, who draw on a wide variety of experiences and for whom the world cannot be boiled down to a single idea, in contrast to hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of a single defining idea. Or, in Richard Serras' reading of the fable: The hedgehog, being resistant to change, is intellectually dead; the fox's adaptability is the correct strategy for intellectual development and survival.

Innovation equation

In the beginning was the idea. Which was followed by another idea. And so on and so forth. But which idea, out of many, is worth taking further, towards realisation? Elon Musk, the US entrepreneur and investor, in discussing the pursuit of innovation, reveals what matters in his decision-making process, which he breaks down to three questions: Time; how how long will it take you to build? People; have you access to the right network or team? Materials; have you access to the materials necessary to make your innovation a reality? In short, Musk's innovation equation: time plus people plus materials equals the ability to innovate. But whereas design ideation does not evaluate the idea per se, or predicting what chances of success (ideas are proposals, not final outcomes), Musk's approach to innovation may nonetheless be helpful to ideators in that it highlights input factors to be considered for innovation - and particularly in the pursuit of a startup. After all, it won't matter much if you have a brilliant idea but lack resources to realise the idea. Source: https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/elon-musk-reveals-his-innovation-equation-its-an-easy-way-to-gauge-if-a-business-idea-is-viable.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB