Key takeaways from the book: A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young 

Gather raw material/ Feed your mind
specific knowledge about the problem/topic
general knowledge from life, art, books, conversations, science, etc.

Mentally work over the material
Turn ideas around in your mind.
Look for relationships, patterns, tensions, analogies, combinations.

Step away
Stop consciously thinking about it.
Go walk, sleep, shower, travel, daydream, assume you already know.

The idea arrives
The subconscious connects things unexpectedly.
The insight often appears suddenly.

Shape and refine the idea
Test, Edit, simplify, improve, adapt.

• Creativity is associative.
• The more diverse your inputs, the richer your ideas.
• Curiosity matters more than talent.
• Good ideas come from noticing relationships between unrelated things.
• Incubation (stepping away) is essential.