| Invention: Where Do You Start? |
| Invention Development Advice - Ideas | |||
 Okay. “So You Have An Invention - So What?”So -- what - if you don’t have an invention - but would really like to? In other words - how does the inventive process work? First - let’s look at the definition of the word invent: Invent = create or design (something that has not existed before); be the originator of : as in - he invented an improved form of the steam engine; or, modernly, she came up with a new form of computer chip. INSIDE PROCESS - OUTSIDE BOXES - WOO-WOO Invention means using your inside brain processes and then thinking outside the box - creating a new way of thinking, or processing, or making something new - which a lot of times creates a new process in the public collective mind of - “why didn’t I think of that?” The inventor does think of “that,” “this,” “them,” “those,” “how, what, when, where and why,” and generally, in a different way from everyone else. Now, the inventive process can get kind of spooky too. It is like all these ideas are really just floating out there in the ethers and one mind (sometimes two or more) just kind of globs onto the idea like a dreamcatcher and develops it. The reason I say that is through the experience of more than once having an inventor come to me with an idea that sounds truly original - only to do a patent search and find that the same idea was “pulled out of the ethers” at the same time by someone else - even from somewhere across the world. I’m talking down to the same date and time in some instances. It becomes truly strange .... but that is part of the process. I am convinced that there are mind waves - quantum quarks - parallel universes - whatever - that humans pull from to create. Why else would test takers throughout a state, when writing an essay exam, come up with the same phrases - a lot of times, word for word. The particular exam I refer to is kept in complete secrecy - equal to the Bush administration - so there cannot be cheating. (?) I want to believe it is a collective consciousness formed in test-taking that flies through the ethers and is picked up through stress-induced antennae. Back to the process. In a simple way it is merely taking a problem and then solving it in a new way. A good portion of patents and inventions are the result of one person having an uncomfortable experience, thinking to himself “there must be another way” - and then finding it. An inventor questions - everything ... Could this be done in a new way? ... Is that the best way? ... Is there a better way? ... SO ... if you want to invent something - tune in to your own universe. Find something that you would like to see improved upon. Listen to other people and their needs. Keep lists. Look at processes in your home life and work life that raise problems. Write them down. When you have a few problems written down - cogitate. Think.
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