MegaMinds: How to Create and Invent in the Age of Google

Inventors: Be Persistent!

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Don't give up. In one famous incident an associate found Thomas Edison at his lab bench surrounded by a sea of storage battery test cells. 9,000 experiments had been carried out with no promising developments. His associate offered condolence: "Isn't it a shame that with the tremendous amount of work you have done, you haven't been able to get any results?" "Results!" Edison replied, "Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work!" For a major invention like the light bulb, this is what's involved. Even minor inventions seem to take more time than imagined to get to the prototype stage. When you sell your company for millions, you can laugh about all those endless experiments and false directions.

IBM, AI and MegaMinds

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:31:00 +0000

The June 20 NY Times had an interesting story about IBM's new supercomputer, Watson, a venture in artificial intelligence (AI) that wins in the popular TV game show Jeopardy. The project is headed by David Ferrucci and works by matching key words and cross-checking over time and space. While not in all respects as intelligent as a deeply educated and experienced human, progress is being made towards the Singularity. For more on this see chapters 5 and 6 of my new book MegaMinds: How to Create and Invent in the Age of Google.

Focus on the Practical When Seeking to Invent

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:36:00 +0000

When you're inventing, focus on the practical, useful, needed and beautiful. Very often inventions and other creations start out answering to a major need or a broads interest. Then the project morphs into a personal passion with little or no market value. Whether you're a garage tinkerer or Thomas Edison, ultimately your commercial success depends on developing something which economically fills a real need and which looks attractive to potential buyers. As you develop prototypes, theories or compositions, show them to people in the market for overall attractiveness feedback.

The Education of Inventors and Entrepreneurs

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:57:00 +0000

I have encountered many entrepreneurial technicians and engineers who hit a brick wall because they didn’t know the physics or chemistry involved in their inventions. It is very difficult to catch up in deep technical areas later in life. They should have studied more science and math in schools and universities. The areas of significant technical invention today usually are much more complex than in Edison’s day, so prospects are much dimmer for the essentially self-taught entrepreneurs.

Equally a stumbling block is the lack of communication abilities on the part of these entrepreneurial hopefuls. They can’t seem to explain in understandable language what they are thinking or proposing. They can’t read published information that is required to support their project. They can’t write down their findings and notes for their associates and followers.

Our schools apparently have the reference resources students need in terms of both technical education and communication skills, but this knowledge often doesn’t seem to be getting through to the students. Three things need to be done:

1 – Get children interested in creative accomplishment at an early age and keep them focused on this throughout their lifetimes. This requires teachers who love what they are doing. Teachers who are on fire. Teachers who love science and really want their students to absorb it.

2 – Make sure that the fundamental knowledge needed has been presented and learned. If teachers do not know their course material, replace them with ones who do.

3 – See that the students who are interested in innovation, invention and entrepreneurship don’t drop out of school prematurely, foregoing the additional technical education and communications skills that they will need.

We will need many graduates who are hooked by the challenge of the unknown. They will be captivated by the wonder of unknown and the goal of making a unique contribution to its understanding.

This motivational process starts at the top—with the President of the United States—and carries through political and business leaders, parents, clergy, educators and many others. When Russia launched the first orbiting satellite, there was frenzy in the United States not to fall behind in the technological race. We put our man on the moon first, and this goal has faded out. Now the world is faced with larger and sometimes irreversible problems of environment, climate, food, water and energy, and a new sense of mission must be developed.

Curiosity is Key to creativity

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:48:00 +0000

To be creative, you must unleash your curiosity, quest for knowledge, and propensity for noticing things. No lesser minds than Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein were noted for being passionately curious, using their imagination as their prime lens to see ahead and their creativity to solve problems. Einstein wrote: "The important thing is not to stop questioning." You should also notice all kinds of things, however unrelated to your quest they may seem. When Will Carter noticed the apparently odd behavior of water droplets in fog, he had stumbled into the basics of the novel technology of the Carrier Corporation, world leader in air conditioning.

Bring in Experts

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:12:00 +0000

A common mistake is to be overly protective about your novel idea. At the earliest possible time you should have your design or composition reviewed by a knowledgeable person you trust. Usually you do not have to disclose important details to protect from copying, and very often a reviewer can give you surprisingly good guidance on design or composition improvement.

Focusing Your Mind for Greater Creativity

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:20:00 +0000

To make new theories, new inventions, and other great creations, we have to do better than adjusting existing theories and designs. We must move out of our conscious world and focus our mind in a new place occupied only by the new creation.

When an inventor comes up with a truly novel idea or insight, he or she has been exploring relationships, patterns, and associations until a productive interplay of ideas, images, and data of all kinds is found. That encouragement signals the brain that the chase is on. The mind is to be projected to a special little world encompassed by this project.

Einstein placed himself in speeding trains, moving clocks and elevators in space. This was more than metaphorical thinking; it was a mind transforming itself to another place. Einstein's strength came from his imagination and creativity.

My father, Peter Kilham, invented a phenomenally successful bird feeder that is the very familiar plastic tube with metal perches. He started by imaging himself to be a bird on a perch. Then he envisioned a geometry that would be most accommodating to the bird. Only after the bird was satisfied did he select the materials and manufacturing processes to make an attractive and economical product.

A Low Cost Wiki

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:25:00 +0000

To set up a low cost multiuser project bulletin board, try using a free website set up with multiple user access to the site's data files. One I use is Microsoft's Small Business Office Live. For $14.95 you can get through them a fully custom domain name. Typically, the home page can be accessed by anyone and provides general site information and guidance. Most important is you can set up password protected documents so that authorized members of your Wiki (group) can access and edit documents pertaining to their projects and tasks.

The Global Network Brain and the Goal of Truth

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:38:00 +0000

Especially due to massive low-cost computer clouds and nearly limitless communications networks connecting them to us, culture will irreversibly change and will change the intellectual ecology of the earth. The brain that made man special over all the other creatures has created a networked brain about whose magnitude and consequences we can only speculate.

This growing Internet brain will offer any kind of instant data and apparent solutions to problems. But for humans to maintain their independence, and personal programs of achievement, education must emphasize that truth is the important goal of the searches and not feel-good satisfaction.

Renewed Creativity and Invention

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:48:00 +0000

It's time to turn America into a nation of inventors again and for the whole world to work together to deal with the many challenges and opportunities that are upon us. From garage inventors to multinational corporations we must make a fresh effort at creativity and innovation including using the vast new resources of the Internet and computer clouds.

Find the Missing Piece

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:50:00 +0000

When you're inventing something, try to design where only one component is original. I like to find such a component that is used for some completely unrelated purpose. For a plant automation invention instrument, the missing piece I found was a $3.95 replacement part for lawn sprinklers.

Project Your Mind into Imagination Space

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:14:00 +0000

To create your Eureka moment, you must forcefully move your mind beyond the existing thinking about the subject. You must move out of your conscious world and focus your mind in a new place occupied only by the new creation. This is your glorious imagination space. Some people, very few, keep this imaginative ability alive through adulthood. Their imaginings lead to inventions, art, designs and explorations of many frontiers never seen before. To start, try to be a child with the almost naive capability of unfettered imagination. Emotion is part of this creative formula, and that has not been replicated in any advanced computer.

A Secret of Discovery

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:59:00 +0000

Have you noticed that creativity and discovery seem to arise from noticing odd things? Willis Carrier (1876-1950), while waiting for a train to arrive on a foggy night, noticed that water drops were forming where wisps of fog swept over rain puddles. He instantly had the counter-intuitive idea that moisture could be extracted from air chilled below its dew point. This insight was key to his air conditioners that formed the basis of the Carrier Corporation and the modern air conditioning industry.

Economic Recovery through creativity.

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:52:00 +0000

The dollar is plummeting, and we are joined at the hip with China. Could our legendary creativity and Yankee ingenuity be the way to recovery? Let's invent a new generation of products to power the recovery. Promising areas are renewable energy, energy management, and food storage. The December, 2009 issue of Scientific American discusses many new developments. Educating kids in science and encouraging them to be creative and entrepreneurial is a basic step forward.

Everyone can invent!

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Would-be inventors often think that the field is open only to professionals and large organizations. That is as absurd as thinking that great cooks only reside in stellar restaurants. My site www.imaginationandcreativity.net will start you on your way.

History getting too fast for the endless pursuit of little thoughts.

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Peggy Orenstein writes in today's New York Times Magazine that the Internet is hopelessly integral to her life. However, she continues, in the search mode, you're diving into a big sea and finding yourself in the endless pursuit of little thoughts. The result is that you miss forming the big thoughts.

This is why in my discussions of inventing with Google that I emphasize thinking through your invention goals before diving into Google, and reexamine your search results in terms of those goals as you go along. History is acted out on a global basis and seeking major solutions in ever shorter time frames. Thus our search strategies must be ever more efficient.

Education for the Creative Individual

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:21:00 +0000

In these times of great creative and invention challenges, are our schools producing the great thinkers required?
My father, who was a great inventor, wrote in 1933:

Now let us look at schools and see what the future of the country may be, Are people made like machines, in quantity and to a set standard? Or is education a means of developing the individual? In the main I think we shall find schools to be factories of the more expensive variety. Of course there is at present a very strong trend in teaching towards broader and more individual education, but in general what do we have? Classes of numbers of pupils, I believe, all of whom are graded in a series of numbers that do not relate to any of them. Classes in which the book is the thing, not the pupil. Classes where memory ranks high, imagination low. Classes where every subject is divided into parts instead of classes where the parts are combined to show the whole. Self-sufficiency demands a broad general education put to use according to the need. Schools give a pigeonholed education almost totally removed from use. They tell us it is "memory training" but the memory is only part of the mind.

I couldn't agree more. It was the same in my education 20 years later and is the same now.

Should You Create Your Own Reality?

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:56:00 +0000

This is the temptation for every cyber traveler, but the journey can get you ever farther from the focus on truth. In order to make useful sense out of the masses of data in the computer clouds, you should constantly check the probable truth of the answers you receive and the models you build.

Six Steps For Inventing With Google

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:12:00 +0000

The following six steps in greatly increase your invention effectiveness by using Google:

1 - Narrow the search and find prior art and solutions.
2 - Postulate a design or system solution
3 - Look for design elements in the Web.
4 - Design and redesign.
5 - Find other people with similar interests with whom you can communicate.
6 - Organize notes and source material.

Google can be very important for stimulating your imagination at the beginning of a project. It can be a powerful tool for the creative person, not only to gather information, but also to channel the creative mind into unique imagination space that could not be found by simple day dreaming.

You and Google Inventing

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:49:00 +0000

When inventing interactively with Google, iterate back and forth keeping in mind both the big picture and the details. This is dual focus between you and the computer clouds for greatest creativity. With practice, you will develop the most efficient technique in terms of finding and using the best search terms for Google.

Has The World Run Out of Possibilities?

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:49:00 +0000

In Jeannette Wilson's booksite about her "The Stone Gods" she says of another planet like earth: "This is a world where everyone is bio-enhanced and bored to death. It is a world that has run out of possibilities." My vision is that by making greater use of our Knowosphere and cyber clouds we can avoid that mindless fate.

Message in A Fortune Cookie

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:02:00 +0000

Message in a fortune cookie: A focused mind is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. This thought is key to extracting meaningful data from the computer clouds. Try it the next time you go on a major Google search.

Left-Handed & Right-Brained

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:09:00 +0000

My father, who was an artist and creative inventor, was left-handed like Leonardo da Vinci. They were both right-brained. I'm not sure what it all means, but I thought you might like to know.

Development Success Using A Search Engine

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:40:00 +0000

Development success using a search engine is unlikely to happen unless you know the right questions to pose to the search engine. These insights come from experience in many technical fields and probably some trial and error experimentation to define the research approach.

Search Engines

LKilham@gmail.com (Larry Kilham) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:13:00 +0000

Search engines generally do not think the way humans think when humans are looking for additional information. Search engines use key words and not associations of search term words with other words. You are more like the Semantic Web in that you can instantly make associations in your mind by any set of associations that present themselves: different people you know, places you know about, people and places, etc. In technical research you can fix in your memory observed situations and observed outcomes. You can relate what you are doing to what other people have published about the same research topic. I call this process associative inference. It allows us to think about any combination of things we have in memory compared to new information flowing into our memory. Continuing our earlier analogy, if you never had a dog, and it didn’t have fleas, or thought about this relationship much, your associative retrieval of dog and fleas would be weak or even forgetful. But if you have a dog and it has been plagued by flea problems, the association between dog and fleas in your mind would be very high.