The Hindu Business Line : Serving up ideas

It is rare that a creative person is stuck for ideas, but when that happens, it is difficult to see how miserable (s)he feels. The calm ones sulk; the flamboyant ones throw a good noisy tantrum. But it is a great moment if you are round when such a person gets this great idea that sets them off like a rocket again.

Sometimes it is a very ordinary event, something that they have just read or heard; but many times, with themore experienced ones, it is a deliberate act - almost like hitting one's head against a stone wall - of looking for deas at the most basic level and at the most mundane things.

If you happen to be one of the more organised and disciplined creative talents, you should perhaps get yourself a "generator," the kind that Chris Hand http://mungbean.net/portfolio/rca2/ generator.php) makes. The generator is n ATM-like machine that will give you a three-word idea that you can work on.

Examples? Personal Paranoia Filter; Children's Boredom Communicator; and Community Homesickness Reflector. The machine picks up one social word, one feeling or emotion and one technology descriptor and combines them to form an idea. The current version can serve up 139,590 ideas.

While some ideas sound downright funny because of the absurdity, what is not funny is that we can think of most of the concepts being successful products if only we can make them work! How about a Journalist Satisfaction Multiplier? We actually already have it: our bylines in the paper!

N. NAGARAJ

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