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2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
It seems to us that fresh ideas arise if we abandon all previous developments and try to completely rethink the world. When a project fails, we say: "Let's start from scratch." When we want to change our lifestyle, we think, "We need to start all over again." However, creative solutions rarely come when we start from scratch.
Consider the following example from biology.
Some scientists believe that bird feathers evolved from reptile scales. In the course of evolution, the scales gradually turned into fluff, which at first was only needed to keep warm. Gradually, these small feathers grew longer and eventually allowed the birds to fly. It was a smooth process of repeating and expanding on existing ideas.
Human flights developed in a similar way. We usually think of the Wright brothers as the pioneers of controlled flight and rarely think of such pioneers in aviation as Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley and Octave Chanute. For the world's first airplane, the Wright brothers looked to the work of these engineers.
The most innovative solutions are often combinations of old ideas. Creative people don't invent new things, they find connections that others don't see. Moreover, the most effective way to achieve results is to improve an already working mechanism by 1%, rather than trying to destroy the existing system and build everything from scratch.
Repeat, don't reinvent
We quite often do not notice how complex the world around us is. When buying a device, for example a toaster, we don’t think about how much happens before it hits the store counter. We don't realize that you first need to mine iron ore to make steel and oil to make plastic.
In 2010, British designer Thomas Thwaites decided on his own. He took apart the finished device and determined what materials he would need to create his own. The main ones are plastic, nickel and steel.
For iron ore, he turned to a local mine, and, surprisingly, he was not refused. The oil companies turned out to be less generous, so Tveits had to melt bits of old plastic to make a shell for his toaster. Then he smelted coins to get nickel.
I realized that if you start from scratch, you can spend half your life building one toaster.
Thomas Twaits British designer
Nevertheless, this experiment taught him a lot. Tveits even wrote a book about it.
More often than not, we don't think about how closely everything in life is connected. We focus on the result and do not notice the many processes that are responsible for this result.
If you are working on a difficult problem, think about the ideas that already exist and are working successfully. After all, they have passed the test of time and survived.
So repeat, don't start from scratch.
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