New Perspectives On Web Design

CHAPTER 13 On Creative Spirit

Young summarises this thinking through two principles, as follows:

first, “an idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old ele-

ments.” Second, “the capacity to bring old elements into new combinations

depends largely on the ability to see relationships.”

Astute readers will clearly see that one of Berkun’s central premises,

that ideas never stand alone, echoes one of Young’s central principles, that

all ideas are combinations of old ideas. This, in turn, echoes one of Pareto’s

central arguments, that those who have the ability to conjure up ideas are

“constantly preoccupied with the possibilities of new combinations.”

Three astute thinkers, whose ideas are all, appropriately, an amalgam

of other ideas. Coincidence? Highly unlikely. Although Berkun, Young and

Pareto share a common language in their articulation of this central thesis

— that all ideas are made of other ideas — it is, for me, Young who most

clearly articulates the clearest model for applying this thinking in a cre-

ative context in the service of reliable idea discovery.

Let’s look in a little more detail at Young’s core technique, which forms

the backbone of a five stage process that can be used to generate ideas. As

Young puts it:

This technique of the mind follows five steps. I am sure you will recognise them

individually, but the important thing is to recognise their relationship and to

grasp the fact that the mind follows these five steps in definite order — that by

no possibility can one of them be taken before the preceding one is completed, if

an idea is to be produced.

Young’s five stages can be essentially labelled as follows:

1. Gather raw material.


2. Masticate.


3. Drop everything and walk away.


4. Marvel as, out of nowhere, an idea materializes.


5. Weigh the idea up the morning after.