Inspiration is a magical thing. When I am inspired, I feel euphoric. Maybe that’s because when I was little I liked fishing. If you imagine your boat as a particular problem you are working on and the water being the place where your knowledge (fish) are stored, inspiration is when you get a bite on the line.
The short term goal of course is landing the idea. Between the bite and landing, there is an exciting fight where the new connection between ideas is tested. It may end with the line breaking or a fish on the boat.
To increase our odds, it is best to have a lot of boats on the lake and a lot of very hungry fish.
It may also be helpful to have a smaller lake. This strategy however often results in the same type of fish caught every time. It’s like an inventor whose answer for everything is to create a cell phone app for it.
If your goal was not to catch just any fish, but something you can tell your friends about, you need a great fight with a unique fish. To do this, you need a large lake filled with a wide variety of fish. The only problem is on lakes like that, it seems like most days the fish aren’t biting.
Some fishing pointers
- Anyone can catch a fish.
- People who spend more time fishing or better at it.
- Keep a lot of boats in the water.
- Put more fish in your lake.
If you are getting hungry and you can’t get a fish to bite, you can always try farming (TRIZ). It’s a lot more work and not nearly as much fun as fishing but you probably won’t starve.
How did you get to be so hilarious? Keep fishing for the Big one!