9.3. Lesson 81: Plan for Spontaneity
Free association and spontaneously occurring notions are valuable sparks and catalysts for creativity. They can't be forced, but they can be induced, encouraged, and planned for.
When Edison was starting out in his Newark, New Jersey, laboratory–workshop, he spontaneously sketched inventions and components on whatever scrap of paper happened to come to hand—and he encouraged his employees to do the same. This proved so valuable a source of ideas that Edison regularized the practice by deliberately placing notebooks throughout the work-space. By the time he moved into his Menlo Park facility, Edison "commenced the practice of placing note books all over my laboratory, with order to my assistants to draw out ...
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