Have Lots of Bad Ideas

This year, Taylor Swift won iHeart Radio’s “Innovator Award.” In her acceptance speech, she said something spectacularly insightful, but I have a hunch that few really took it to heart.

She said, “I really, really want everyone to know, especially young people, that the hundreds or thousands of dumb ideas that I’ve had are what led me to my good ideas.”

Lots of people sent me this clip, as I’ve been saying it for years (this post, for example, is almost three years old). But it’s not just me. Dr. Dean Kieth Simonton’s been saying it for the last 25 years or so. Frans Johannason summarizes Simonton’s landmark Origins of Genius thus:

"The best predictor for when scientists produce their best works, their most exceptional contributions, is actually when they produce the most…Incidentally, this was also when they had the greatest chance of writing their worst papers.”

Most folks avoid having bad ideas, assuming avoidance-of-bad is how they court good ideas. Don’t do that. Let them flow. Allowing yourself to have a bad idea is a necessary precondition to having a good idea. As Seth Godin eloquently put it in his 2009 blog post, entitled “Fear of bad ideas”:

“Someone asked me where I get all my good ideas, explaining that it takes him a month or two to come up with one and I seem to have more than that. I asked him how many bad ideas he has every month. He paused and said, ‘none.’

And there, you see, is the problem.”

Bad ideas are the price of good ideas. If you are unwilling to pay the price, don’t be surprised when you don’t bring home the goods.

Be like Taylor and Seth. Have lots of bad ideas.

They’ll lead you to your good ones.

Related: To Get to Genius, Embrace Goofy

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