Thinkertoys

What Hacker News says

1. scraggoFeb 2024
   Related: I just wrote a post about the book Thinkertoys which has lots of great exercises for generating ideas and getting out of creative ruts: http://www.scraggo.com/thinkertoys-generate-art-and-business...

   Rick Rubin's new book has interesting ideas in the same vein.

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2. tabletApr 2012
   1 there are many book on creativity techniques, you can find many of them in the web. I can recommend Thinkertoys: a handbook on creative-thinking techniques. Business Model Generation is also a good one.

   2 get the idea and start as early as possible. Don't waste much time on idea generation, a month or two will be enough. When you start, you will learn. And knowledge is the most valuable thing in your first product. Be ready to start over with new skills and wisdom. But it may happen that the first idea will bring good revenue. Be ready for that as well :)

   3 I like Steve Jobs. From what I read his thinking style is cool.

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3. lpolovetsNov 2011
   Category 1:

   - Simple Heuristics That Make Use Smart by Gigerenzer, et al. (http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Heuristics-That-Make-Smart/dp/0...). I have heard good things about this book but have not read it yet.

   Category 2:

   - Think Twice by Mauboussin (http://www.amazon.com/Think-Twice-Harnessing-Power-Counterin...)

   - Influence by Cialdini (http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Busine...)

   Category 3:

   - You already mentioned Michalko, but his other book, Thinkertoys, is also very good (http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...)

   Category 5:

   - Switch by the Heath brothers is excellent (http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385...)

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4. ABrandtOct 2010
   I agree to some extent with everyone here stating that an idea doesn't need to be novel to develop your skills. However, I do think executing on an idea of your own versus reverse engineering something that exists does require much more from you. With a project that is entirely your own, you have nothing to fall back on. When you start at square one, you must design and implement everything.

   So with that being said, I'd encourage you to check out a book called Thinkertoys[1]. Although it's a little elementary at times, it lays out specific techniques to get your creative juices flowing. Its great for analytical types because it provides a concrete framework for a very abstract activity (idea generation).

   --- [1] http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...

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5. thibaut_barrereMar 2010
   Alternatively, there are useful books like ThinkerToys:

   http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...

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6. lpolovetsApr 2009
   Michael Michalko has two excellent books on creativity:

   Thinkertoys (http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...)

     and 
   

   Cracking Creativity (http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Creativity-Secrets-Creative-G...)

   They're both among my fave books of all time, though they are relatively similar in content so getting just one is fine.

   They cover a lot of different strategies for thinking creatively and outside the box, provide tons of examples, and have a lot of exercise that you can try yourself (and while it sounds cheesy, the exercises are actually fun)

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