"Whad'ya catch ’em on?"

Four ways to go "fishing" for ideas

As the early morning mist begins to clear from the lake, you notice several fishermen, each in his own boat in different parts of the lake. Each is using a different bait. And each has caught a stringer-full!

But make no mistake. Those aren’t fish they’re hauling in. Those are ideas - pole-bending, record-breaking ideas. Genuine lunkers.

“Whad’ya catch ‘em on?” you ask the first.

But he doesn’t answer. He’s totally deaf. His name is Thomas Edison. He harnessed electricity, lit up the world with the incandescent light bulb, and invented the phonograph. Finally you get his attention and he explains: “Deafness has been a great asset to me. It has saved me from a lot of useless chatter and it has taught me to hear from within.”

Fishing in the next boat nearby is famed anthropologist and author, Margaret Mead. “Whad’ya catch ’em on?” you ask. “The secret is to sweep your mind clear of every presupposition,” she replies. “Take nothing for granted. If you do, you can’t see what’s before your eyes as fresh and distinctive.”

Approaching the next fisherman, you realize he is the famous science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury. Again you ask, “Whad’ya catch ’em on?”

In a bright, enthusiastic tone, he answers: “All kinds of material from various fields, outrageous fields. I stuff my eyeballs with paintings, lithographs, listen to music, read essays, poetry, plays. When I was a kid, I sneaked over to the grown-up section in the library. Now I go into the children’s section, to make sure that I’m fully informed. You have to feed yourself with information every day,” Bradbury concludes.

“Wow! This is some lake,” you say to yourself as you paddle over to the fourth “idea fisherman,” who turns out to be Carl Sagan, narrator of the popular television series of years ago, “Cosmos.”

“Whad’ya catch ’em on?” you ask.

Slowly, meticulously, Sagan turns and scrutinizes you. His response is cryptic, but his meaning is clear: “If you were to read one book each week for every week of your life, you would only have read one-tenth of one percent of all the books in the New York Public Library. The trick is to know which books to read.”

With your mental tackle box full of the advice given you by these exceedingly wise anglers, you paddle off toward a quiet bay and prepare to toss your line in. For you, too, are fishing for ideas. And you were right, this is some lake!

Here’s what you can do: Catch more good ideas by listening to yourself, sweeping your mind clear of presuppositions, stuffing your eyeballs with all manner of outrageous material, or by being highly selective. Choose just one of these techniques, use them all, or develop your own unique approach. Pleasant fishing!