‘Ideation is not a synonym for innovation, conformity is not its simple antonym, and innovation is not the automatic consequence of “creative thinking.”.’
- Theodore Levitt
To ideate is not merely the faculty or capacity of the mind for forming ideas or the act of the mind by which objects of sense are apprehended and retained as objects of thought, as any dictionary states. It is more than just generating ideas. This contemporaneous Buzzword represents the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas, where an idea is acknowledged as a basic element of thought, that can be visual, concrete, or abstract. And as such, it is an essential part of the design process, both in education and in practice.
Today’s youth are not short of dreams. Some dream of cars, bikes and such thrills and some dream of future and someone special, yet there are some who don’t just dream small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. Aye! Such dreamers don’t just dream they act; they not only believe, but also plan. Such men and women have long in their strides towards fulfillment, left their mark upon both history and society. Their ideas and ideals have pulled man and machine to the present eminence.
Way back in 1642 a 19 year old, trying to find an easy way out of doing some monotonous drudgery developed and built the mechanical adding machine, Blaise Pascal was his name and no school had taught him such craft. When Louis Braille was 15 years old, he developed an ingenious system of reading and writing by means of raised dots. Today, in virtually every language throughout the world, Braille is the standard form of writing and reading, used by the visually challenged people.
Rebecca Schroeder from Toledo, Ohio, USA was ten when she became an inventor, obtained a patent for her invention in 1974. She improved upon the idea over the next few years, eventually calling it the Glo-Sheet. The Glo-Sheet is a battery operated photo-luminescent used in many places, it basically acts as low intensity backlight. Photographers used them in their darkrooms, critics found them perfect for taking notes in dark theaters, and emergency medical technicians used them in ambulances, doctors use them so they can check patient's notes in the dark without waking them up and the US Navy and NASA use them extensively.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge” - Albert Einstein; the youth of today are definitely not lacking in their ability to imagine, the level of knowledge, skill and amount of interaction is far greater than that was in the yesteryears. Yet this raw dynamism has not produced much greatness, nor has this potent treasure hive harnessed? Fantasy united with reason, is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels, yet seldom do the twain meet.
The late Harvard Professor Theodore Levitt was clearly referring to the youths, who are filled with new ideas and a passion to achieve them when he spoke about ideating. And he was right when he said it is not merely innovation, it was something else “entirely”. Nevertheless this “entirely” is seldom found in reality. Lack of means is one of the main reasons for not realizing ideas; another is dearth of financial sustenance and want of information, mainly appropriate techniques of getting things done. The art of turning dreams into reality is a lot more strenuous than envisaging, though not as intricate.
In most cases any kind of creative spark is more likely to be doused by a torrent of preset beliefs than cooled by lack of resources and the support of peers. The conversion of an idea to a product or service involves many elements like the idea, what resources you need, how to procure them, how to overcome shortcomings, Process Procedure that’s involved, budget requirements; the legal hassles that may arise are some of the major roadblock faced.
Many new ideas thus have to be realized by scavenging funds, materials and information, and of course trying out various techniques. History has proven time after time that this type of foraging is the basis of many products - original prototyping. Innovators like Thomas Alva Edison and George Washington Carver have attained their recognition not by waiting for resources to be brought to them, rather they have gone seeking their resources wither it was funds or some rare piece of hardware or obscure scarp of information. It is this type of quest that ideating youngsters must pursue to obtain the necessities to achieve their goal. Closer home, Inventors like Anadish Kumar Pal or like the late Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu known as the Edison of India have proven that by soliciting resource on their own as they moved from ideating to inventing
Where there's a will there's a way. Seek what you desire and you shall find it. It is not impossible for a person who is acutely tenacious, with enough perseverance, a clear cut desire of what they want, can attain whatever resources that are needed for their endeavor. Rome was never built in day nor can your dreams be attained in one; you’ll have to be patient and persistent as you overcome the inevitable and innumerable hurdles that life is seemingly full of. Remember as you chug along the dreary road of life, every step you have taken in the right direction is vital to the outcome you seek.
