Pennies for your thoughts

By Nathan Baird, October 9, 2007 @ 8:40 pm

This is a good little book of idea-generation techniques for almost any business issue. There are six chapters, each offering ten tools for solving a particular business problem. At $26 that’s less than 50 cents per tool.

The beauty of The Idea Generator is its simplicity and its breadth. The tools offered are easy to understand and quick to use. It is essentially idea generation for the one-minute manager. I read the book from front to back cover on Sunday while my two-year-old was having her afternoon sleep.

For anyone who has read a bit on creativity this book will seem quite basic, but you still might pick up a few new idea-generation tools. Although many of the tools aren’t new, I did find myself having ideas for different aspects of work and non-work life as I read it. And there was at least one tool per chapter that I’ll definitely try.

For the less experienced idea generator, I think this book is great. The sort of book you could take into a brainstorming, randomly pick out a tool and give it a go (and repeat until exhaustion). They’re that simple and easy to use. And even if you use only one tool per chapter, that’s still just $4.33 each!

Originally published in Idealog #11, page 87