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Speculator vs Rentier

New idea generation is hard. Or not. What it takes really is applying new combinations to old thinking, and perceiving the underlying relationship between said new combinations. So spoke James Webb Young, in A Technique for Getting Ideas.


Be warned though, it may be be simple, but it's not straightforward.


'Pareto thought that all the world could be divided into two main types of people. These types he called, in the French, which he wrote, the, speculator and the rentier.'


'What is most valuable to know is not where to look for a particular idea, but how to train the mind in the method by which ideas are produced; and how to grasp the principles which are the source of all ideas.'


'We run across an enormous amount of fugitive material which can be grist to the idea-producer's mill-newspaper clippings, publication articles, and original- observations. Out of such material it is possible to build a useful source book of ideas.'


'You remember how Sherlock Holmes used to stop right in the middle of it case, and drag Watson off to a concert? That was a very irritating procedure to the practical and literal-minded Watson. But Conan Doyle was a creator and knew the creative process.'


James Webb Young, A Technique for Getting Ideas | Full Read Here

Vilfredo Pareto, The Mind and Society | Read Here

Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class | Read Here


Critical thinking | Communication | Collaboration | Creativity


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