This theory will help you create new products
Necessity… the mother of inventions
— Plato
A few months ago, I was moving to a new apartment. I had to tackle some tedious tasks of packing, unpacking, minor repairs, etc. And when I began to search online for appropriate tools and packaging materials, I discovered a new world.
People there used simple, cheap, and yet handy gadgets.
They moved furniture without scratching expensive flooring.
They hammered the nails without smashing their fingers.
And the holes they drilled in the walls were perfectly round and clean.
The first thought that struck me was, “Why on Earth it was not me who invented all these wonderful things?”
Every day, startup founders try to come up with new products, be it an AI-backed technology or a vegetable slicer.
And every day, they ask themselves: “How can we unleash our imagination and create something new?”
And a tool called ‘lateral marketing’ can help them — and you.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail
— Abraham Maslow
Why can’t we just wake up in the morning with a great product idea in mind? Because our brains are pattern-recognition machines.
Ancient hunters skilled at spotting prey and predator and telling poisonous plants from healthy ones had a better chance of survival than those blind to the patterns.
You can recognize a cat, a house, or a human being even in an unskilled child’s drawing. It only takes milliseconds and doesn’t consume much precious cognitive energy.
And our lazy brains hate to waste energy.
Most of the time, our mind runs on autopilot, following the path that patterns tell it to follow — like a train on the track.
But what worked perfectly for the ancient hunters prevents today’s inventors and creators from coming up with fresh ideas.