A few things I learnt from “The Imagination Muscle” by Albert Read.

Read starts with the example of the French screenwriter and director Jean-Claude Carrière, who disciplined himself to spend 30 minutes every evening devising plots regardless of how tired he was. Many other people do the same. Seinfeld thinks up a joke a day. Others think of ten ideas a day. Edison set “idea quotas” for himself and his employees – one small idea a week, one major invention every six months. The point is – don’t wait for inspiration – inspiration comes from hard work. It is difficult when you’re tired to think – but it can be done, and it gets easier the more you do it.

Edison is the famous example of thousands of experiments before he succeeded in getting the light bulb to work. The same was true for Gutenberg and the printing press. More recently, James Dyson needed 5,127 prototypes of the cyclone cleaner before it was ready for the market. Perseverance is important.

Many people thought of a printing press before Gutenberg—the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Minoans of Crete all had prototype printing. However, the technology wasn’t good enough. The clay tiles used for movable type by the Chinese and Koreans weren’t sufficiently distinct, the papyrus was too fragile, and the water-based inks were unsuitable for making worthwhile prints. But come the fifteenth century, all the pieces fell together. Gutenberg, who had trained as a goldsmith, used metal for the tiles; paper was cheaply available, and oil-based inks had been developed. Combined with the alphabetic writing system and the humble screw press, these technologies coincided to make the printing press possible.

Read reports that it is rare for persons over 40 to invent things and that youth dominates chess tournaments, philosophy and patent filing. Artists, poets, and mathematicians (so Read claims) do their best work in their youth. However, Read lists some counter-examples: Ben Franklin invented the bi-focal spectacles in his seventies, Handle composed the Messiah, and Elliot wrote Middlemarch in their fifties.

Many people have noticed this. Soren Kierkegaard wrote, “I have walked myself into my best thoughts.” Dickens, Wordsworth, Virginia Woolf, Rousseau, and Nietzsche all extolled the virtues of walking as a stimulant for creativity. The latter wrote, “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.”

Read cites the example of the English artist Joseph Turner. Turner experimented with different styles and materials. He had himself strapped to a ship’s mast during a storm before painting the “Snow Storm”. Read also comments on what he calls “the Turner Subtraction”. Turner’s style was to remove all the non-essential details from an image, allowing the essential elements of colour and shape to emerge. Discard the non-essential detail – concentrate on the core.

Read widely, talk to strangers, and join clubs. Pursue your interests regardless of their practical application. Be humble, and always remember that you could be wrong. Be patient—it’s a myth that inventions emerge fully formed. Adopt a beginner’s mindset and avoid alliterative platitudes. Jargon and verbosity indicate insecurity and mask ignorance. And watch out for the dead hand of habit.