Thinkertoys
by Michael Michalko · first published 1991
10mentions
5recommended by
9HN commenters
2009–2024first – last mentioned
56% recommend44% neutral
A guide designed to encourage creative thinking in business offers techniques, hints, and tricks for generating ideas and offers dozens of success stories.
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Alternatively, there are useful books like ThinkerToys: http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...
on “TRIZ: a methodology for generating innovative ideas and solutions” ↗Michael Michalko has two excellent books on creativity: Thinkertoys (http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...) and Cracking Creativity (http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Creativity-Secrets-Creative-G...) They're both among my fave books of all…
on “Ask HN: How do you learn to be creative?” ↗…that is entirely your own, you have nothing to fall back on. When you start at square one, you must design and implement everything. So with that being said, I'd encourage you to check out a book called Thinkertoys[1]. Although it's a little elementary at times, it lays out specific techniques to get your creative juices flowing. Its great for analytical types because it provides a concrete framework for a very…
on “Ask HN: How do I come up with an idea?” ↗…(http://www.amazon.com/Think-Twice-Harnessing-Power-Counterin...) - Influence by Cialdini (http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Busine...) Category 3: - You already mentioned Michalko, but his other book, Thinkertoys, is also very good (http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...) Category 5: - Switch by the Heath brothers is excellent (http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385...)
on “Ask HN: What books to read on developing mental models and increasing cognition?” ↗1 there are many book on creativity techniques, you can find many of them in the web. I can recommend Thinkertoys: a handbook on creative-thinking techniques. Business Model Generation is also a good one. 2 get the idea and start as early as possible. Don't waste much time on idea generation, a month or two will…
on “Need some advice before going "all in" on my start up project” ↗Related: I just wrote a post about the book Thinkertoys which has lots of great exercises for generating ideas and getting out of creative ruts: http://www.scraggo.com/thinkertoys-generate-art-and-business... Rick Rubin's new book has interesting ideas in…
on “Get unstuck from a creative rut” ↗This link is to the first edition. Second edition is available as well: http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...
on “TRIZ: a methodology for generating innovative ideas and solutions” ↗There is a book titled "Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques". The last edition was published in 2006, so it's fairly dated by now. I found it very interesting back then, but it wouldn't have much about more recent tools…
on “Tools for Better Thinking” ↗In "Thinkertoys," Michael Michalko describes "The Phoenix Checklist" as a rich set of questions developed by the CIA designed to help agents look at a challenge from many different angles. Michael Machalko introduces…
on “The Phoenix Checklist for Framing a Problem and Its Solution” ↗…spend more time gathering experience and use some approaches from The Procrastination Equation. - Then after all of that you realize thinking outside of the box is hard so you induce creativity using ThinkerToys.
on “Why you’re not doing creative work” ↗