Formula for Invention Genius

By Peter Lloyd

Inventors and scientists use formulas to express as elegantly as possible the way nature behaves. Nature, of course, doesn't check to make sure, for example, that the distance it allows an object to travel always equals time times its rate of travel.

Just the opposite. Nature does what she wants. We use formulas to help us understand how she behaves and, more importantly, to predict how she will behave.

The process of invention, a child of Nature, is almost predictable enough to be expressed in the formula T + E = P.

In the Formula for Invention, T is trial, E is error, and P is progress. As the formula predicts, or fails to promise, Trial and Error don't always effect success, just Progress. If only because every failure as well as every success indicate progress.

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.
—Isaac Newton

Babies learn to walk and talk without formal instruction, using T + E = P. They babble until certain sounds elicit desired results. They stand up, fall down, over and over again until they walk. Throughout their pre-school days toddlers learn to climb, run, and manipulate toys and everyday objects by trial and error.

As the progeny of Nature, children invent the way Nature invents and has invented, unfolding her creation over billions of years of trial and error.

Then every once in a while, an inventor demonstrates astonishing ability at the game of trial and error. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, the legendary wild child of physics, was so facile at solving problems that his colleagues distilled his creative prowess to a formula:

1. Write down the problem.
2. Think very hard.
3. Write the answer.

But this tongue-in-cheek Feynman Formula neglects a key element of invention success--failure. Nature, the toddler, Feynman, and all creators fail. They fail so often that it's tempting to measure creative performance by the number of failures one has chalked up. In other words, if you're not failing, you're just not trying hard enough.

Or in Feynman's own words, "In order to succeed I try to fail as fast as I can."

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Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.

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