The Brainstorming Conundrum

Blog response to Premjith's Blog

Read the blog here - http://itslateral.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-am-alonecan-i-brainstorm.html

If someone is able to get into 3-4 characters, either he/she might be, as u said, suffering from a mental disorder like a multiple personality disorder or must be a genius to still remain sane.

Assuming he is sane and not a genius, can someone really get into 3 -4 characters? I think the biggest advantage with conventional brainstorming is a collection of brains – now I feel there is more to a brain than just its physical existence – Its an outcome of that brain’s experiences with different problems in the past and solutions and also the difference in the way brains are ‘wired’ – some brains want to start thinking in terms of numbers, some brains think in terms of images, some in terms of something else- I think that’s the biggest advantage with multiple brains in the real sense.

When you are trying to create 3-4 different characters, these 3-4 characters are still a subset of the “same” brain and somehow I feel will not give the same impact as having multiple brains simply because you are cutting the same blue wire into multiple smaller blue wires while what you need is a red wire, black wire, blue wire and yellow wire to complete a circuit

Having said that, it also depends on the problem you are trying to solve. Trying to do our messaging matrix for example, will need multiple brains simply because one brain alone will not have so many perspectives about different products- you might then say will it be possible if one person has learnt about all products and knows about all products, will he be able to create brain sub-characters and storm to himself? Interesting question – but if he is programmed in such a way that he thinks he knows everything, it is more likely that he will not want other brains involved. But still, end of the day, I would say the outcome wont be as effective as it would have been had there been multiple brains involved in the exercise

Objectivity??? Hmmmm.. if your personal stakes are low in being objective and you don’t have something called an ego clash within yourself or with others, chances are people can be objective. But if it a life breaking opinion/decision he is about to make, problem is personality might overtake objectivity. Man is a social animal – his intention from the society is to satisfy his needs in the end. That is the primary reason for socializing. Objectivity is just an intermediate path to ultimate subjectivity (in the form of satisfying your needs)