Chapter 19. Verification

Solving a problem or producing an idea may be entirely different from putting your solution across. It reminds me of the effort of a certain student who had to work out a mathematical problem which his professor had given him. Handing in the work, he complained about the difficulty of the example. He'd gone over it six times, he said, to be sure he was right. "That's fine, my boy," the professor said, much pleased at this diligence. "That's the way to do it when you want to be sure." The boy replied, "Yes, Professor, here are the six different results."

The idea which the subconscious sends you may seem to be ever so logical, ever so perfect for the purpose, and still not fit the world of reality. Again, you must always take the precaution to check it for other reasons. For example, as previously stated, if you sent down incomplete or inaccurate information, your idea result may need revising. You should not submit your idea to your boss or anyone else until you have made any corrections or changes that seem desirable. You should certainly not go all out with it until you have submitted it to critical scrutiny. You may have thought wrongly, closed the wrong circuit, set the wrong switch. Problems are always being solved wrongly, and the solution taken out to do a job in the world. This can be seen with especially tragic results in the field of international governments and statesmanship. The sorry state of Planet Earth is proof enough. Someone scribbled in the subway, "Peace by 1970-with or without people."

New ideas can be good or bad, just the same as old ones. The age or youth of an idea has little to do with its value. Some of the greatest ideas are old ones; some of the most foolish are new. The opposite is also true.

In the field of idea production, many fine ideas have been given out that did not bring material success to their originators. After you have solved the immediate problem, the next step may be to convince others to support your idea. When you have reached what seems a satisfactory idea, you then have to detach yourself from it. Pretend to be a disinterested stranger and view it without the emotional excitement of the originator.

Hastily to accept an idea and try it out and then see if it works, and to "admit it" if it fails, isn't a very sensible procedure. You can save yourself a good deal of trouble and embarrassment by some objective verification of your subjective offering. Your own idea will seem to you as the infant appears to its mother. No baby has an unprejudiced critic in its mother. Try to imagine the effect it will have on the persons whom you wish to be interested. This may be a customer, a buyer, an editor, an audience, depending on the type of idea. Consider how it will arouse their desires for it, meet their requirements, satisfy their wants.

Follow the plan of writing down your idea. State specifically what it is, what it can do, what is required to put it in operation. Take time to digest this description; re-examine it from time to time. Guard against half-baked ideas. Add, subtract, change or modify until you are sure of the soundness of what you have. Simply to imagine and decide on a plan and then to learn, like the burnt child who dreads the fire, how it works and what its consequences are, is not to think scientifically or even adequately.

To see the thing as others will see it in order to arrive at an intelligent estimate of what you have done, you must employ past experience, reason, judgment and discrimination. Do not allow the glow of creative achievement to give you a false sense of victory. Everyone who produces an idea has a wonderful feeling, which is often far from justified. The more practical, detached, objective, impersonal, you can be at this time, the better. It is therefore well, at this point, to take a different view, a critical attitude, and look hard for everything that could be wrong, impractical, inconsistent, or otherwise poorly worked out. It is obviously much better if you can do this yourself than if you give anyone else the chance of doing it. Avoid such errors and embarrassment by being your own severest critic. Refuse to make up your mind too rapidly. Refuse to be too easily satisfied. Refuse to regard a judgment as finally and unchangeably true. At this point you may even aggressively take the view that you may be wrong. Put the conclusion to every test. You may think you have the answer but you must know that you know it by sincerely trying to prove yourself wrong.

If possible, experiment. This is the right place for experiment, after you have something; not as so many do it, before they have anything. But experiment is not always possible. If it is feasible, it is usually the most direct way to find out how a thing or an idea works. A caution may be given at this point in interpreting the experiments. It frequently occurs that the experiment proves to be a failure, and one is then too apt to believe that the idea on which it was based must have been false. This is not necessarily the proper conclusion. Often the very opposite is true. It may very likely have been the execution of the experiment that was faulty. Should you then ascribe the failure to the idea instead of to the execution, you will proceed to the completely wasteful process of trying to find another solution which will necessarily be false.

When you verify, include these points: Check for suitability to purpose, to people involved, to time and place, and so on. Check whether it solves the problem. State the problem again clearly in this connection. Go over the suppositions or preliminary notions on which you have based your conclusion. Test rival plans for merits and demerits, considering ease of doing, practicality, desirability, breadth of application, and other advantages or disadvantages. Next, exercise your judgment to get rid of rival suppositions and tentatively select the best. Then select an idea which survives the first four steps, and test it. You are then ready to get down to a basis of action and decision. Finally, you study the consequences, consider the results, and make any modifications that appear to be required.

At any time you feel you have to get advice, get it from sensible sources. It is foolish and distracting to ask for information or advice from persons who are unqualified to give it. Yet how often this is done. They ask a banker about marrying a certain girl. They ask the doctor about changing their jobs. They ask the priest how to invest their money. They ask a lawyer how to design a house. They ask a salesman how to make up a tax form. At least if you are going to get advice, get it from someone who knows the subject involved. Even Mr. Ford gave silly advice on politics, and Mr. Edison did the some on educational affairs. It doesn't matter how fine they are, or how capable in their own field, or how much you like them. The) cannot give information or advice unless they know the particular thing required.

To take a bird's eye view of the process of idea production, you have gathered the raw materials, both specific and general. You have worked them over in your conscious mind. You have let your subconscious mind work upon them. You have received the idea. You have shaped and developed it to a practical design for a realistic world. Your idea was so shaped and developed, not by accident, but by plan. It resulted from a simple method that took the confusion and indefiniteness out of the way and enabled you to be the master of the situation. Whenever you pursue this formula conscientiously, you will get the desired result. Yes, it has its details; it takes some work. But it is better than wringing your hands and worrying. It is better than staring at the wall and watching the clock tick precious minutes away. It Is Better Than Magic For It Is Reliable.