Be Prolific

For example, Simonton cites the work of inventor Thomas Edison who accumulated a mind-boggling 2,300 patents over his lifetime.

He found that in the same year Edison applied for patents for the light bulb and the telephone (certainly both hits) he also filed for patents for 100 or so other inventions including the pneumatic pen (a partial miss), a talking doll (a definite miss) and a ghost detection machine (enough said).

In all likelihood, Edison never knowingly worked on something he thought was going to be an almighty flop. He probably worked on his paranormal paraphernalia with just as much vigor as he did the movie camera (which he also invented). He just just kept putting things out in the world until he had a hit. And it’s the same with writers.

Whilst it’s difficult to believe that Shakespeare wrote any duds, let’s not forget that he wrote close to 40 plays and over 150 sonnets. Can you name them all? Also, authors like Alexander Dumas, might be world-famous for writing The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Christo but let’s remember that he wrote a total of 277 novels over his lifetime – six every year of his working life. Clearly, not every book had quite the same mass appeal.

Notes:

Folksonomies: ideas creativity output

Taxonomies:
/hobbies and interests/inventors and patents (0.567144)
/style and fashion/footwear/sandals (0.500098)
/hobbies and interests/paranormal phenomena (0.498598)

Keywords:
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Entities:
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Concepts:
Thomas Edison (0.985547): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago
Incandescent light bulb (0.905550): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Telephone (0.876122): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Invention (0.866422): dbpedia | freebase
Alexandre Dumas, père (0.866359): dbpedia | opencyc | yago
The Three Musketeers (0.850361): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Patent (0.662905): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Musketeer (0.648897): dbpedia | freebase
Innovation (0.581320): dbpedia | freebase
Writer (0.562656): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Writing (0.554420): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Twenty Years After (0.553676): dbpedia | freebase | yago
D\'Artagnan (0.551335): dbpedia | yago
The Count of Monte Cristo (0.535733): website | dbpedia | freebase | yago
Inventive step and non-obviousness (0.527384): dbpedia | freebase
Porthos (0.527001): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Athos (0.516405): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Aramis (0.505808): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Patentability (0.505639): dbpedia | freebase
Heinrich Göbel (0.490650): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Light (0.480148): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Novel (0.453263): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
United States (0.446883): website | dbpedia | ciaFactbook | freebase | opencyc | yago
Pen (0.428586): dbpedia | freebase
D\'Artagnan Romances (0.412124): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Creativity (0.401325): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Vacuum (0.396903): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Fluorescent lamp (0.395326): dbpedia | freebase
Compact fluorescent lamp (0.372473): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Camera (0.372367): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc

 Stop trying to ‘be original’ and be prolific instead
Electronic/World Wide Web>Internet Article:  Smith, Chris (September 17, 2016), Stop trying to ‘be original’ and be prolific instead, Retrieved on 2017-06-05
  • Source Material [prolifiko.com]
  • Folksonomies: ideas innovation