How to Get Ideas | 
| Author: Jack Foster
Creator: Larry Corby
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $3.95
You Save: $15.00 (79%)
New (44) Used (13) from $3.53
Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 35391
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd Expanded ed.
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 214
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1576754308
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.066659
EAN: 9781576754306
ASIN: 1576754308
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Written by Jack Foster, a creative director for various advertising agencies with more than 40 years experience, How to Get Ideas (over 90,000 copies sold and translated into 15 languages) is a fun, accessible, and practical guide that takes the mystery and confusion out of developing new ideas.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
 Ideas!!! September 21, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a great book to read, the best thing it includes are quotes of famous people, which are mainly funny. Personally I do not believe that this book provided me with any new ways or measures of thinking to get more ideas, it's more of a different theories of people on how to think!!!!
If you are interested in having a good read buy this book, but don't put your hopes up high......
A Skeptic Converted July 30, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I tend to be skeptical of titles suggesting easy answers to broad problems, but darned if this one doesn't really deliver! Foster's guidelines often fall into the category of "That's pretty obvious, why didn't I think of it?". And therein lies its real beauty: his suggestions are practical, accessible, workable, and often downright ingenious. And not at all limited to his field of advertising.
Furthermore, the book is a delightfully entertaining read. That man can write!
The original book came out in 1996. This new version only has 1 review so far - so I wrote a second. May 21, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a really good book. It was entertaining to read while also educational. The first edition came out in 1996 I think, and this edition just came out earlier this month. The new edition has two new chapters, 5 and 8, which were added because readers thought the information they contain was missing from the first edition.
The book is split into two parts. The first part covers 10 ways you can "search for ideas." And it is by the far the longer of the two parts. The second part explains the five steps of how to get ideas:
1. Define the problem
2. Gather the information
3. Search for the idea
4. Forget about it
5. Put the idea into action
Theoretically, I suppose, the book could have been set up so the second part was actually the first. And the first part could have been relegated to the end. I say this because the first part is really just an expansion of the "third step" of the five steps.
I enjoyed the humor, the quotes, and the stories included in the author's discussion regarding 10 ways to search for ideas. And thus it made perfect sense to me why he put that material at the front of the book. I read the book to see if it would have some practical use to my SCORE clients who are wanta-be entrepreneurs and small business owners. I think there is a practical use, and I recommend that my clients and similarly situated people read this book. It will help them create their business plans and revamp those plans as time passes. 5 stars!
Thinking the Einstein way May 4, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Albert Einstein said his best ideas came to him while he was shaving," Jack Foster writes in "How to Get Ideas" (2nd ed.). When I read that line, what could I do? I put the book down for a moment and went to shave.
That's about the only time I stopped reading though, and you won't be able to put it down either. For boosting creativity, this book is a lifesaver.
Foster's advice is simple -- have fun, think like a child again, open your mind to new possibilities -- but not necessarily obvious. Most of us do the same old things and think in the same old ways. Foster aims to help us spot these unhelpful patterns, then break out with easy-to-follow tips and stimulating exercises.
And anecdotes. Foster draws on decades of experience as a top creative hand in major advertising agencies, where he encountered guys and gals driven by curiosity -- people who found out how much a ten-gallon hat will hold (three-quarters of a gallon) and how many times per day an African elephant will defecate (16). Illustrating how to solve a problem by stepping around it, Foster tells the story of the woman who solved the slow-elevator problem in her building -- by mounting mirrors in the lobby. (How did she do it? See P. 134.)
You'll discover how to overcome the fears that keep you from thinking creatively ... easy ways to gather information ... combining unrelated facts for new ideas ... the five steps for getting great new ideas ... and how to put them to work for YOU.
You'll finish reading "How to Get Ideas" in an hour or two. But you'll benefit from its advice for the rest of your life.
I wish I had known about the first edition 10 years ago! April 6, 2007
HOW TO GET IDEAS is an easy-to-read book that is loaded with wonderful nuggets for anyone who depends on fresh ideas to build his business. As a 30-plus year advertising industry veteran, I must confess I was a little surprised about HOW MUCH I got out of the book. I found the "Five-Step Method for Producing Ideas" an effective process for encouraging idea generation. Suggestions like "rephrase a difficult problem", "look for analogies" and "let your unconscious work on the problem", help provide structure to the usually unstructured task of ideation. Underdog Advertising
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