Background
Today, I am going to talk another important aspect of becoming very highly successful.
I call it Inventing Your Own Successful Future.
That future can be later today or it can be a month or year away. The process is the same.
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
- Alan Kay
What I am going to discuss deals with Step 1 of the Three-Step Process that I described in my first Post and the Cybernetic Transposition Three-Step Process that I described in my second Post. That is, setting a very precise Target that your Unconscious will continuously aim at achieving.
In the context of Inventing, I call that your Search-Target.
So, first I am going to explain how the process of Inventing anything works and, then, how it applies to Inventing Your Own Successful Future.
How Do We Invent?
The answer is Unconsciously.
The world is a very, very complex place filled with an amazing array of alternatives, more than a billion in almost any situation as Cyberneticians have clearly demonstrated. Of course, we are not consciously aware of nearly all of those alternatives since our conscious minds can deal with, typically, only a maximum of five things at once.
Conceptually, to come up with an invention, you precisely define what you’re searching for in that vast array of alternatives and then search through enough of them to find one or more that meet your specifications.
However, our conscious minds aren’t up to that task.
In fact they’d take hundreds of years to do a single search.
Instead, we have to energize our Unconscious Minds to do the job.
When I talk about the Unconscious Mind, I’m talking about the functioning of the roughly 100 billion tiny computers – called Neurons – that make up our individual brain. Together they make a single human brain 100 million times as powerful as the fastest supercomputer in the world, a “computing machine” that’s an ideal match for the complexity of the world.
Inventors
People who are highly skilled at unconsciously entering this world of complexity and pulling out the right possibility are known as Inventors.
They simply see possibilities that others don’t and, if successful, they see the possibilities that satisfy the requirements of the situation.
The possibilities they see, what we call Inventions involves looking at prior knowledge in a new context and in new combinations.
Inventing involves, in a sense, seeing that “This (the invention) is like that (prior knowledge) except different in the following way (other prior knowledge)”.
“Creativity is just seeing things… It seems obvious after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”
Most people unconsciously apply their inventive skills when they are “up against it,” most commonly when they are facing an important deadline.
“Necessity… the mother of invention.”
- Plato
Calvin: You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
Hobbes: What mood is that?
Calvin: Last-minute panic.
“It’s a non-stop invention, this game of life.”
- Tim Finn
Last minute panicky Inventing is quite different from what I call On-Demand Inventing that involves consciously specifying what you want to invent? and Inventing it.
There are a lot of terrific Inventors in the world who do this. One is my brother Phil who earned his living as a contract Inventor. I remember Phil Inventing throughout our childhoods, winning a National Science Fair and getting a Harvard Fellowship as a result.
However, I’d rather tell you about my friend Jack Rabinow who is another excellent example of an Inventor.
When I worked for him, Jack held more useful patents than anyone else in the world. For 20 years he received one cent for every automobile clock in the world. He also invented vertical venetian blinds, the basics of videotape recording, the first commercially successful machine to read printed material and convert it into computer codes, the coded sorting machines that were used by most post offices around the world and much more ” including key elements of the bomb sight that was credited with facilitating the end of World War II.
I once asked Jack how he invented. His answer: “I stand on my head and look at the world upside down. That leads me to see things that they don’t. And when I tell them what I’ve found, they say, “That’s obvious! Why didn’t I see that?”
The answer is, of course, that they either didn’t know how to look or, if they did know, they didn’t bother.
The way that Jack and many other Inventors I have studied work is rather consistent.
They intuitively and consciously structure a set of criteria for a successful solution, a Search-Target, and then let their massively powerful brains search through the possible alternatives to identify one that works. Meanwhile, they let their conscious minds get on with other work.
Then the answer pops into their consciousness, typically preceded by an intuitive feeling of excitement and a radical change in brainwave pattern.
Most of us call that a Brainstorm.
What Is The Difference Between An Invention And A Patentable Invention?
An Invention is any new-to-you combination of items that you consciously or unconsciously know.
For example, when I was about 5 or 6 years old, I invented the principle of the steam engine.
I was bored, sitting in our kitchen, staring fixedly at a pot on the stove in which my mother was boiling some potatoes, watching the steam pop the lid up and down.
I had the thought, which I well remember, that if someone connected a saw to that lid, the steam would move it in a way that could cut through a piece of wood.
It was only years later that I learned about Thomas Savery who first invented the basics of the steam engine in 1659 to pump water out of coal mines, Thomas Newcomen who improved Savery’s design and James Watt who, in 1769 invented the version that powered the Industrial Revolution.
However, the fact that they had preceded me by about 200 to 300 years in no way diminished the fact that I had invented the steam engine.
An Invention is very different from a Patentable Invention.
To be Patentable, an Invention must meet tests of novelty and being non-intuitive.
In general a patent will be granted for an invention so long as it is new or “novel”:
- the invention must never have been made in public in any way, anywhere, before the date on which the application for a patent is filed.
- involves an inventive or “unobvious” step: this step must not be obvious to others with good knowledge and experience of the subject of the invention.
- is capable of industrial/useful application: an invention must be capable of being made or used in some kind of industry.”
- Thompson-Reuters,
That is definitely not what I am talking about here.
Let’s Get Back To Inventing Your Successful Future
The key to Inventing is to very precisely specify your Search-Target and to get your Unconscious to pay vigorous attention to it.
Traditionally, that is done through extensive study, thought, research, trial and error.
This is what Archimedes, the Greek philosopher did in 212 B.C. when he solved one the most important challenges in his career path, deciding whether the King of Syracuse’s new crown was pure or adulterated gold.
To do what the King wanted, Archimedes had to Invent a new process.
So he thought and puzzled and worried, then he worried and puzzled and thought about how to meet his main “client’s” needs without melting down his new crown. Next, while continuing to worry, puzzle and think, he repeatedly tried and failed. Of course, all of the thought, puzzling, worry, trying and failing were focused on finding a way to meet the King’s request.
This neatly framed the problem, creating a precise Search-Target for his Unconscious Mind and pretty soon it came up with a solution – but it couldn’t get it through to his conscious mind.
So his Unconscious put him into a bath. And, as Archimedes watched the water rise while his body sank into the bathtub, he got an “aha!” feeling followed shortly thereafter by a conscious understanding of the solution. And this was one big Aha!… so big that he leaped out of the bath and ran through the streets of Athens, completely nude, screaming, “Eureka, Eureka!”
By the way, his solution is obvious now. It’s just that no one had thought of it in the same way before Archimedes, or so we think.
Archimedes realized that if he filled a pot with water to the very top, a pot large enough to easily accommodate the crown, he could put the crown into it and measure the amount or water that spilled out. And that volume of water would exactly match the volume of the crown.
Then all he had to do was to weigh the same exact volume of gold. If the crown’s weight was the same, it was genuine.
We now call this Archimedes Principle.
Unfortunately for the goldsmiths, the King’s intuitive feeling that something was amiss was correct and the culprits were made to pay for their crime!
My Cybernetic Transposition approach to Inventing is far more rapid and precise.
The Cybernetic Transposition Process of Inventing
Anything new that I have ever encountered can be described as:
This (the new thing) is like that (something previously known) except it is different in some way (something else previously known).
I have never seen anything that couldn’t be traced back to something earlier in the way I just described.
And given that I attended M.I.T., worked with over 100 professional Inventors, worked with over 100 Venture Capitalists, mentored over 500 successful entrepreneurs and trained over 70,000 people to be highly successful via Cybernetic Transposition, that covers a lot of territory.
Think about it for a while, and I’m pretty sure that you’ll reach the same conclusion.
For example, the modern digital computer such as my Apple MacBook Pro on which I am writing this is like Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine and Analytical Engine (1822) except that instead of using mechanics, it uses electrons acting in similar fashion.
For example, large-scale integrated circuits are like the circuits comprising the Macintosh audio amplifier I put together while at M.I.T. that consisted of individual resistors, capacitors, wires and vacuum tubes except that the incredibly miniaturized components that perform all of the same functions are put onto a single chip by a process that is like the printing process of photolithography.
For example, a Hula Hoop is like a plastic water pipe except that it is curved into a circle and the two ends attached by a “cork” that is like the cork of a wine bottle.
The Cybernetic Transposition Three-Step takes advantage of the ?This is like that except different in some familiar way? paradigm to precisely instruct your Unconscious “that is, to create a precise Search-Target.
In broadest terms, the steps are:
- Specify precisely what you want.
For example, “I want to lose 18 pounds.”
- Remember a time when you accomplished some form of that.
For example, “Last year, after putting on 10 pounds during the Christmas season, I lost 14 pounds.”
I call that the Reference Memory.
Remember a time when you experienced something that matches whatever it takes to modify the Reference Memory (through hindsight) into an Imaginary Experience of exactly what you want. I call this something the Modifier.
For example, I know that a DuraFlame Log weights 6 pounds because it says so on the package. So, if I pick up and hold 3 of those Logs, I will have the experience of 18 pounds. So my memory of that experience is the Modifier.
Then, in your imagination, modify the relevant aspects of your Reference Memory to precisely match those in the Modifier so as to come up with a precise Search-Target. Then add into that Imaginary Experience anything required to make you intuitively feel that it accurately depicts what you want.
For example, via hindsight, I imagine modifying the Reference Memory of being 14 pounds lighter just after I step off the scale into an Imaginary Experience of being 18 pounds lighter just after getting off the scale. But, intuitively, that’s not good enough so, again through hindsight, I further modify that Imaginary Experience to include comfortably putting on the pair of pants that was too tight last year, even after losing 14 pounds.
Now I intuitively feel that my Imaginary Experience accurately depicts what I want.
Of course, as I stated above, this is just the broadest description of the Cybernetic Transposition Process of creating a Search-Target but it should give you a good idea of what I am talking about and, if you combine these four steps with what I described in my first Post, the conscious three-step, you should do a lot better in getting what you want.
The Cybernetic Transposition Process I describe in my books, teach in my self-paced Dream Achiever Program (DAP) and teach through hands-on coaching in my Super Achiever Coaching Program (SACP) and my Super Entrepreneur Training (SET) goes much farther in implementing each Step of the Cybernetic Transposition Three-Step that I briefly described in my second Post.
And that major difference is what creates the 95%+ success rate in achieving seemingly impossible objectives, first try.
“God is in the details.”
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
You’ve Got To Be Prepared To Recognize Your Invention When It Arrives
Lots of times, when participants in my SACP achieve their seemingly impossible and extremely desirable objectives, they don’t immediately realize it. That seems pretty remarkable but it is so. As a result, I have had to include a series of processes that ensures that they do.
One of those involves another participant, your so-called Call-Partner, asking whether you achieved your objective.
For example the other day, I got an email from an Australian SACP participant, Cam, who said, “Only when working with my Call-Partner did I realize that I had actually achieved my extremely challenging objective.”
The same thing probably holds true for you. So be sure to check every day whether you have achieved what you said you want.
There are many inventions and accomplishments that have arrived and passed by in the night because no one noticed them.
For example, the well known, “I thought of that. Why didn’t I do something about it? He is a millionaire based on my idea.”
In my story about Archimedes, I point out that his Unconscious Invented a perfect solution to his problem but couldn’t get him to pay attention until it put him into the bath to get its point across.
The point is that you have to be prepared to discover that you’ve gotten what you want because when your Unconscious gives it to you, it may well not be in the manner you expected. It will probably seem like a lucky accident.
“A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.”
- A. von Szent-Gyorgyi
You might be amazed how seemingly accidental the process of recognizing that your a desired invention has arrived can be.
For example: “Like many of today’s great inventions, the microwave oven was a by-product of another technology. It was during a radar-related research project around 1946 that Dr. Percy Spencer, a self-taught engineer with the Raytheon Corporation, noticed something very unusual.
He was testing a new vacuum tube called a magnetron, when he discovered that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. This intrigued Dr. Spencer, so he tried another experiment. This time he placed some popcorn kernels near the tube and, perhaps standing a little farther away, he watched with an inventive sparkle in his eye as the popcorn sputtered, cracked and popped all over his lab.
The next morning, Scientist Spencer decided to put the magnetron tube near an egg. Spencer was joined by a curious colleague, and they both watched as the egg began to tremor and quake. The rapid temperature rise within the egg was causing tremendous internal pressure. Evidently the curious colleague moved in for a closer look just as the egg exploded and splattered hot yolk all over his amazed face.
The face of Spencer lit up with a logical scientific conclusion: the melted candy bar, the popcorn, and now the exploding egg, were all attributable to exposure to low-density microwave energy. Thus, if an egg can be cooked that quickly, why not other foods? Experimentation began… They created a secret project they called “the Speedy Weenie meaning ‘a quick hot dog!’”
- www.gallawa.com/microtech/history.html
And so was invented the now-ubiquitous microwave oven.
Spencer was able to recognize the importance of his invention because he understood how, in radar, microwaves can be reflected or absorbed and that when they are absorbed, as in the microwave oven, their energy is transferred to what absorbs them.
The way that the absorbed microwaves in a microwave oven heat food is by causing water molecules within the food to vibrate so vigorously that they create heat ” the same way that rubbing two sticks together creates heat.
So be prepared. Check each day whether your ship has arrived.
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
- Benjamin Franklin
Three Levels of Cybernetic Transposition Inventing
In the various levels of Cybernetic Transposition, I teach three different versions of Inventing, each with very powerful everyday applications.
- The Cybernetic Transposition Objectives Process involves consciously defining the specifics of a seemingly impossible objective that you really want to achieve and translating that into a precise Unconscious Search-Target via the Cybernetic Transposition Target Process. From that point on, your Unconscious takes over, Inventing and Unconsciously implementing an extremely effective way of getting what you have specified. The result usually looks like a lucky accident.
- The Cybernetic Transposition SA Clearing Process involves consciously specifying a question you want answered and then working with various aspects of your Unconscious, so-called Subpersonalities to Invent at least three alternative answers that are perfect for you consciously and Unconsciously. Relevant types of questions include, “What should I do now?” “How do I do (something)?” “Who can I get to help me (with something)?” and “Where can I find (something)?”
The process of easily and rapidly Inventing answers to these types of ordinary questions makes your day a lot easier and more successful since the Process takes only about 5 minutes per question.
- The Cybernetic Transposition Super Entrepreneur Fast SA Clearing Process Team automates what I just described so you write down a question and the answer just instantly pops into your conscious mind.
And when implement these ways of Inventing Your Successful Future, your success skyrockets.
What We Just Covered
In this Post, I have explained how the process of Inventing works, how it applies to Inventing Your Own Successful Future and how to get started with doing just that.
I wish you great success, Stuart