What inspires your best ideas?
Inventor Scott Jones is inspired by behaving in bizarre ways, such as using a fork with a three-foot-long handle to eat – and watching TV a foot from the screen. What methods do you use to come up with fresh ideas? Make a post here.
From carol levine I saw bill gates success from miles away when I was just an intern at NBC NY in the late 70's early 80's. Then Yahoo was a screem I believe that it
came after amazon but I was too busy to notice, Helping my family excessed from the Broolyn Navy Yard, whech Bobby Kennedy tryied so very hard to save g-d bless him, Any, this diatribe is strickly for my dad's benefit. A previous Sailor Man from WWII whom I have a dored since he put his brownie camera in my hand and I looked down. Taught me to ride a two wheeler. "No training wheels for me". But he,always wanted to see one of his idea invented or at least get a fighting chance. Radio shack didn't give him the time of day – others just hear an old man who would have been an engineer or accountant had he had the money and didn't have to bring up a support his mother, brother & sister. Anyway, If there's any way you can walk him through some of his newer Ideas I think that it would be the finist gift we could give him. He's always the sweetest guy in the room. He could have issues but he'll always ask about you.
My dad George Shapiro Had a garage door that opened and closed in the 1955 (he was a machinest) He helped the guy at TRG fix his lazer to make it work. Otherwise it would have wound up on a scrap heep,. He has the picture! In those days companies just stole your patents but when I was working at NBC I opened up a Time or Newsweek Magazine and there I see my fathers co worker working with my dad on the machine (though I'm not sure if its there with my dad anymore. But my dad George has his and this gentlementsued the co and won and managed to get a percentage of every computer sold after that and in retrospect. Whew My dad also came up with sequential lights also on his own. Mercury came by said ho hum and stole it from him. This can't always be he plight in life. Can you help?
From Kale Dear Julie,
Loved your article about Scott Jones. Reading that article made feel that I was reading about my life expect that I am not as sucessful as Scott..
I share alot with him when it comes to being creative and keep on thinking of new ideas. Unfortuantly, it is very hard to get your idea across especially when you don't have the right sources and funds.
My only goal is that once I become sucessful, I would like to use my success to help others especially the needy and the poor around the world.
I would like to know how can I get in touch with Mr. Jones to ask for his advice on how to make idea and inventions a reality? is there like an email address for him that he uses to communicates with regular people who seek advices?
Thank you for your time
From Rodger Eva Hello
I greatly enjoyed your cover story on the inventor Scott Jones in your Nov, 07 issue of Fortune, Small Business. As a creative whose mind is often almost overwhelmed with ideas trying to get out, I applaud Scott for the diligent approach he has taken to pursuing his concepts.
I need to get in contact with his organization regarding an idea I am currently developing and would appreciate my contact information being forwarded to them or receiving some form of their contact info from you.
Thank you for a great publication that has informed and heartened me with every issue I have received.
From Shahart Great things come to me while standing, and when I'm under pressure.
From Ivin Smith – Chicago Thats a great article to read, it gave me some idea's for my magazine and also my new film company.
From Sean Power Ms. Sloane,
One of the best business articles I've read on my lunch break. I thoroughly enjoyed them. Excellent work for a great magazine.
From Eric Webb, San Diego, CA interesting, and humorous article! How did you learn about this fascinating guy? Sounds like a genius to me, along the lines of Einstein, Mozart and Tesla…..
What is this guy like in person? It would be interesting to meet him myself someday. I can relate to the ideas that come in bursts… I get them all the time at midnight or early in the morning. I've got stacks of ideas myself.
He sounds like a very interesting person to know. I wonder what his staff thinks of him, and what is it like to work for him…
Thanks for writing such an interesting article. I had a good laugh, and it really made my day. So inspiring to read about an unusual genius. Genius
quality people always fascinate and inspire me…
From Ricardo Cardenas The article about Scott Jones is rather strange. There are many other ways to get rich, don't get trapped in being a weirdo as a way for success. Scott Jones sounds like he is indeed a little crazy and stuck on himself. Ignore him at best, what a weirdo!!
From Brook Paquette, San Diego, CA Great article on Scott Jones. Ever since I was a child watching The Jetsons
I knew that someday I would have a flying 'car'. It sounds like Mr. Jones is
going to make that dream a reality. Thanks Scott! Let me know if I can help
: )
From Kris Kendrick, Montgomery, AL In the second paragraph of your November 2007 article on Scott Jones, Julie Solane refers to "Most folks in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel (pronounced like the candy)…" however, "Carmel" is not a candy. She must be referring to "Caramel" the confection that is derived from the caramelization of sugar.
From Dane Jasper FYI Julie, Carmel is not pronounced like the candy – it's pronounced like the auto and the name "Mel", "Car Mel". The candy is more like
"Car-mul".
=)
From Jonathan LeVian Great article! Scott jones is amazing.
From Rhett Oric Watching IBM's "innovation" rhetoric on TV or pitches from "innovation consultants". Happens anywhere… key is looking for it.
From Pete ,Connecticut My best ideas come to me after cooking a hearty vegan dinner.
From Kris, San Diego, CA Going for a run; my best business ideas have popped into my head while running – no office distractions – pure free range thinking…
From Bill Ross, Kingston, NY (Ahem, yes,) that was, our poll is open Until November 1st.
From Bill Ross, Kingston, NY Funny you should ask: we, too, recently started a poll on our site asking "Where and When do you get your best ideas?" It's a followup to one we ran a couple years back.
http://ideachampions.com/heartofinnovation/
I won't taint any of our results by mentioning what we've found out so far ("we" being Idea Champions, the culture of innovation training/consultancy). But we look forward to comparing results, which should lead to an even richer understanding all the way around. Our poll is open November 1st, after which we'll announce what we learned.
Thanks for asking this very root question.
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It was interesting to read the recent cover story focusing on Scott Jones and his idea for a human-assisted search engine. While Jones may have been thinking about the idea for the last twenty years we at Nerac have been doing it for over forty! In fact, we even had similar tag lines. On his website he uses “people powered search” and up until about a year ago we had “people powered searching”…I still have a closet full of shirts and business cards with the old logo! It’s gratifying to read that others are catching on to what we have believed for close to half a century, that humans cannot successfully be taken out of the research process no matter how large and user-friendly products like Google become.
We can certainly attest affirmatively to the question about the personal touch and whether or not human expertise can enhance automated web search. Words are merely words; it is the addition of the human mind, expertise, and interpretation of the question that brings the value to the results and that will ultimately lead to a more satisfying answer to the question. Generally faster and with less frustration too.
Good luck to Mr. Jones, I wish him well with his new business venture. There is certainly room for another company just as passionate about the value of human-assisted search/research as we are. As the amount of information on the web expands the need for more human guides or interpreters will only get greater.