ripeness

MAKE YOUR LUCK
Prototyping doesn’t just solve straightforward problems. Call it serendipity or even luck, but once you start drawing or making things, you open up new possibilities of discovery. It’s the same method that’s helped scientists unlock some of the greatest secrets of nature.
Tom Kelley
The art of innovation, Lessons in creativity from IDEO, America’s leading design Firm.

With a good idea, don't forget to ask: "Is the time ripe for it?"

The techniques offered in this book aim at dealing with blocks, both inside and outside the individual. Once somebody has hit upon a good idea it is important to examine the environment and the blocks of others. Then the creativity should be applied to by-passing them; making the others 'see' the good idea.
When we look at the development in industry with regard to efficiency (Taylor: Scientific management), effectiveness, quality (Deming, Juran) and flexibility we see that certain ideas only became 'a hit' when the time was ready for it, i.e. people were "asking" for it.
For example, the case of Deming deserves attention. When he found no ear for his ideas in the USA, he found a very attentive audience in Japan. In the seventies many western managers went to Japan to study the new techniques of quality control and the quality audits the Japanese had learned from a Westerner.

This example teaches us that although at one place people may not be ready, there are more places to go to.
Since Ikarus man has wanted to fly, but only this century have the necessary technology and resources and the needs for long distance travel come together in the airplane.
Ideas 'take off' most easily when they give a shape to something that is already 'trying to get out'. 'Ideas people' are like artists - both try to express possibilities that are just under the surface in the world around them. Very often these new ideas are not accepted at first. Only years later do they become valuable collector's items.
If the technical, organizational and social conditions are not 'ripe' even the best idea will not get anywhere. Good ideas launched at the wrong time will usually be buried for a long time. Many of the patents in patent offices are living proof of this. We may not forget that science is also a game. We have to toss many darts of probabilities towards our goal - the finding of truth and reality. The more darts we throw the greater the chance of hitting the bull's eye.

The more approaches we take to any problem, the greater the chance we have of finding and grasping its essence.

creativity > in inventive search quantity makes for quality