Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
You may want to create an online course or write an article but find it difficult to generate ideas.
If you feel stuck, the Zwicky box is a practical approach to creating many unique ideas by breaking the problem into categories, adding value to each category, and combining these values.
49
452 reads
Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky was a prolific 20th-century scientist. He wrote over three hundred articles, ten books, held fifty patents, developed jets and rocket propulsion systems, and discovered dark matter. He found over a hundred supernovae, and coined the term "supernova". He received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1973 for his work in astronomy and also received the Medal for Freedom in 1949 for his innovation.
His secret sauce for his creativity, problem-solving and ideation is the Zwicky Box (or “morphological analysis”).
48
166 reads
Zwicky stated that his method could increase the efficiency of our brains 100 times.
He believed that if we could "free ourselves from our pedestrian patterns of thought and learn to think morphologically, the future could be shaped by our images."
When it comes to solving problems, our brains often jump to familiar solutions. For example, if your phone is low on power, charge it. But we often stop when we have a few solutions. Only when all possible solutions are exhausted can we find diverse answers and select the best possible solution.
48
173 reads
If you have a Zwicky box with five categories, and each category contains five values, you can have 3125 unique combinations. From there, you can pick one or two high quality, innovative ideas.
54
186 reads
The Zwicky box can be applied to everyday life, for example:
47
148 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Learn more about problemsolving with this collection
How to focus on the present moment
How to cultivate empathy and understanding towards others
How to set personal and professional goals
Related collections
Similar ideas
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates