Jack Foster on Line 1

A few weeks ago I was doing my best to procrastinate at work when my cell phone rang. It was the author of How To Get Ideas, Jack Foster, calling.

Calling me.

I've never met Jack. Never written him. Or called. Or emailed. And here he is on the other end of the telephone. A guy who's book merits five stars from 51 of 54 reviews on Amazon. A book that's cited by 31 other books. Over 90,000 copies of the first edition sold. This was wonderfully astounding.

I first read How To Get Ideas in 1998 or 99, a few years after it was first published. It didn't save my life, but it certainly helped me figure out how to work smarter and faster in advertising. I've probably given away a few dozen copies, and always included it in required reading lists for classes I've taught.

"Getting an idea depends on your belief in its existence. And your belief in yourself."

So it seems a friend of Jack's found this blog and noted my recommended books, including an out-of-date edition of How To Get Ideas. Jack asked if he could send me the latest edition, since it's got two new chapters? What's my address? Could I update my link?

This wasn't a blog comment or email asking, this was a real live author using the phone to connect with his audience. Talk about social media.

"The child swings for the fences. The adult thinks too much and has too much scar tissue and is manacled by too much knowledge and by too many boundaries and rules and assumptions and preconceptions. In short, the adult is a poop. A handcuffed poop." (Be more like a child.)

The new edition includes two new chapters: Rejoice In Failure and Team Up with Energy. Both are welcome additions to an already solid philosophy. Clearly, Jack's work in advertising—being required to come up with all kinds of different ideas (not just ads)—and his teaching provided experience and context for developing useful technique. I've turned to this book more times than I can count to get over a block, or procrastination or myself.

"If you're like most people, many times your thinking is inhibited because you unconsciously assume that a problem has restrictions and boundaries and limitations and constraints, when in fact it doesn't."

And I think How To Get Ideas is the book that initially turned me on to another all-time favorite, Robert Grudin's The Grace of Great Things, with its powerful entreaty: "Creativity is dangerous. We cannot open ourselves to new insights without endangering the security of our prior assumptions. We cannot propose new ideas without risking disapproval and rejection."

My old copy has all kinds of underlines and notes in the margins, some indicating the book's value in parsing the difficulties ad agencies were (and currently still are) facing as marketing evolves into the digital space.

"Something is going on right now in some other field that could help you solve your problem, that could give you fresh insight, that could turn your thinking in a new direction, that could combine with something you already know, that you could use to unlock your mystery. Keep your eye and ear out for it."

If it isn't clear, you really ought to get yourself a copy of this book, preferably the new edition. Heck, buy a couple copies and give 'em to friends and co-workers. 

"The truth is: There is no difference between (a)having an idea and not doing anything with it and (b) not having anidea at all."

Thanks for calling, Jack.