Juice

CHAPTER 7

Applying Analogies

The inventor has a logical mind that sees analogies.

—THOMAS EDISON

 

 

ANYONE WHO HAS TAKEN a standardized aptitude test is familiar with the trick of completing analogies. Pipe is to water as wire is to what? If you are smart or lucky enough to eliminate the silly choices from a given list of options and end up with “electricity” as your answer, you get one point on the test. Inventors, however, must extend this ability to analogize by a couple of giant steps. Instead of simply completing analogies, they must create new ones and then apply them to the problems they are trying to solve.

Inventors are fueled by the analogies that they spot all around them. Applying an analogy is a process of spotting knowledge in ...