With all the technologies and inventions around us today, it became challenging to think of something no one in the world thought of before. There are great scientists and inventors who have accomplished so much till you reach to a point where you say, whatever idea I come up with, someone must have thought of before.
This type of thinking will take you nowhere. There are numerous young high school students, and I've even heard of elementary students who have made their own share of inventions. Scientists and geniuses would find what they did easier to accomplish than it is to find something new that never occurred to anyone else's mind.
This post will not give you ideas on inventions to make, but it will give you a push to start thinking of new ideas and thoughts that only you can think of. It's all about being different, and thinking out of the box.
Tips on how to make an invention
Think of a problem you always complain from. Keep thinking about it, and try to find ways everywhere to find it. This is how Archimedes made his contribution to the world.
King Hiero ordered a gold crown. He gave the goldsmith the exact amount of gold to make it. Hiero received the crown, but he suspected that the goldsmith used less-expensive silver instead of gold. Then, he asked for Archimedes's help.
Archimedes had a problem, and he kept thinking about it hoping to find an answer. When he entered his bathtub to relax and think, the water rose. He then found the solution. The water displaced by him is related to his body's volume. The water displaced by a pure gold crown would be less than one of a gold-silver mix, even if they weigh the same. The goldsmith was proven to be a fraud, and was later brought to justice.
Inventions are usually new ideas to solve a current problem, or a method to make something better. Since you don't want to invent something useless that no one will care about (such as an easy way to stick your socks on your bedroom ceiling), you should try to think of what benefits you want to have that will lead you to think of an invention.
I remember when I was in 10th grade; I used to write down to-do lists. The problem was that when I write something I'm supposed to do in our first recess in school, I forget it. One of my chemistry periods that year followed the first recess, and I used to forget to revise the subject whenever we had a quiz. I took a small piece of a plastic sheet and made two holes at its ends. Then I used a ribbon to transform it into a bracelet. I used a whiteboard marker to write and erase my to-do lists easily, and keep them on my wrist all the time.
Wonder why. Keep asking yourself, why does this happen? How can I make it better? What can I add to it? If you keep wondering, you will keep your mind active and eventually reach to an idea.
Newton wondered why that apple knocked his head. Usually, apples fall down on people's heads, but no one asks why. Newton had an unusual mind. Alfred North Whitehead one said, “It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.”At Newton's time, no one wondered. So just try to wonder about things no one else wonders about!
If you ask yourself questions, your subconscious mind will look for answers. Our minds have a power we cannot even realize, and we don't even know how useful it can be. You should change yourself into a thinker, and one day, you will be an inventor.
Explore. Use building blocks, pieces of paper, and small items around you and try to use them in a different way.
In my personal opinion, I think that the one behind the famous cartoon, Tom & Jerry, is very creative. If you observe Jerry's style of life, you will find a lot of our usual items used in a different way. Jerry sleeps in a match box, and he uses matches as pieces of wood for the bed to stand. A piece of cheese, to Jerry, is a maze with Jerry inside. This type of thinking is required if we ever want to introduce something new and creative to the world.
From my personal experience, one of the things I came up with is to use magnets for working out. I was playing with two pieces of magnets, and then thought of the more powerful magnets. Stronger magnets will require more effort by me if I wanted to resist their repulsion, which could be a form of exercise. Then I proceeded to think of how this idea is better than usual methods for workouts. The point is, I tried to explore and get a useful idea from random exploring.
Think out of the box. The only way to come up with something no one else came up with before is to think in a way no one thought of before. Don't use the usual ways everyone else goes for. Think differently. Be wild. Be weird. Be special.
Everyone use pens on papers, sprays on walls, and chalks on sidewalks. What do what we write on have in common? They're all solid. Jets are different, using smoke to make shapes in the sky. We don't have to think the way everyone else thought of. What about liquid? Maybe there's a way to write on water's surface.
The method to achieve a goal is usually easier than coming up with the new idea you want to achieve. It's impossible to follow the steps to do something if you don't know what it is, but if you know what you have to do, finding and making the steps won't be that difficult, or at least not impossible.
The biggest invention isn't the biggest in size; it's the one with the most benefits. Big and complicated ideas for inventions are almost easier to come up with, but harder to achieve. Small and simple ideas for inventions are harder to come up with, but easier to achieve. In both cases, the goal is one; to make a useful contribution for which you'll efforts will be appreciated. Don't underestimate yourself; the world is waiting for you to give them something they never saw or imagined before!