Google VP Jim Miller on Idea Generation
“Ideas shape the course of History.” John Maynard Keynes
Google Vice President Jim Miller sat down with MIT Sloan to explain where he goes to get ideas.
Jim says his nightstand is probably one of the perfect examples of where he draws inspiration from. He’s got books on art, computational genomics, hydrodynamics, astrophysics and more. He says to really draw inspiration and innovation requires a broad compendium of knowledge.
Jim says Google has the advantage of an engineering culture. He says they basically have roomfuls of people, some are subject matter experts, who can throw ideas against the wall. Jim says he uses this same principle in his own idea development. He notes healthy criticism is a great way of getting ideas and extracting the best ones from around the table. See what resonates and let other, less impressive ideas wither on the vine. You can view his full comments here.

