Your Superpower: Originality

One of the key superpowers you need to out-compete A.I. is originality, the ability to create new ideas. We recognize originality when we observe it, but like all skillsets in creative intelligence it is difficult to define. A good way to understand is to refer to the United States patent office (!) and how it defines “non-obviousness”:

The claimed invention as a whole would have not been obvious … to a person having ordinary skill in the art.

So originality (= non-obviousness) means creating ideas (in a domain) which would not have occurred to experts (in that same domain). This is the fuel of innovation at all scales, from micro-problem-solving in meetings to large scale innovations like launching a new start-up company. It is therefore a prized skillset in many work contexts.

Leaping Beyond the Known

All creative thinking is done within a context — a challenge and constraints that frame the thought process. For example, when creating an ad campaign the challenge may be to maximize impact of messaging within the constraints of the brand; when planning a legal case the challenge is to defend an argument; when writing code the challenge is to create a certain function etc.

Most challenges in work and life are familiar, and it is difficult to think originally about them because there are so many known ideas already in the domain. This is apparent when you observe clustering of ideas, where experts converge on the same ideas over time. For example, when thinking of the challenge of climate change, there is clustering around just a few key concepts.

Known ideas form clusters

Originality means “leaping” beyond the set of “known ideas” into the “unknown”. But this leap is made from a base of the “known”. All “new” ideas come from combining “known” ideas in new ways. It is evolution at work, exactly the same mechanism as genetic breeding / mutation. And just like breeding, it needs two unrelated inputs — two unrelated areas of known ideas.

One way to do this is to create challenges that combine known problems with unrelated concepts as unfamiliar constraints. This means creating “surprising” or entertaining new juxtapositions which create a contextual frame that has never been encountered before.

For example, the following challenge is very boring and familiar:

Create a start-up to solve climate change.

The contextual frame is large and there are many known ideas already clustered in that frame. With only that cluster to work with, it very hard to create original ideas from this challenge. But see what happens when we add an unrelated concept as a constraint to the challenge:

Create a start-up to solve climate change using hamsters.

Immediately we open up new areas in the space of the known. Now we have enough inputs for the creative process of original thought to happen. You can immediately “feel” this as a spark of energy in the mind. The challenge is no longer boring, and now it is a good starting point for a battle or game that trains and competes the superpower of originality.

Originality launches from unrelated sets of known ideas to leap into the unknown.

The point here is not so much the actual ideas themselves, which may or may not have utility. You can see in the example given, it is unlikely that a hamster-driven approach to climate change is immediately valuable to anyone (although it does create a new idea which can form the basis of further evolution, a point we will take up at a later time). But by creating a contextual frame (challenge) in this way, we have created a supercharged environment for the creation of non-obvious ideas. This is the arena in which to train originality, by going through the process, getting feedback and learning through iteration.

The Process of Originality

The process of originality involves several lower-level “skills” of creative intelligence in a sequenced workflow. As an illustration, consider the challenge as given above:

Create a start-up to solve climate change using hamsters.

This is the challenge type that we use in our “Brand and Launch” mode of gameplay — to create a brand name and tagline for a start-up. The process of originality in this game mode is as shown below:

The process of originality in our “Brand + Launch” battle type.

1. Juxtaposition — the player must hold two unrelated concepts (“climate change” and “hamster”) in mind simultaneously as a frame for the process.
2. Spontaneity — quickly generate ideas that combine the two unrelated concepts without blocking, filtering or judging.
3. Relevance — refer back to the challenge (context) to assess the generated ideas for relevance; filter and rank ideas accordingly
4. Neologism — prepare the best idea(s) for output by creating new phrases or even words to carry the meaning of the idea; in our particular mode this involves creating a new brand name.

Creating original ideas in this game mode immediately and naturally takes you through this process. It feels like play, so you don’t have to think about the skills that you are training, just like you don’t have to think about your skills when playing sport.

Creating a new original idea for Brand and Launch

Strong Originality

Notice how the very concept of originality relies on social referencing; an idea is original or “non-obvious” only relative what other people think. I might think that my idea is brilliantly original, but it’s a very weak form of originality if hundreds of others also come up with the same idea. On the other hand, if I am the only one of millions of players to think of something, that’s strong originality.

Strong originality leads to unique ideas.

We do this measurement of “strength” intrinsically within our own minds when we encounter a new idea; if it “surprises” us by definition that means that we hadn’t thought of that idea ourselves; and therefore we say “this idea is original”. Statistically, if many people say that, then the idea and therefore you as its creator is exhibiting strong originality.

Can A.I. personas be original?

Contemporary A.I. excels at manipulating the “known” and can mimic the process of originality quite well. It is capable of juxtaposition, has obvious speed advantages in the skill of spontaneity and can execute relevance filtering and some level of neologism.

Outcompeting AI in a Brand & Launch Battle

Where do we as humans have an edge? So far, we see that A.I. tends to cluster its ideas a lot into certain areas. After some time, our A.I. personas repeat themselves more and more — this is weak originality. But who know how much better it can get (especially when we train it with more data).

But as a human, you can outcompete. By competing with A.I. you learn how to beat A.I. You will train your skillset of strong originality by learning how to generate non-obvious and relevant ideas that are truly rare and unique — a superpower that will put you in great demand in the post-AI world.

Polynize Battle Mode — Brand & Launch is coming soon!