how to have a good brainstorm

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^^One of the partners at Armchair, Stefán Kjartansson, designed this typeface.

From college to professional life, I've often found myself sitting around a table with a group of people, trying to come up with an idea or arrive at a decision.

When I was 18, I was very good at pointing out why something wouldn't work. "Can't you see how cliche those metaphors are? If we publish this poem we'll look like idiots."

Six years later, I hope I've arrived at a more positive place. Not because I'm a nicer person or anything, but because I've realized how futile and even destructive that sort of criticism is. And I've realized that when other people criticize my ideas in that way, I shut down.

As I get older, I find myself gravitating to the people who let my ideas flourish before taking the editing axe to them.

During a brainstorm, it isn't hard to point out flaws in someone's idea: We aren't budgeted for that. The amount of effort it will take doesn't seem realistic. You haven't thought through all the details.

Of course they haven't thought through the details! The idea just occurred to them two minutes ago.

I am a born editor. I can't look at a sentence without wanting to make it shorter, more direct, more concise, and then finally perfect.

But that is the worst attitude to take in a brainstorm, when ideas are just forming. You have to let ideas get big and unmanageable before you start cutting them back. In order to generate any good ideas at all, you have to take the ceiling off a brainstorm and remove fear of rejection from the room. Entertain any and every idea, no matter how lofty and unrealistic. Then once things get serious, you can start poking holes and scaling back.

Don't just practice this with your coworkers and peers; take the same attitude toward private brainstorms with yourself.

Like when you're trying to answer, "What do I want to do with my life?"