群体思维
In the late nineteen-forties, Alex Osborn, a partner in the advertising agency B.B.D.O., decided to write a book in which he shared his creative secrets. At the time, B.B.D.O. was widely regarded as the most innovative firm on Madison Avenue. Born in 1888, Osborn had spent much of his career in Buffalo, where he started out working in newspapers, and his life at B.B.D.O. began when he teamed up with another young adman he’d met volunteering for the United War Work Campaign. By the forties, he was one of the industry’s grand old men, ready to pass on the lessons he’d learned. His book “Your Creative Power” was published in 1948. An amalgam of pop science and business anecdote, it became a surprise best-seller. Osborn promised that, by following his advice, the typical reader could double his creative output. Such a mental boost would spur career success—“To get your foot in the door, your imagination can be an open-sesame”—and also make the reader a much happier person. “The more you rub your creative lamp, the more alive you feel,” he wrote.
19世纪40年代末，广告公司B.B.D.O.的合伙人亚历克斯-奥斯本决定写一本书，在书中分享他的创意秘诀。当时，B.B.D.O.被广泛认为是麦迪逊大道上最具创新性的公司。奥斯本出生于1888年，他的职业生涯大部分时间是在水牛城度过的，在那里他开始在报纸上工作，他在B.B.D.O.的生活始于他与另一位年轻的钦差大臣的合作，他是在为联合战争工作运动做志愿者时认识的。到了四十年代，他已经是这个行业的老将之一，准备把他学到的经验传授给大家。他的书《你的创造能力》于1948年出版。这本书是流行科学和商业轶事的混合体，成为一本令人惊喜的畅销书。奥斯本承诺，通过遵循他的建议，典型的读者可以使他的创造性产出增加一倍。这样的精神动力将刺激事业的成功--"为了让你的脚踏入大门，你的想象力可以是一粒开放的芝麻"--同时也使读者成为一个更快乐的人。"他写道："你越是擦拭你的创意之灯，你就越是感到有活力。
Repeated scientific debunking hasn’t dented brainstorming’s popularity.Illustration by Nishant Choksi
反复的科学驳斥并没有削弱头脑风暴的受欢迎程度。插图：Nishant Choksi
“Your Creative Power” was filled with tricks and strategies, such as always carrying a notebook, to be ready when inspiration struck. But Osborn’s most celebrated idea was the one discussed in Chapter 33, “How to Organize a Squad to Create Ideas.” When a group works together, he wrote, the members should engage in a “brainstorm,” which means “using the brain to storm a creative problem—and doing so in commando fashion, with each stormer attackin...