The Creative Value of Bad Ideas

A Computational Model of Creative Ideation

Ricardo SosaJohn S. Gero

Key ideas

1. Ideational fluency vs. quality variance2. Simple computational models to support

insights for future research and practice3. Assumptions about ideation:

1. Some ideas are easier to access than others2. Ideas are connected to each other

4. Exploration and exploitation strategies5. Distinguish ideas according to their potential

to generate new ideas

Idea accessibility

Likelihood to generate a particular idea or set of ideas for a given design task: conformity metrics (commonplace–original)

Idea connectivity

Likelihood of one idea leading to other ideas (fitness landscapes, network linkages, trains of thought)

Computational models of creativity

1. Generative models:“Can computers ever be creative?”

2. Systemic models:“Can computation help us understand creativity?”

Computational models of creativity

Contributions can inform other research traditions by:• Framing new hypotheses• Testing the consistency and implications of

assumptions• Proposing new experimental settings

In-vivo, in-vitro, in-silico studies of creativity

Computational model of ideation

“Use g geometries of s sides as the initial elements to generate as many different compositions (g’s’) of more

than g geometries of equal or more s sides”

Computational model of ideation

{4,0,4,2,0, (3,3,3,4)} {4,1,3,0,2,4, (3,3,4,4)} {3,1,4,1,0, (3,3,6)} {3,2,3,1,0, (4,5,5)} {5,1,5,0,0, (3,3,3,5,5)}

Accessibility: given by mean frequency of solutions (exploration) over repeated cases

Exploitation: a guided search informed by rules (‘design concepts’) inferred from experience

Connectivity: mapping of design concepts leading to new solutions (exploitation)

Findings

1. Choice of representation shown to influence the type and degree of creativity

2. Exploration/exploitation rate of .25/.75 = highest number of total ideas… due to higher idea variances upon which exploitation builds on novel ideas

3. Ideation types:– Solutions of low-accessibility leading to

solutions of high-accessibility: a “difficult way to reach easy ideas”

– Low-accessibility solutions that lead to new solutions of low accessibility too: “uncommon ideas that yield other uncommon ideas”

– High accessibility ideas connected to low accessibility ideas: “easy shortcuts to reach rare ideas”*

4. Bad ideas can be very valuable for creative ideation:

– Low-score or invalid solutions that lead to valuable and uncommon solutions

Task: “to find 3 or more final geometries and shapes of 5 sides”a) solution {2,1,3,2,0 (3,6)} and b) solution {4,1,3,2,0 (3,3,4,5)}

“The best way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas”

“…and the best way to get lots of ideas is to first generate a few

that are as different as possible and then strategically build on

them”

“…including some seemingly bad ideas”

Linus Pauling, the only person to be awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes

A very simple computational model

Discussion

Needed: research in facilitation techniques that monitor idea accessibility –or variance metrics

Accessibility-based tools to balance exploration/exploitation ratio

Connectivity-based tools to inform the exploitation strategies

Discussion

New studies and metrics of ideation to target the value of new ideas based on their potential to trigger more ideas