Old Masters Series:
A Technique For
Producing Ideas

<p>It’s kind of unusual when someone you work with bursts into your office with an urgent problem, and then you proceed to develop a solution to that problem and simplify it over the next 10 years, and then your solution ends up becoming one of the most important books in business history.</p><p>But that’s what happened with our Old Masters Series selection today. Its origin story, nearly 100 years ago, begins when James Webb Young is working at ad agency J. Walter Thompson in Chicago.</p><p>A frantic ad sales manager for a magazine shows up out of nowhere and asks Young the following question:</p><p>“You have produced a lot of advertising ideas. Just how do you get them?”</p><p>No one had asked Young that question before, and he didn’t know the answer himself. At first. At least, at a conscious level where he could explain it.</p><p>He had to think about the question for years, but by 1940 he had the answer and he published it in a book. It’s the shortest book ever in our Old Masters Series, and really, considering how important and valuable it is, one of the least well known.</p><p>How short is it? Just over 5300 words. About 15-20 pages in regular-sized books, but around 50 pages in the smaller printed books it’s sold in today. You can easily read it in less than an hour.</p><p>Most people want to read it more than once. I’ve lost count myself but it’s at least a dozen times I’ve read it. Because it’s so precise and so powerful.</p><p>It’s easy enough to read. And the book will only cost you a few dollars.</p><p>But what James Web Young came up with over the decade while he was pondering the question, is, well, priceless.</p><p>And that’s what we’ll cover today.</p><p><br></p><p>Resources</p><p>A Technique For Producing Ideas, by James Webb Young</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4XRLVPJ/">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4XRLVPJ/</a></p><p><br></p><p>The Persuasion Story Code</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ</a></p>