One of the ways we discover, innovate, and create is by taking discrete tidbits of information we already have and attempting to combine them in novel ways. It’s amazing what you can do with what you already know!
I love seeing early development of this ability in children. My four-year-old niece was playing pretend restaurant with me today. She claimed they didn’t have what I ordered (pizza), but that instead I could have “flamingo juice.” After a few inquiries to make sure this wasn’t a concept from some book or show she’d seen, I worked out that she simply knew there were different words that could go in front of “juice,” and she hadn’t yet worked out what those words signified. So she put a word she liked in front and bam, a delicious (?) new beverage was invented.
So hey, maybe flamingo juice isn’t going to fly off the shelves. But the basic concept of just putting together two things you know is absolutely the way we form higher levels of knowledge and creativity. You should always try it.
And from now on, my term for a brilliant combination of two existing but previously separate things will be “flamingo juice.”
The Opportunity Machine 