Serious creativity

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…as asking "How did you get your startup ideas?" which is a little different. Some context. I was reading some books (Christiansen's "Innovator's Solution" and de Bono's "Serious Creativity" - I am a developer but I do read a business book once in a while! :-) ) which seem to advocate a deliberate, methodical approach to idea generation. I wondered how startup founders (especially the YC folks) generate their ideas. Hence the (original) question , trying to tap the experience of people reading this. Over the last couple of days I heard some debate on on whether creating an idea first and then gathering co founders is better than the other way round so I added that. Apologies for any errors in phrasing. English is not my first language.

Edward de Bono, the so-called grandfather of creativity, describes this approach in his groundbreaking book "Serious Creativity." Basically you always want to generate ideas separately, then expand on them in a group. The reason is that a group approach from the start will squash somewhat crazy concepts before sufficient time has been put into making them practical. As a result, the most creative ideas are shot down before they are given a chance to be refined. Instead, if you generate ideas on your own you can spend more time on a half-baked concept in order to round out its flaws. Then once its ready, other people can help provide different perspectives on the idea without shooting it down outright. Therefore I don't see this article as simply advocating a single founder approach. However, co-founders should harden their new ideas on th…