Genius, creativity and leadership: Studies indicate that creative productivity is the result of a combination of widely varying factors

Thomas Edison took out 1093 patents over his career, still the record at the U.S. Patent Office. No wonder, then, that he said genius was 99 percent perspiration and only 1 percent inspiration! And Edison's case can be considered fairly typical. A number of researchers have shown, in apply, so that the proportion of “hits” to “misses” tends to be about the same for contributors of different quantities of work. Those who produce more masterworks also produce more rubbish. Thus, the best approach is to massively generate ideas in the hope that some pan out. This, of course, is the notion underlying “brainstorming” and similar techniques.