The simple genius of the hiccup-curing lollipop

A 13 year old has discovered a way to cure the hiccups with a lollipop.

True story.  And it gets better.

Mallory Kievman, who spent two years tinkering with various folk remedies, licked the challenge when she came up with the soon-to-be-famous hiccup-bashing lollipop. She's about to lead a team of MBA students who will help her build a company that will bring the product to  market.

It’s called the Hiccupop.    

When I first tweeted the story, I got back a lot of “Why didn’t I think of that?!?!” responses.  The answer, of course, is that you could have thought of it as easily as Mallory Kievman, if you had read quite possibly the greatest (and shortest) book in the history of the world about how to create ideas, A Technique for Producing Ideas.

Whether she knew it or not, Mallory was following the steps of James Webb Young, who wrote that “all ideas are nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.” 

An over simplification?  Sure.  But sometimes, it helps to oversimplify when you’re searching for an idea.  I love Jason Fried’s philosophy on solving complicated challenges:

Cut it in half.

And if it’s still too thick, cut it in half again.

So go ahead, read Technique.  It’s right here and it’ll take you under an hour.

Then set aside an hour and do some thinking.

Don’t be the person saying “Why didn’t I think of that!?!?”  Be the person in the New York Times article about to lead a team of MBA students creating a plan to bring your genius product or service to market.

You may not be 13 any more, but it’s never too late.