The Answer Exists Now

In much the same way, when we set out to find a new idea, or the answer to a problem, we must assume that the answer exists already—somewhere, and set out to find it. Dr. Norbert Wiener has said, "Once a scientist attacks a problem which he knows to have an answer, his entire attitude is changed. He is already some fifty per cent of his way toward that answer." (Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings, Houghton Mifflin, New York.)
When you set out to do creative work—whether in the field of selling, managing a business, writing a sonnet, im­proving human relations, or whatever, you begin with a goal in mind, an end to be achieved, a "target" answer, which, although perhaps somewhat vague, will be "recognized" when achieved. If you really mean business, have an intense desire, and begin to think intensely about all angles of the problem—your creative mechanism goes to work—and the "scanner" we spoke of earlier begins to scan back through stored information, or "grope" its way to an answer. It selects an idea here, a fact there, a series of former experiences, and relates them—or "ties them to­gether" into a meaningful whole which will "fill out" the incompleted portion of your situation, complete your equation, or "solve" your problem. When this solution is served up to your consciousness—often at an unguarded moment when you are thinking of something else—or per­haps even as a dream while your consciousness is asleep —something "clicks" and you at once "recognize" this as the answer you have been searching for.