Lit the pilot on the little fake wood-burning stove in the breezeway. Chilly day, gray and damp, so the minuscule warmth of the pilot-light actually felt good.

And...back to A Technique for Producing Ideas.

The five steps:

1) Gather raw material—specific, about the problem at hand (record on 3x5 index cards), and general, everything you have ever learned by being insatiably curious (record in scrapbooks).

2) Chew over all the raw material. Try to digest it. Write down partial ideas, however crazy or incomplete. Try to see if anything goes with anything else. Keep at this hopeless stage until you are sick of it. Try not to throw up.

3) Do nothing. Exert no effort of a direct nature. Drop the whole subject and put the problem out of your mind. Do something completely unrelated—whatever stimulates your emotions or imagination. (Sherlock took Watson to symphony concerts.)

4) Wait for lightning to strike—in the shower, while preparing baby formula, or while tying your shoes.

5) Take the brilliant new idea out into the cold, gray dawn of reality and let it fend for itself. Remain open to criticism and possible refinement.