An Unusual Group Helps Countries Anticipate Attacks, An NFL Star Finds Tips From A Unique Place, And How Mountain Goats Climb: How 'Idea Sex' Helps Find Innovative Ideas
The 3-Word Quote: ‘Outside for Insights’
1.
'How will we be attacked?'
That is the question that anxious countries spend millions of dollars and employ thousands of people to answer.
Countries worry about cyber warfare, computer hacks, and drone attacks, among countless other scenarios.
Some of the sharpest minds in the intelligence sector analyze previous attacks worldwide to produce ideas that might help make their country safer in the future.
War has drastically changed, and battles are fought much differently than one hundred years ago.
Science, computers, and artificial intelligence have changed the landscape of attacks and defense.
However, while technology has had a dramatic impact on defense, many countries have recruited small, unique groups to help think how future attacks might be carried out.
And these groups are decidedly low-tech.
The United States has used these groups off and on for decades.
The UK hired a few group members two years ago to help them.
Canada and France have also employed several members of this group.
While these members are all different—no one member works for multiple countries—they do all have one thing in common.
They all have a very particular set of skills.
And these are skills that militaries value.
2.
Micah Parsons plays in the National Football League.
And if you know pro football, you know this Dallas Cowboys player is one of the best defensive players in the league.
Parsons has always been one of the best at his position.
He attended Penn State, where he was an All-American and was named Big Ten Linebacker of the Year.
In his first year of professional football, he was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.
He's large - 6 foot 3 inches.
He's fast - he runs the 40-yard dash in 4.36 seconds.
Opposing coaches have also praised his intelligence and strength on the field.
And like many of the best professional athletes, he works hard at his craft.
He watches films nightly, practices his technique daily, and works out religiously—all in pursuit of being the best.
But just a few months ago, he picked up some tips from a surprising person in an unusual location.
The tips might just make him more ferocious on the field than he already is.
3.
You probably haven't thought much about mountain goats.
You've probably read even less about them.
Most people know that mountain goats are legendary climbers (see this video).
They climb quickly and expertly because of their hooves - they are designed for the climbing they do.
The mountain goat has two front-facing toes that are 'soft on the bottom and surrounded by a hard edge.'
The soft portion provides traction, and the hard edge allows the goat to dig in on the terrain and prevent sliding.
They also have two rear toes, which can spread out to further improve grip and traction, especially when descending.
If you've made it through the last couple of paragraphs about mountain goat hooves, thank you.
Now, you might be wondering who cares about mountain goats and how they climb.
The answer to that question, it turns out, is one of the largest companies in the world.
The takeaway:
So what do a group designed to help anticipate terrorist attacks, a star football player, and how mountain goats climb all have in common?
They're all examples of what author James Altucher coined 'idea sex.'
Idea sex is a term used to describe finding solutions and ideas from outside your industry—when an idea from your field is paired with an idea from another field, and the result is a unique solution or new idea.
And it's incredibly common.
Let's take a look.
Many governments fear attacks.
With various new technologies, it seems easier to deploy weapons. There are countless ways these attacks could happen.
And while countries have hundreds of experts, many countries have also employed unique small groups to brainstorm how terrorist might attack.
Usually, these members have no military background.
Most have no technological expertise.
But they do all have one thing in common.
They are all fiction writers.
Usually the writers are either thriller writers or science fiction writers.
So why would intelligence officers and military leaders occasionally hire teams of fiction writers?
Because fiction writers have one specific skill - a skill they spend most of their day doing:
They make stuff up.
In other words, these countries desire the writers' imaginations.
These writers spend their days creating fictional scenarios of terrorist attacks. They build fantastical plots of bad guys attacking various targets.
Often, these writers are asked to brainstorm how a specific place might be attacked if they were to write a book about it.
Intelligence analysts are extremely good at examining the facts, gathering clues, and examining the evidence of what has already happened.
The writers have been brought in to create what could happen.
Then presumably, governments would run assessments to see if they are prepared for the fictional situation.
Some intelligence officers read airport thriller fiction books in which a secret agent has to unravel an evil plan and save the world (see the video below about suspense author David Baldacci being invited to a secret organization).
Several of these writer meetings were a result of the 9/11 attacks. In October 2001, 'members of the Hollywood entertainment industry were invited to the Pentagon' - to think of future scenarios.
The UK and France have specifically targeted science fiction writers for help. The UK hired two writers to produce short stories.
These stories were not to be sold to the public- they were written for the government to show ‘how developing technologies could shape warfare.'
These governments sought out ideas from different fields, leveraged the writers' imagination, and used those ideas to try to be more prepared for a real-world attack.
It is an example of mixing disciplines to arrive at something new.
And while it might seem strange, many industries do the same thing - they take ideas from other fields and apply and adjust those ideas to their field - this is idea sex at work.
A Harvard Business Review article confirms that the government's actions with writers might be helpful.
The article states, 'There's great power in bringing together people who work in fields that are different from one another.'
The article goes on to say, 'It is a potential source of radical innovation.'
People in different fields draw on different experiences and approach situations differently.
It is precisely these outsiders and their differing ideas that occasionally produce unique solutions.
This idea combination helps break up group think - where everyone seems to think and do similar things.
This sameness rarely results in breakthroughs.
Alfred Sloan, a former CEO at General Motors, once said at the conclusion of a meeting: well, it looks like we are all in agreement here. Let's come back in a few days when we have some disagreement.
Sloan courted conflict and despised groupthink.
He knew quick consensus often occurred due to a need for more innovative ideas.
And this is why you, too, should often look to other fields of inspiration and ideas.
A simple exercise in wondering how other fields tackle similar problems could be helpful. It is useful to look for ideas that could be taken and used in your field.
Instead of R and D standing for ‘Research and Development’, make it stand for ‘Rip off and Duplicate’ - steal from other fields and replicate it - bring their ideas to your field.
***
And this leads us to a Dallas Cowboys star defensive player.
He's a football player.
To improve his football skills, shouldn't he simply practice more, watch more game tape, and get more coaching?
Of course.
All those things work.
But when looking for an edge, you should often look where others don't.
And in Parsons' case, he happened to look in Japan.
Parsons was on a recent trip to promote the NFL in Japan as part of the Global Markets Program.
He was looking to help get the Japanese more interested in NFL football.
He was there to serve as an ambassador of the sport.
He also participated in many Japanese activities, learning about the culture and customs of the country.
He wasn't looking to learn something he could use in his game from someone who had never played a second of football.
But he did.
Because he was open to it. His thinking was confined just to his discipline.
Parsons is used to charging offensive linemen and using his quickness to get around them or his strength to run over them—all while trying to sack the quarterback.
It's the central part of his job.
So, while in Japan, he was asked to use his skills against an opponent.
His opponent had never touched a football, but he was going to play the part of an offensive lineman. And Parsons was to move him.
Parsons agreed to take on this opponent.
He charged the man, perhaps not with his total effort - after all, he didn't want to knock him over or injure his Japanese host.
Parsons charged the man and ran into him with great force.
But the man barely moved.
The Japanese opponent was slightly smaller, but Parson could barely move him.
In fact, his opponent pretty easily tossed him aside.
And who was his opponent?
The opponent who had never touched a football, but seemed to take an NFL player's best shot?
He was a sumo wrestler.
The sumo wrestler seemed to exert himself only slightly when hit by Parsons- yet he quickly pushed aside one of the NFL's best players (see a video of the encounter below).
Parsons immediately said, 'Run it back' after being defeated - meaning he wanted a second shot at the sumo wrestler.
He had been humbled in the first attempt.
In the video, you see Parsons' total effort in the second attempt, bullrushing the sumo wrestler.
Parsons was all in on the second attempt.
He was focussed and used all his strength.
The sumo wrestler again seemed to be moving at half speed.
The two battle for a brief period of time.
But Parsons finally moves the Japanese man and wins the battle.
And Parsons learned from that experience.
He took away small tips on leverage, footwork, and hand placement from an unusual source - a sumo wrestler in Japan.
Other football teams have explored this avenue, too.
Colorado State University signed a sumo wrestler in 2023 to play on their offensive line.
While this may not be a massive trend, more football teams and players are looking elsewhere for any advantage they can find—because that's what the good ones do.
And where many of them are looking - is increasingly outside of football.
***
And now, back to the mountain goats.
We won't recap their hoof structure or the anatomy of the goat.
You won't be interested.
But one company was particularly interested in how goats climb and, more importantly, why they never fall.
The company was Nike.
Why Nike?
Why would they be interested in mountain goats?
Because they wanted to make great soles for a pair of trail shoes.
They studied the mountain goat in an effort to find the absolute best grip for one of their trail shoes.
And this is common.
It's a technique called biomimicry.
Biomimicry is a design philosophy that takes clues from nature to find solutions to human problems.
It's when designers try to implement natural ideas to solve their modern world issues.
Nike needed a better grip for their shoe - they looked at how mountain goats climb and how their hooves work.
Biomimicry in action.
And then Nike tried replicating a goat's hoof on the bottom of a shoe for humans.
The results?
The Nike Air Terra Goatek shoe uses what the company calls 'G-Tek Terrain technology,' which was, of course, inspired by the mountain goat.
The outer sole is stiff; the inner portion softer - just like the goat's hoof.
Nike didn't look at other shoes with excellent traction to get new ideas.
They went outside their field to discover something new.
Looking for ideas outside your field requires a different way to see things.
Looking at one field and seeing how you can bring elements of that field into your own requires practice.
***
Creativity expert Todd Henry recently told a story on a podcast about two neighbors.
One night a guy named Dave was searching by a streetlight in his neighborhood for his lost car keys.
His neighbor, Mike, noticed Dave's panic and asked what he was doing.
Dave said, ‘Well, I’m looking for my car keys. I can’t find them anywhere.’
Mike jumped into the search to help find Dave’s keys. But after twenty minutes of searching under the streetlight, the keys never turned up.
Mike finally stopped and asked his friend, ‘Dave, are you sure you lost your keys here?’
Dave looked at Mike sheepishly and said, ‘Well, no, I actually lost them at the park.’
‘Then why in the world are you looking here under the streetlight?’ Mike asked.
Dave answered, ‘Well, because the light is so much better here.’
Henry’s story shows what we often do when searching for ideas or solutions.
We look for solutions in places that are familiar and in areas that are well-lit and easy.
In other words, we look for our keys under a streetlight in our neighborhood instead of searching in the park.
Like intelligence officers learning from writers, a pro football player learning from a sumo wrestler, and a shoe company learning from a mountain goat, all three decided to look elsewhere for ideas.
Influences are everywhere, but you have to be open to seeing them.
And be daring enough to combine them and put them into practice.
Sometimes, it pays to look outside your industry for innovation and inspiration.
You'll never know what you'll find when you do.
3 things before you go:
watch: author David Baldacci talking about visiting an unnamed intelligence agency
watch: watch Micah Parsons’ sessions with the sumo wrestler; entertaining to watch the two battle
listen: Six Foot Blonde, Landgirl; catchy new song from relatively new Bloomington, IN band
happy 4th…see you in 9 days!
-Jeff