100 brains on the same brief. How many solutions would be identical or similar? If you gave the brief to a selective crowd ( vetted professionals in a particular field) with the same cultural backgrounds. My guess: at least 50. The number would get smaller the less “selective” the crowd gets: choosing different participants from different disciplines. The problem is that you’ll get more cognitive debris: more ideas off brief and some just plainly off kilter. It’s unfair to expect a novice or the uninitiated to think like a professional in any particular field. But we’re free to ask and it’s free to participate. That’s one of the beautiful things about crowdsourcing.
Brilliant ideas may still be in the novice crowds. You just have to look harder. I’ll call this “insight mining” for now….
