Linus Pauling — "The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas."
The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.
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More from Linus Pauling
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Generating many ideas — even imperfect ones — is the most reliable path to finding a genuinely good one. Creative output is a numbers game: you cannot cherry-pick a winner from a tiny pool. Quantity creates variety, and variety creates the conditions where breakthrough thinking can emerge. Filtering comes after generating, never before.
Relevance to Linus Pauling
Pauling embodied prolific ideation across chemistry and medicine. He proposed the alpha-helix protein structure, pioneered quantum mechanics applications to chemical bonding, and championed vitamin C megadosing. His two Nobel Prizes — Chemistry and Peace — came from different domains entirely, proving his own maxim: cast wide, then refine ruthlessly.
The era
Pauling worked through mid-20th century science's golden age, when Cold War funding flooded research institutions and interdisciplinary thinking was reshaping biology, physics, and chemistry simultaneously. Competition with Watson and Crick over DNA structure, and his peace activism during McCarthyism, demanded both intellectual boldness and willingness to publicly risk being wrong.
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