How to come up with a remarkable idea!? : What is the relationship between prior paper and new insight?

※I translated 2014/01/20 article(only in Japanese) into the following article in English.

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　Some days ago, a graduate student asked me how to make a unique research hypothesis.
He said

"Nakahara-sensei, I have read a vast amount of previous research and understood what has been done so far. But no novel and unique view point has come to my mind. What should I do?"

He has read some articles which I wrote on my blog for my graduate students. So he asked me this question.
In my opinion, only god knows when remarkable ideas come to our minds. I'm not sure when and how they come. After reading such research, they should be able to come up with some kind of new viewpoints. I said to them "Have you analyzed the previous data and thought about your hypothesis long and hard enough to come up with your own unique idea?"

Anybody can start just reading. However not so many people think it through to the end by themselves. Thinking until you catch a remarkable idea brings a breakthrough in your research. No vast amount of prior research but you come up with a great idea.

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In fact, there is a pitfall when you read a lot of previous research papers.
It is the first routine task for researchers. but it is apt to become its own goal, and then you forget to think by yourself. The harder your have tried to read, the more you are satisfied and engaged with this routine task.

"Oh I studied so much"

You tend to be preoccupied with reading many prior research papers, So you forget to organize your thoughts and create hypothesis by yourself.

I think it is a misunderstanding that reading vast amounts of previous papers is equal to hitting upon your hypothesis. Rather, it is the basic foundation for coming up with your own good idea.

In terms of the relationship between previous research and new insight, a famous and visionary professor, Tadao Umesao, conducted very unique research in anthropology. He said

"Some people criticized me. They said "Tadao Umesao always only creates ideas". However, I think, coming up with new ideas is one of the most important tasks. Without an actual breakthrough idea, it is just quotation and imitation. Too many people think research is reading and quoting other people's ideas.

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Today I've talked about the pitfalls of reading many research papers. Reading many prior papers is necessary for establishing brand new ideas. If you are having difficulty in coming up with your unique hypothesis, ask yourself, "Have you analyzed the previous data and thought about your hypothesis long and hard enough to come up with your own unique idea?"

life goes on...