Turns out that brainstorming doesn’t really work.  As early as 1958, Yale University ran experiments that showed single participants came up with roughly twice as many creative solutions as groups “brainstorming” did… and over time the numerous follow-up studies have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone, and then pool their ideas.

Sobering, eh?

What’s really impressive is that even the term, let alone the concept, was the totally made-up, unscientific “tool” presented to the business community by a advertising agency man in his book published in 1948 (predating the Mad Men era).

But since we’re bound to be working on problems as groups, even in a tiny startup, I strongly recommend you read the whole article to get the rest of the story, and implications for current day brainstorming.