Brainstorming and Censorship

After reading chapter five of Professor Krause's The Process of ResearchWriting, I felt I had to second his instruction to avoid self-censorship during the topic brainstorming process.

Although I have never heard this advice in an academic setting, it's a rule I have used professionally for years when needing to come up with a name, tag line, theme, etc. My colleagues and I gather around a white board, with one person serving as scribe. We call out whatever comes into our minds and the scribe writes down every thought, no matter how silly it may seem at the time. Later, when we move into the weeding out phase, we're often surprised at how good some of the "silly" ideas are.