I agree about the idea generation (along with the rest of the article), its not as tough as one thinks it out to be. Being open to more information from whatever source one can get it from, books, videos, customers, friends, etc is the first step in idea generation.
This is the way I like to put it:
Given the same level of creativity or intelligence, a person with more information can come up with more ideas than the one with less information.
Another way I like to put it (my 'understanding' of how to increase the rate of innovation):
If a hypothetical innovation/solution (idea) needs 10 points of information (now don't take the 'points' in a literal sense, its a metaphor) connected in a particular pattern (the points together with the pattern, constituting the 'idea/innovation/solution'), given two people or teams with equal intelligence or creative capability, the team which already has 8 points of information will have a better chance of making that innovation or finding that solution than the team with just 5 points of information.
Because the first team/person has to creatively find out where or what just the other 2 points are while the second team has to creatively find out about those 5 missing points. The odds are definitely in favor of the team with 8 existing points of information and just 2 missing points.
Of course, this is a theory/principal that assumes equality of all other resources to make a point.
End of the day, information rules.