Understanding what an idea is
An idea at it's core is just a thought or a collection of thoughts. These thoughts start out very abstract without cohesion and over a period of time, they accumulate more ideas and start taking form. Just like how a molecules attract other atoms to form new compounds.
problem with Idea generation
There's an inherent problem with the concept of idea generation. People always ask "how do I generate 10 new ideas a day" and in many circles online and offline people tend to prioritize the fast paced nature of generating new ideas. Most probably because we feel smart and productive when we think about generating many ideas. I think all of this is a bit glorified.
I like fast paced cities, I like staring at a bustling traffic intersection, people walking and going about their lives. But personally I don't want that. Call me selfish but it's too chaotic for me. Similarly, I like thinking about generating many ideas but actually doing it? It's a mental overload.
People are rewarded for this behavior in schools, in workplaces literally everywhere. But most of the time, these ideas are like an half baked undercooked cake. They look good but when you disect them it's unusuable. I've done it before, you're probably doing it right now.
Perlocation - think, forget, think again
Idea generation feels forced, I think it stems from the hustle culture that is quite prelavent today. Our natural way of thinking about ideas is quite slow. It takes time, it builds slowly and gets cohesive overtime.
Turns out there is a term for it - it's called perlocation. It's more realistic because you are letting the ideas in your head to combine, settle, discard and evolve into something else. While doing some introspection, I realized that most of the brain stormed ideas I had were actually quite bad and half baked, compared to the one I let evolve naturally overtime.
Don't fight, let them be
You'll have many ideas, just dont act on them
some ideas will die, and thats okay
You'll have many ideas, not through idea generation but just thinking about things. You'll always have that anchor at the back of your head, always working even when your thought.
Often we have this tendency to fight multiple ideas to pick the best one. But in the end it is futile, the idea isn't mature yet. And to fight them is to kill any form of creativity.
Don't try to choose every idea you get, let them spend sometime in your head and eventually you'll get better at picking the ones that work best for you.
Slowing down
- not focusing on generating ideas
Creativity is a slow processes. You just can't speed it up, like everything in nature. It comes and evolves when the time is right. You can't force bread to bake faster, it rises up only when certain conditions are met.
Don't try to speed run idea generation, it isn't natural. If you think you're slowing down, slow down a lot more. But don't mistake slowing down for not thinking. Think but don't force yourself to get more ideas.
Brain storming sessions only work when you've consumed a lot of information. You can connect seemingly unrelated ideas that not many can see or understand.
Ideas compound through generations
The best thing about ideas are that they are compounding. You build new ideas on top of other ideas. There's a saying "Build on the shoulders of giants", no idea is original.
There is nothing new under the sun
I really like this quote from Ecclastisases. At a first glance, it is very cynical but the more you think about it, it becomes the truth. Everything you think or thought, someone somewhere has thought the same.
As a kid, I always thought that when something was invented, it was invented in one specific place. For example, I always thought the wright brothers were the first ones to actually design a plane but in realitiy, innovation and creativity blossoms from all over the world. Many other inventors tried to make a plan, some even almost succeeded but the wright brothers made it first. Same of the electric bulb - Edison is credited as the inventor but in realiaity he just refined and marketed it better than his peers.
So no idea is original, everybody stands on each other like a tower to discover and create new things.
overworking leads to burn out and thus no more ideas
Let's talk about the b* word. Everybody gets it but creatives go through it a lot more. The problem is we spend so much time putting pressure on our little mushy brains that we often forget that it also is a muscle. And muscles get sore and need rest.
This whole thing stems from the hustle culture and it even goes back further to the industrial revolution. In the last 100 years, many things have been developed and there are certain processes that have been created for efficienecy and productivity. But us creatives can't really fall into this, this won't work for us and trying to make it work is like using a nail to hit on the hammer.
The modern workplace or world expects us to always be thinking fast, always chasing the new thing. Doing mundane tasks in the hopes that it'll lead somewhere. But really all that overworking only creates mindnumbingly boring robots who only follow orders.
If you look at regiions or companies where overworking is encouraged, you realize that they haven't innovated in a very long time. The spark of creativity is dead.
Benefits: Fresh ideas, absorbing new concepts and developing your taste
Fresh ideas
When you make a stew or a soup and you cook it for hours and hours, all the hidden flavors slowly come out. But when you rush it, it's usually bland. Ideas are just like that, new ideas always come out when you let your brain be. Remember, your not always working but your brain is, behind the scenes.
Absorbing new concepts
Now, just expecting new ideas to popup isn't always a good move. Because our minds on it's own can't do much. Most of human evolution happened because of langauge and records of words. Information is shared through language, one thought goes into many minds and many thoughts become cohesive concepts.
For post of human history, knowlege was scared and only available to certain people only - mostly scolars and there weren't many of them. So the movement of information was always slow, then come the dark ages which stifled any sense of curioisty and people lived in fear.
Then a new hope came - the printing press and in just 500 years we have compounded so much because the sharing of information made it so easy to transfer experiences.
Even in the last 25 years, there's been so much progress because of the web. What would usually take decades, now is instant.
So, consume. You can't create when you don't consume anything.
More cohesion and structure and certainty
When an idea popups into your head, it's usually quite abstract. It's like the murky swamp water, no matter how much you stare at it, it's always going to be murky. You try to force yourself to refine that idea but as you've probably noticed it's quite difficult. You can't brainstorm your way into it alone. Thats why people brainstorm in groups because their personal expereinces open up new avenues.
This and just letting it marinate in your head, gives you a lot of structure and quite a bit of certainity on how it'll be.