Where do Ideas Come from?

I was recently speaking to a group of students about how can we learn to be creative on-demand and was asked this question. The student asked is there a way we can categorise all the different ways we can come up with a creative idea. This is another way of asking – Where do Ideas come from? I have written about this in the past here, here, here and here.

There are multiple different ways to look at this question from. One way is to look at this from the lens that Steven Johnson wrote about in his best selling book “Where Good Ideas Come from” and talks about in this TED Talk.

Another way to look at where Ideas come from is as below. I learnt to look at ideas from this perspective from Matt Church.

Ideas Emerge:

As humans, we are constantly thinking. Thoughts are non-stop and amongst these millions of thoughts we think, there are times when we find an interesting idea emerge. Usually, this happens when we are thinking about something deeply and are emotionally invested in the outcome of the thinking. This creates an intentionality and this intentionality enables ideas to emerge. It is super important to capture these ideas as they emerge, when they emerge.

If we are to think of an analogy, this is like going into an ocean for fishing and we find fishes jump out of the water all around us. What we need to do is to ensure that we capture these fishes.

Ideas are Experienced:

Just like our thoughts never cease, our experiences never cease as well. Every waking moment of our lives, we are experiencing the world from our own perspective. This perspective or these experiences can make us acutely aware of a situation or a problem that we were previously unaware of. Most of the times, once we identify the right problem, we are very much capable of finding the right solutions.

Sometimes, these can also be experienced in reverse order. We experience something and then realise that this could be a solution to a different challenge or problem that needed solving in a different context.

Ideas are Excavated:

Last ways that we can generate ideas is intentionally go looking for an idea. This is like diving into the deep sea to go looking for pearls or go mining for metals or diamonds. This requires us to learn the tricks of the trade and know the different tools that are available to us and how to use them in order to get what we want.

This is probably the most talked about way of getting ideas. We do things like brainstorming, premortems, mind mapping, various canvasses and all the other tools that help us to access all the different experiences and knowledge that we have raked up over the course of our life times.

In conclusion:

When ideas emerge, we need to present!

When ideas are experienced, we need to be aware!

When ideas are excavated, we need to practice patience!