Where Good Ideas Come From: How To Make the Most of Them

Where Ideas Come From- by Steven Johnson

 

Have you ever found yourself coming up with an idea and having deja vu about it? The little hunch of a feeling that makes your authentic idea seem like an echo of something that you haven’t seen/ heard before, but may have thought of? Yes, that’s one of those epiphany-oriented moments that makes you feel thankful for being able to connect the dots.

Steven Johnson mentions, “chance favors the connected mind.”

But what about those situations when we no longer are able to connect the dots and are no longer able to untangle the thought process of that creative hunch? What about when you discuss your idea with someone, and it just feels like you’re going in a loop of this-has-already-been-done-before? What then?

  Nonconformity and the Creative Life- by Jason Silva

 

That’s when breaking the chains of conformity comes in handy. That’s when change and a new outlook to your perspective converts into the ah-ha moment.

As Picasso once said, “To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing.”

Sure, saying “just do the unordinary” is simple, but to actually do it, to actually get those innovative ideas in motion, we’ve got to sit down and make them happen.

 

 

When asked if he got his ideas by chance or design, Picasso said,

“I don’t have a clue. Ideas are simply starting points. I can rarely set them down as they come to my mind. As soon as I start to work, others well up in my pen. To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing… When I find myself facing a blank page, that’s always going through my head. What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas.“

On another note, Jason Silva mentions in his video,

“There is no one map to live our lives. Reality is just a word, and you’re not supposed to use it without quotation marks around it.”

So to answer the question, “Where do ideas come from and how do we make the most of them?”, one must practice the combination of self-awareness, perseverance and authenticity.

Ideas come from connecting dots and re-emerge depending on our ability to observe and absorb from our experiences. In order to make the most of them, we need to be willing to take risks and work towards achieving them until we’ve made it.

Sure, there’ll be some ruts in the way, but in the words of Jason Silva,

“Only once we’re bold enough to de-condition our thinking, will we be able to filter and incubate all the artistic energy we started with!”