Steven Campbell's Lab

Where do ideas come from?

Innovation2 comments

This is a terrible question to ask anyone, and almost no artist or author or creative person of any kind will have a coherent, true answer (although I attempt, below). However, Rod Serling provides a pretty confident response:

Ideas are probably in the air, like little tiny items of ozone. That's the easiest thing on Earth, to come up with an idea.

But despite Rod Serling's limitless charisma and confidence, his answer is no better than anyone else's. Ideas don't really come from any particular place, they're not ozone, they don't just pop up.

My opinion is that ideas are simply a realization of all our experience condensed into a single train of thought. They follow thinking like punchlines follow jokes: naturally. Ideas are just discussion. They come from collaboration. Ideas are almost always a solution to a problem. Here's Adam Savage, one of my favorite "personalities," on problem solving:

Adam Savage looks at everything as a problem to be solved, be it building a bridge or painting a canvas. It's a long video, but details the practical elements of problem solving. It's definitely a lecture worth watching if you're interested in the concept of innovation itself.

Back to ideas. Don't expect ideas to spring out from nowhere, as if you're being assaulted against your will with innovation. That's not how it works. Ideas come from within you, you don't "find" them. Don't get out a blank sheet of paper and think, "I really need an idea right now, that would be great." It's never going to come.

Ideas are a product of active imagination, which needs to be free to move along normally, not forced and squeezed out whenever you want it to. You need to let your imagination soak in experience, absorb everything you to, and perhaps, when your imagination feels it's in its best interest to do so, it will eject an idea, and you'll think it came from ozone.

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