TLDR; I found a formula that helps me come up with creative ideas often. It took me a few years to notice the pattern. Basically, you need to try new things and have an empty mind.
Creative ideas are the foundation of creative work. Without creative ideas, I believe we create repeat unoriginal work. Nothing wrong with that. It’s like running an automation. We keep creating similar things based off a familiar process. Imagine a pottery artist making 100 of the same cups.
Creative ideas is what leads to innovation across all fields. Technology. Art. Science. Philosophy…. it’s what helps us understand the world and ourselves more, and thus what keeps the world evolving.
Ok, but what’s a creative idea even?
Creative ideas are ideas that are novel.
What do I mean by novel? Well, ideas can’t be truly novel in the sense that they come from nothing or are derived from knowledge you don’t have. That’s impossible as far as I know. It would be like creating matter out of nothing.
By novel, I mean making a new connection in your head between things you already know somewhat. From a biological perspective, it’s like making new neural connections between neurons that previously didn’t connect.
Here’s a real-life example.
Today, you thought of eating ice cream. Later that same day, you felt like eating kimchi. Suddenly, whether consciously or not, you imagine kimchi flavored ice cream. You never seen it before. You never thought about it. And now, you can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a new thought based on things you already knew.
Let’s use a simple analogy: thinking is like skiing down a mountain. Over your life, your brain has built a habit of skiing down the same slopes everyday. They are soft and familiar, so your brain keeps taking them again and again. One day, you decide to try a new slope and end up discovering a new area of the mountain you didn’t know existed. That’s what it’s like coming up with a novel thought. Not every new slope will lead to a novel thought, but you’re more likely to get one compared to skiing down familiar slopes.
So if creative ideas happen on new ski slopes, then you need to put yourself in situations where you’re taking new slopes more often and you’re in the right head space during.
It’s not as easy as it sounds. You need two things for that to happen:
Trying new things means taking on new slopes. A new slope can be meeting someone new, reading about a new topic, traveling to a new place, trying a new activity… it’s about pushing yourself outside your comfort zone to experience something unfamiliar.
If you’re reading this piece, then you’re likely already somewhat motivated to do so. You want change. Good. Keep in mind that’s not always the case and that’s ok. Most days you’ll fallback to the slopes that are familiar and easy. What matters is you find the motivation to try new things sometimes. That will put you in positions where you can experience new things.
Here are tricks I use to push myself to try new things consistently: set monthly reminders, set yearly goals, ask your friend to check on your goals, join your friends on new activities, say ‘yes’ more often…