I personally spend a good time with these large philosophical questions, so here are some notes off my experience: First, I think it would be naive to think th

I personally spend a good time with these large philosophical questions, so here are some notes off my experience: First, I think it would be naive to think there's any sort of formulaic approach that works for all large questions or ideas. Nor will the same approach work for everyone, or even a notable group of people. With that said, here are some generalizations that may help: - Your most valuable asset is the perspective of others. When you can, talk about ideas with others and you may be surprised what results. Reminder: read the room and audience. You want willing participants in good spirits, not an annoyed or begrudging focus group :) - Make sure to zoom out often. For my entire philosophy, I have an outline that fits on a half a page, even if each bullet point can be expanded to an entire essay. Keeping an eye on the big picture allows you to ensure all of the pieces are consistent. - Keep some sort of documentation of small ideas / notes. I have an entire "idea log" that I transfer from my phone's notes app (filled randomly through my life) every month or so. It's a good way to ensure you don't lose smaller nuances you may encounter. This then requires a "synthesis" on the other end to re-examine these. Often over time, your feelings towards these notes can change and that can be interesting in itself. - Sometimes I even copy entire conversations into the doc if they are digital. Full context is important. Same goes for links to articles, essays, and books. Think of it as informal citation you can go back to. I spend a good deal of effort cataloging my media consumption (tv, movies, and books in particular) for this reason. - Scheduling or forcing time to work on ideas tends not to work. If you choose to schedule time, it should be to explore and flesh out details of an idea you have a decent deal of hope or confidence in, not to "brainstorm" for new ones IMO. I would say the first half of my approach resembles that of a librarian or archivist. I collect sources, perspectives, and various ideas I think of or encounter. Then I sort and organize these. The other half then becomes the synthesis, which is typically more sitting down to write and explicitly focus. Based on your question, it sounds like you may be trying to do more "synthesis" while you're out and about. I would perhaps recommend focusing on the micro level more when you're out and about, and then see what sort of building block or base that lends later. If you try to tie everything together on the fly, it may limit the development of new ideas you encounter that could actually dramatically shift where your big picture is currently if explored more. Again, to overstress this, everyone thinks differently. Find what works for you, and don't expect there to be a formula or a strict regiment that will make everything easy for you!