4 ms·

Trying to come up with an innovative idea out of the blue is a fools errand - the odds of you being the first person to ever think of something are low to begin

by jjk166 4y ago

Trying to come up with an innovative idea out of the blue is a fools errand - the odds of you being the first person to ever think of something are low to begin with, the odds that you will do so in a field you have no experience in and that this unique idea will also be a good one are astronomically low. That the idea is both good in its own right and also something you have the passion and skill to tackle is substantially less likely still. I think the best strategy is to just pick an area you know you generally enjoy working in, and start building a copy of something that already exists in that space. As you go along you will inevitably run into the same problems that others previously faced, and at some point you're going to find some fork in the road where everyone went one way but you think it's worth trying the other, or you will find some problem that everyone in the space has been dealing with that you could fix. Unlike high level ideation, in this scenario when you find an idea it will be something that you are already an expert on and passionate about solving, and the value of such a solution would be immediately clear.

achillesheels 4y ago
I would further mentioned that by being a late comer, one can actually gain in what others have learned form their mistakes, to enter at a better than conceivable market position. This is the principal doubt an investor ought to consider when beginning a new venture: will the motion I put into the markets grow or decay? And certainly, it is simplified to invest in a market where there is actually demonstrated value in there being n>1 competitors.
asdadsdad 4y ago
Exactly. This essay [0] was going around for a bit some time ago, and it's what the guy calls "law of having an idea" or something. The media and Hollywood often make it look like ideas just come to people that weren't involved in that field before, but in fact almost nothing was invented like that. [0] https://danielfonsecayarochewsky.medium.com/can-we-stop-the-startup-bullshit-once-and-for-all-a756faf1bb03 https://danielfonsecayarochewsky.medium.com/can-we-stop-the-...
Daub 4y ago
> Trying to come up with an innovative idea out of the blue is a fool's errand Though I agree that all ideas come from somewhere, some of the best ideas come from places completely tangential to the final outcome. Examples: - Richard Feynman's diagrams (which won him a Nobel Prize) came from watching students 'piddle around with plates in the cafeteria; (his words). - The invention of Teflon was invented by Roy Plunkett whilst he was trying to develop a new kind of refrigerant. - The invention of the cloud chamber (actually to synthesize clouds, but only by accident discovered to be good at tracking particles). To quote Einstein: “This combinatory or associative play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought” The fact is that this process of accidental discovery can be developed, trained and taught (I teach creativity to art students). It can also be instituted within an organization (e.g. Xerox PARC and Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works). Its main ingredient is a mental one, a hyperfunction of one's associative apparatus. Key to getting it to work is a lack of premature judgment at the early stages of the creative process.
- realitysballs 4y ago
  How might I learn more about accidental discovery in art?
  - seanhunter 4y ago
    There is a great framework for understanding this process in "The Act of Creation" by Arthur Koestler. His thesis is that creativity is essentially about finding previously undiscovered/underappreciated connections between "diassociative matrices" (which is his terminology for frames of reference or contexts essentially if I remember correctly). If that is true then it sort of stands to reason that people who have many and broad frames of reference because they have a diverse or unusual set of things in their background stand to have more of the raw material for creativity. Or to put it another way, foxes are more creative than hedgehogs.
  - Daub 4y ago
    I can offer some practical advice: 1. Ensure you always have to hand a means to record ideas. For a visual artist, this can be drawing in a sketchbook, but can equally be lists of things in a note to self via SMS or anything. Both ‘Yesterday’ (Paul McCartney and the Beatles) and ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ (Keith Richards and The Rolling Stones) were written by their authors in their dreams. The reason the authors did not forget them when they woke up was because they both slept with guitars by their bed. 2. Related to the preceding, know that the best ideas come when you are not looking for them. This is not hokey wisdom, this phenomenon has been subject to serious analysis. Many creative folk recognize that their best ideas come when they are running, walking, cooking, falling asleep, sitting in a cab etc. Mine come when I go for long walks and I make sure to have my voice memo app handy when I do. For some, alcohol or drugs serves the same purpose :). But be carful. I know artists whose works resemble each other's because they all use the same drug. 3. Take advantage of accidents, they are dancing lessons from god (Vonnegut). When writing lyrics for his songs, David Bowie (1947–2016) would write words on individual sheets of paper which he would throw in the air. The lyrics would evolve from the chance association of words with each other as they landed on the ground. Leonardo Da Vinci got some of his ideas from looking at stains in plaster or clouds. 4. See something you like? Steal it! Make it your own! Look at how Manet's Olympia 'borrowed' from Titian and his Venus of Urbino. What he stole was the form, not (exactly) the content. This relates to something very significant: that it is almost impossible to invent in a vacuum. One could as easily steal pictorial form from adverts, movies... anything. 5. Putting in the hours helps more than in commonly recognized. Before The Beatles went to Germany, they were an entirely average band, typical of the time. When they came back, they were the Beatles. The difference? The gigged live for three evenings a week. 6. Look for patterns in your own work. The thing that drives your own creative profile is unique to you. It is already there... waiting to be seen. It is this that will direct you to choose one idea over another. Doubt me? Look at any artist's biography. See how evidence of their 'final form' is apparent even in their student work. Two cool references: - Johnson. S., 2010, Where Good Ideas Come From, Penguin UK. - Currey, M. 2013, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Knopf.

by jjk166 4y ago

achillesheels 4y ago

I would further mentioned that by being a late comer, one can actually gain in what others have learned form their mistakes, to enter at a better than conceivable market position. This is the principal doubt an investor ought to consider when beginning a new venture: will the motion I put into the markets grow or decay? And certainly, it is simplified to invest in a market where there is actually demonstrated value in there being n>1 competitors.

asdadsdad 4y ago

Exactly. This essay [0] was going around for a bit some time ago, and it's what the guy calls "law of having an idea" or something. The media and Hollywood often make it look like ideas just come to people that weren't involved in that field before, but in fact almost nothing was invented like that. [0] https://danielfonsecayarochewsky.medium.com/can-we-stop-the-startup-bullshit-once-and-for-all-a756faf1bb03 https://danielfonsecayarochewsky.medium.com/can-we-stop-the-...

Daub 4y ago

> Trying to come up with an innovative idea out of the blue is a fool's errand Though I agree that all ideas come from somewhere, some of the best ideas come from places completely tangential to the final outcome. Examples: - Richard Feynman's diagrams (which won him a Nobel Prize) came from watching students 'piddle around with plates in the cafeteria; (his words). - The invention of Teflon was invented by Roy Plunkett whilst he was trying to develop a new kind of refrigerant. - The invention of the cloud chamber (actually to synthesize clouds, but only by accident discovered to be good at tracking particles). To quote Einstein: “This combinatory or associative play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought” The fact is that this process of accidental discovery can be developed, trained and taught (I teach creativity to art students). It can also be instituted within an organization (e.g. Xerox PARC and Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works). Its main ingredient is a mental one, a hyperfunction of one's associative apparatus. Key to getting it to work is a lack of premature judgment at the early stages of the creative process.

realitysballs 4y ago
How might I learn more about accidental discovery in art?
- seanhunter 4y ago
  There is a great framework for understanding this process in "The Act of Creation" by Arthur Koestler. His thesis is that creativity is essentially about finding previously undiscovered/underappreciated connections between "diassociative matrices" (which is his terminology for frames of reference or contexts essentially if I remember correctly). If that is true then it sort of stands to reason that people who have many and broad frames of reference because they have a diverse or unusual set of things in their background stand to have more of the raw material for creativity. Or to put it another way, foxes are more creative than hedgehogs.
- Daub 4y ago
  I can offer some practical advice: 1. Ensure you always have to hand a means to record ideas. For a visual artist, this can be drawing in a sketchbook, but can equally be lists of things in a note to self via SMS or anything. Both ‘Yesterday’ (Paul McCartney and the Beatles) and ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ (Keith Richards and The Rolling Stones) were written by their authors in their dreams. The reason the authors did not forget them when they woke up was because they both slept with guitars by their bed. 2. Related to the preceding, know that the best ideas come when you are not looking for them. This is not hokey wisdom, this phenomenon has been subject to serious analysis. Many creative folk recognize that their best ideas come when they are running, walking, cooking, falling asleep, sitting in a cab etc. Mine come when I go for long walks and I make sure to have my voice memo app handy when I do. For some, alcohol or drugs serves the same purpose :). But be carful. I know artists whose works resemble each other's because they all use the same drug. 3. Take advantage of accidents, they are dancing lessons from god (Vonnegut). When writing lyrics for his songs, David Bowie (1947–2016) would write words on individual sheets of paper which he would throw in the air. The lyrics would evolve from the chance association of words with each other as they landed on the ground. Leonardo Da Vinci got some of his ideas from looking at stains in plaster or clouds. 4. See something you like? Steal it! Make it your own! Look at how Manet's Olympia 'borrowed' from Titian and his Venus of Urbino. What he stole was the form, not (exactly) the content. This relates to something very significant: that it is almost impossible to invent in a vacuum. One could as easily steal pictorial form from adverts, movies... anything. 5. Putting in the hours helps more than in commonly recognized. Before The Beatles went to Germany, they were an entirely average band, typical of the time. When they came back, they were the Beatles. The difference? The gigged live for three evenings a week. 6. Look for patterns in your own work. The thing that drives your own creative profile is unique to you. It is already there... waiting to be seen. It is this that will direct you to choose one idea over another. Doubt me? Look at any artist's biography. See how evidence of their 'final form' is apparent even in their student work. Two cool references: - Johnson. S., 2010, Where Good Ideas Come From, Penguin UK. - Currey, M. 2013, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Knopf.