> An idea is a set of smug certainties that allow you to stop looking, listening and learning. Observation is the antidote to those certainties. Ideas are rig

> An idea is a set of smug certainties that allow you to stop looking, listening and learning. Observation is the antidote to those certainties. Ideas are rigid, observations adapt. Ideas make you seem smart, observations make you smarter ...But for a writer, the most important distinction is this: Ideas are generic, and observations are specific. This seems obvious and is not was I was expecting. I think of ideas as being new vs ideologies or beliefs. I don't think the distinction between observation and interpretation is natural to many and I often get into challenging situations trying to separate them in discussions.