If You Want to Have Great Ideas, Stop Working
Image from ajourneyroundmyskull.
There are no new ideas. When we create, we dig into our well of knowledge and experience, grab a handfull of stuff, mash it up and recombine it in new ways. But the idea is still built out of other ideas that came before - ideas we’ve consumed.
The quality of our ideas depends only on what we build them from. What we’ve seen, what we’ve heard, what we’ve felt. To have better ideas, we need richer experiences. But most importantly, like stoking a fire, we must constantly add more fuel to keep the fire vigorous. When we stop, old materials build nothing but old ideas.
What does this mean for the mantra we hear humming beneath all the advice we read online? The mantra that says: “Don’t watch TV, don’t spend too much time reading, don’t play games, don’t waste time on Twitter. Stop consuming other people’s ideas and creativity - if you want to be successful, you have to produce.”
If you want to have stale ideas, follow this advice. Put nothing in, get rubbish out. Get burnt out. When you burn more creative fuel than you add, what do you expect to happen?
But if you want to build something truly creative and meaningful, do the opposite. Great stuff in, great stuff out.
Watch breathtaking movies and mind-bending TV shows. Read incredible books. Listen to great music, with the volume up loud. Play exhilarating video games. Study your idols. Drench yourself in ideas. Go somewhere you’ve never seen. Walk to the top of a mountain and breathe in strange and wondrous air. Consume, consume, consume, and do so unapologetically. Become a connoisseur of the best things other people have done. Absorb everything the world has to offer you. Do this for as long as you can bear.
Only then will you have collected the raw materials needed to produce something you can be proud of.
And consume selectively—only great stuff goes in.
I joke with my husband that I am an experience junkie. But it’s not that I want to climb every mountain and have a long bucket list. It’s rather that I want to learn about the world through experiencing rather than passively taking it in or seeing it through other people’s eyes. My head sometimes becomes overwhelmed with observations and it can become tiring, but the benefits for ideas and creativity are great.
Brilliant - thank you. This is just want I need to read this morning, and I’m definitely heeding your empowering words!
A great blogging buddy of mine prescribes taking your fanny out in the sunshine. It’s disengaging from the hive to live a full life outside. Experiences of all sorts are what gives your blog posts depth, authenticity and value. Marvelous advice.
Hi, Skellie, I have to totally agree with you! I used to work at a market research company that is focused on innovation techniques. There we used to offer many innovation workshops for our clients, to help them create innovative products and services. One of the principles we followed at these workshops is that we always need stimuli material to create new things. That means if I am supposed to work on a innovative mobile phone concept, for example, than I need to surround myself of material that is related to that. And also I have to surround myself of material that IS NOT directly related to that, as this helps participants to think out of the box and to bring new elements to mobile phone universe. All in all, the main point here is that you can´t expect to have a great idea out of nothing! Ok, that happens occasionally, but you can´t always count on that. Being stimulated by external elements and information is always so much more productive!
“To have better ideas, we need richer experiences” <- awesome quote.
I’ve heard that viewpoint but I’ve also heard the viewpoint by Brian Clark to indeed consume.
I think bloggers should consume more books and less blogs. Read blogs, but not at the expense of other mediums, otherwise your ideas are just going to be an echo of what everyone else is doing.
This is a good point, though and you express it well. Total agreement here. In many ways, the more you consume the better. And I do like how you include some unconventional things such as video games!
Actually there is masses of psychological research that indicates creative thought is actually a sub-conscious process… so getting out and doing stuff out side of tackling a problem is one of the best ways to creatively think of a solution
It’s why all the best ideas come when you are , out running, in the bath , surfing or whatever
I will try and dig some papers out and post here for those interested
great post
This is a great perspective to a problem most artists have when they run out of ideas. They try to reinvent the PB&J sandwich when they should be searching for better ingredients (That’s me speaking zenfully lol). But truthfully my wife and I are both artist and we feed off of one another, we watch life via kids and some tv, lots of music, books and internet fodder. At the end of the day which by the way is 6pm eastern time it all boils down to finding what works best for you and then finding those that want to take the time to consume your thoughtful regurgitation. Your Blog is the best thanks!
DM
This was really helpful. Thank you so much for a beautiful post. Love your work!!
Too often we get caught up in taking action, but it’s the wrong action. Then 6 months later, we realize that we just wasted our time. I’ve been guilty of this lately. Maybe it’s time I step back and let the great stuff in, so the ideas can gel and let great stuff out.
– I’ve just recently come across your blog and I’m liking it!
It’s helpful for us to remember that inspiration is all around us. As we’re intentional about stopping for long enough to see, hear, smell, taste and touch it, we’re gifted with new ideas.
Thanks for the reminder!
What you say is very true. People tend to think of creativity and innovation as results, as things that come out of us, but everything that comes out must originate at a source, and that source is something that constantly needs to be fed. Ideas breed ideas. Innovation breeds progress. In order to know where to go, we have to realize where we are coming from.
Skellie, seriously… I always enjoy your dead on, thought provoking content. Ye yes! Thanks for inspiring.
-Mig
It’s very true. I often find that I have a slew of ideas the moment that I decide to turn off the computer and go to bed. Of course half my problem is that I don’t have one particular creative focus and tend to spread myself too thin to be able to complete any of my creative pursuits. Ah well, at least Ihave enough foresight to write down my ideas as I curse my way to my bedroom.
I definitely agree. I also know that I can get so caught up in not working, in being consumed by the brilliance that surrounds me, that I don’t produce anything from those rich experiences. A great reminder to go get those experiences to pull from, and then to actually sit down and use them. Thanks for the post.
Your post reminds me of a YouTube video by Nate Harrison: Can I Get An Amen. In it, he quotes a judge’s dissenting opinion:
“Overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful as underprotecting it. Culture is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, like nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new. Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the very creative forces it’s suppose to nurture.”
So, yes, it is important to consume every facet of culture. Only then is it possible to move forward.
I’d say stop working even if you’re not that bothered about the ideas. Providing you can afford to, of course.