Where Good Ideas Come From November 1, 2012
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Life Lessons, Mindfulness.Tags: Creativity, Ideas, RSAnimate, Steven Johnson, Video
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Does increased connectivity increase our creativity?
Or are we bombarded with so much information that good ideas get washed overboard to drown?
Have the Coffee Houses of the Age of Enlightenment morphed into the cyber chat rooms of today?
You decide . . .
For more: Where Good Ideas Come From ~ The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
Aah . . . that’s better!
Related post: Is Creativity Bad For Your Writing? ~ Eric John Baker (Clawing at the Keys) * HATCH ~ Uniting Creative Minds * Re-evaluating (Christine M. Grote) * Should You Quit Blogging? (Any Shiny Thing) * Blogging: A Waggish Waste of Time?
Good ideas come from within
True. But sometimes we don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle and need to collaborate or borrow ideas from others. Often I read or see something that finally lets me connect the dots . . . an “a~ha” moment!
Collaboration -> Synchronicity -> hearing or seeing something that we need to hear or see at JUST the right moment in time.
that is true…
I think yes… I miss face time with people.
This holiday season, I hope you find time for face time, Jeanne. Even if you have to let other things slide to do so.
All this connectivity is both a blessing and a curse. I like that some of it inspires me, but much of it distracts me. As I’ve been editing my novel, I go totally offline and turn my phone off for hours at a time.
Wise move, Andra. Serious writing is generally conducted behind closed doors . . . not in the middle of “Grand Central Station.”
Of course, we often gather inspiration from knowing we have an audience who WANTS to read what we write. Right?
Readers are among the best people on earth, yes.
Wonderful clip, Nancy. I have never felt so intellectually alive as in the last few years, with a forum and a place to link disparate ideas. I think cyberspace, used carefully, is a very exciting opportunity for us.
I agree, Kate! Blogging can be exciting, inspiring, and intellectually challenging. What we get out of it depends on the blogs we choose to read . . . and what we are looking for from those blogs.
If we read “fluff” . . . we don’t feel as nourished as when we read something that makes us put on our thinking caps.
You make me put on my thinking cap. It’s a good fit!
I think good ideas come from others. I got a pb idea from seeing lots of kids freezing at school with no gloves on today. And you writing washed overboard is a bit inspiring too. Lots of fun things could get washed overboard.
Yes! Although your inspiration came from the “real world” . . . the same thing happens all the time in cyber space.
We see an idea, twist it around, look at it from different angles, and use it as a springboard to launch another idea . . . that someone else may use as a jumping off point.
BOING . . . BOING . . . BOING . . .
Now . . . make sure you jot down that pb idea before it dissipates into the ether.
Will do!
For me the connectivity has increased my creativity and my happiness. When I feel distracted to the point of befuddlement and overwhelmingness I take a break. And I do feel overwhelmed by blogging here and there. Not as much as I used to though..
Interesting video!
Same here, Pix. In real life, so many people stand around the proverbial water cooler gossiping, or talking about inane subjects (like Reality TV, sports, weather) because they are “safe.”
In cyber space, the increased space allows us to address issues of import like bullying, happiness, animal welfare, world hunger, depression, photography, cooking, art, history, etc., etc., etc.
It is a veritable smorgasbord . . . and we hold the remote.
And, if we stumble into a conversation that doesn’t appeal to us, we can leave, quietly, without insulting the host with our lack of interest.
Nancy…that short video contains important ideas!…development of “slow” hunches, collisions of small hunches, the need to collide with other hunches, creating systems for hunches to come together, (!!!) borrowing hunches and integrating those with one’s own hunches, stumbling serendipitously on other people’s hunches…yup, that’s what happens for me. My own ideas/hunches so often get simulated by ideas in other posters’ blogs…often yours.
Thanks so much for posting that video and for the hunch incubation you offer! (I have been finding/noticing that I benefit from not reading too many different blogs, even though I really like and appreciate so many of them… my mind gets too scattered, so recently I’m slightly limiting how much I read)
Me too, Kathy. We need to know what we are looking for from the blogs we read if we want to increase the odds of finding it.
If we just randomly march from site to site, we may just feel scattered. If we focus on those blogs that resonate with us . . . we find that our time has been well spent.
And thanks! I’m glad that you find some of my posts offer valuable “hunch incubation.” Incubation is my MIDDLE name.
And that reminds me, I meant to add this link to the post: http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/hatch-uniting-creative-minds/
Well, of course! Hunch incubation and hatch! Oh, I missed that earlier today.
Thanks for the link, Nancy. Always a pertinent topic for consideration—at least from time to time.
Blogging adds a dimension to my life that I didn’t get from casual conversations . . . which tended to steer toward “safe” topics.
I love being able to tune in to topics that appeal without feeling compelled to stick around if a conversation veers “off course.”
Another excellent point.
I think I’ve seen that video before, or one similar to it, and I still enjoy watching it. I love the process of ideas and changes that are implemented on the back of them. But some of my ideas… I have no idea(!) where they have come from Nancy. It’s as though they have been dormant within and are suddenly activated… usually when I’m driving!
I use my blog as a place to release some of those ideas, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but I suppose that is how the whole process of creation works in the end!
I love watching RSAnimate videos . . . great topics to use as starting points for pondering.
Some of my ideas seem to spring into being, fully formed, perhaps from the whisper of an unseen source. Others simmer and percolate on the back burner for a time . . . waiting for a missing puzzle piece to emerge via synchronicity.
SLTW is a repository for shared ideas . . . plumped up by comments from readers,
I often wonder how J.K. Rowling felt when she first started dreaming up Harry, Hagrid, Hermione, Voldemort, Dumbledore and Snape.
Did the story and characters arise in her consciousness fully formed? Or did she have to tease them out, bit by bit . . . like a Seeker looking for the Golden Snitch in Quidditch?
I tend to think that connectivity increases creativity. However, too much connectivity eats up time that could be spent developing the ideas.
There was one instance in particular when I wrote a response to a writing challenge and many readers wanted to know more. I didn’t plan to continue the story, but after the feedback, I changed my mind. I ended up writing thirteen parts of Ellie’s story (one day, it will be a novel…I hope before I have grandchildren
)
Cyberspace is filled with seeds of inspiration. As we tend our gardens, we fertilize the soil, sow the seeds, and reap the harvest . . . sharing the bounty with others.
But we must not forget to weed our plot . . . or the weeds will choke out the good.
I’ve always needed “ruminating” time and I know I don’t have as much of that as I did even a few years ago. Sometimes it feels like if I turn it all “off” for a little while I won’t be able to catch up, and I know that isn’t really true. I like what you said about “weeding our plot” and that’s a great picture for me. The weekend is a very good time to make some considerations here!
I am fortunate to have ample time to ruminate, Debra. The key, for me, is to use that time wisely . . . fertilizing, sowing, reaping, and sharing the bounty . . . weeding as I go.
A fascinating video Nancy – thanks for sharing. I think the internet is a fantastic source of ideas and information, much of which would not normally have been available to the normal person in the street in the pre-internet past. We therefore find ourselves in a new age of enlightenment where it is not just those who have the wherewithal to be able to study but almost any member of the population. One of the outcomes is a huge surge in creative activity amongst people who might never have dreamt of writing down their thoughts in the past.
Of course, it can also be a great way to procrastinate without appearing to do so – spending hours on Facebook and Twitter, pretending we’re doing something constructive when really we should be doing the washing-up
Yes! Great points, Martin. We have access to more thoughts than we can ponder in the the great cyber sea . . . but we must filter out the pond mud if we want clarity.
Good ideas come from kids because they have more uninhibited creativity in their little heads than any of us combined! Whenever I need inspiration or I’m stuck with lack of ideas, I ask my kids. Their answers can be outrageous but it will make me think and come up with something good eventually. Corporate executives should invite kids in their brainstorming sessions. They’d be a lot more productive!
Kids are curious, creative, and clever . . . and often think “outside the box.”
Other times, they climb inside the box to think!