My model is having ideas is a skill and the best way to do it is to practice at high volume. Most people are too judgemental of their ideas and they don’t believe they can have ideas/having ideas isn’t a mental motion that occurs to them.
If you want to have more ideas, I suggest reinforcing yourself for the behavior of having ideas regardless of their quality. A temporary delusion that any particular idea you have is REALLY GOOD is a great reinforcer. Ideally, having one idea that seems REALLY GOOD puts you in a bit of an excited, hypomanic state which triggers additional ideas.
For me, keeping a notebook of my ideas works really well. Categorizing and writing down an idea means I won’t forget it and I can admire it as a new addition to my collection. I’ve been doing this for some years, and I now have way more interesting ideas than I know what to do with.
Another trick is to keep a notebook on your bed and write down ideas as you’re falling asleep. Seems like thinking is more fluid then.
I don’t ever sit down to generate ideas nowadays, I just engage in passive collection. That seems more time-efficient, because if I sit down deliberately to ideate, I waste a lot of time thinking “I don’t have any ideas” and just waiting for the ideas to come. (However, if you’d prefer to do deliberate brainstorming, I’d recommend first collecting ideas for brainstorming prompts. You can make your own list: any time something makes me go “hm, that’s a bit different than the way I usually think”, I add it to my list of brainstorming prompts. [Note that I never actually end up using this list of prompts because passive collection means I already have an idea surplus.]) I’m now at the point where just creating a page in my notebook for “ideas of type X” seems to prompt my subconscious to gather ideas of that type. I think it’s a manifestation of my internal packrat instinct… like stamp collecting, but for ideas.
How do you manage your pipeline beyond collecting ideas?
I used to simply have an idea notebook. Writing down ideas was a monolithic activity in my head, encompassing everything from capturing the initial thought to developing it further and communicating it. I now think of those as three very different stages.
Capturing ideas: having appropriate places to write down thoughts as short memory aids, maybe a few words or a sentence or two.
Developing ideas: explaining the idea to myself in text. This allows me to take the seed of an idea and try different ways of fleshing out details, refine it, maybe turn it into something different.
Communicating: explaining it such that other people can understand it. This forces the idea to be given much more detail, often uncovering additional problems. So, I get another revision of the idea out of this (even if no one reads the writeup).
My pipeline definitely doesn’t always work, though. In particular, capturing an idea does not guarantee that I will later develop it. I find that even if I capture an idea, I’ll drop it by default if it isn’t collected with a set of related ideas which are part of an ongoing thought process. This is somewhat tricky to accomplish.
My pipeline is weaker in the later stages. I often spend some time developing ideas right after capturing them, or develop ideas if I randomly start having thoughts related to some idea I already captured. But communication currently takes what feels like too long, maybe because I am perfectionistic about ensuring that any given essay contains all the ideas in my notebook that logically seem like they belong in that essay. I would probably write more if my pipeline was better. Hoping to do some dedicated work improving it at some point.
I find that even if I capture an idea, I’ll drop it by default if it isn’t collected with a set of related ideas which are part of an ongoing thought process. This is somewhat tricky to accomplish.
Whenever I have an idea, I try to ask myself what future situation the idea might be useful in. Then I either find a page I already have for that situation or create one if it doesn’t already exist. Not sure if that’s helpful.
My model is having ideas is a skill and the best way to do it is to practice at high volume. Most people are too judgemental of their ideas and they don’t believe they can have ideas/having ideas isn’t a mental motion that occurs to them.
If you want to have more ideas, I suggest reinforcing yourself for the behavior of having ideas regardless of their quality. A temporary delusion that any particular idea you have is REALLY GOOD is a great reinforcer. Ideally, having one idea that seems REALLY GOOD puts you in a bit of an excited, hypomanic state which triggers additional ideas.
For me, keeping a notebook of my ideas works really well. Categorizing and writing down an idea means I won’t forget it and I can admire it as a new addition to my collection. I’ve been doing this for some years, and I now have way more interesting ideas than I know what to do with.
Another trick is to keep a notebook on your bed and write down ideas as you’re falling asleep. Seems like thinking is more fluid then.
I don’t ever sit down to generate ideas nowadays, I just engage in passive collection. That seems more time-efficient, because if I sit down deliberately to ideate, I waste a lot of time thinking “I don’t have any ideas” and just waiting for the ideas to come. (However, if you’d prefer to do deliberate brainstorming, I’d recommend first collecting ideas for brainstorming prompts. You can make your own list: any time something makes me go “hm, that’s a bit different than the way I usually think”, I add it to my list of brainstorming prompts. [Note that I never actually end up using this list of prompts because passive collection means I already have an idea surplus.]) I’m now at the point where just creating a page in my notebook for “ideas of type X” seems to prompt my subconscious to gather ideas of that type. I think it’s a manifestation of my internal packrat instinct… like stamp collecting, but for ideas.
How do you manage your pipeline beyond collecting ideas?
I used to simply have an idea notebook. Writing down ideas was a monolithic activity in my head, encompassing everything from capturing the initial thought to developing it further and communicating it. I now think of those as three very different stages.
Capturing ideas: having appropriate places to write down thoughts as short memory aids, maybe a few words or a sentence or two.
Developing ideas: explaining the idea to myself in text. This allows me to take the seed of an idea and try different ways of fleshing out details, refine it, maybe turn it into something different.
Communicating: explaining it such that other people can understand it. This forces the idea to be given much more detail, often uncovering additional problems. So, I get another revision of the idea out of this (even if no one reads the writeup).
My pipeline definitely doesn’t always work, though. In particular, capturing an idea does not guarantee that I will later develop it. I find that even if I capture an idea, I’ll drop it by default if it isn’t collected with a set of related ideas which are part of an ongoing thought process. This is somewhat tricky to accomplish.
My pipeline is weaker in the later stages. I often spend some time developing ideas right after capturing them, or develop ideas if I randomly start having thoughts related to some idea I already captured. But communication currently takes what feels like too long, maybe because I am perfectionistic about ensuring that any given essay contains all the ideas in my notebook that logically seem like they belong in that essay. I would probably write more if my pipeline was better. Hoping to do some dedicated work improving it at some point.
Whenever I have an idea, I try to ask myself what future situation the idea might be useful in. Then I either find a page I already have for that situation or create one if it doesn’t already exist. Not sure if that’s helpful.