Where do ideas come from?

People have studied for a long time where ideas come from. “The brain!” is an obvious answer, sure, but there has to be more than that. We all have the capacity to formulate ideas, but the process is what makes this question interesting. No two people think alike, therefore no two people produce ideas the same way. What makes sense to some may seem like madness to others.

I have this habit of sitting down with a pen, a notebook and an empty mind, then just start doodling away. As far as I can tell, at least for me, it is one of the best tricks for producing ideas. I just let my mind wander free and jot down anything that comes out of it. I play with shapes, write some words and draw nonsense to get the ideas flowing. I don’t reject anything. I just let the creative juices flow. If I just sit thinking, waiting for inspiration to strike, then it is just procrastination with better branding. Creativity requires work, critical thinking and output.

Output is essential to the creative process. I think of the mind as a small factory with busy workers moving and doing things all day long. If they are very busy but produce nothing, the whole process is meaningless. The work becomes stale, it stays captive and then it is forgotten.

Back in college I was taught about brainstorming, a process that involves producing output with a clear objective to get the mind to crank out ideas. It is a useful practice that starts in the mind and ends up as ink on paper. Very practical, and the flow of ideas from mind to paper is way better than sitting in front of a computer. While this process is happening, nothing is judged and nothing is discarded. The selection process comes later.

In my own experience, ideas are a combination of intellect, education, experience, memories, preferences and mainly the ability to solve problems.

Creativity, at its core, is problem-solving. Sometimes the problem is practical. Sometimes the problem is simply how to turn nothing into something. It is the mind navigating a complicated maze to reach a satisfying conclusion.

The origin of ideas can be debated, whether they come from a conscious process or from things happening beneath our conscious awareness. Still, there is no single agreed answer.

What I have learned is that every person’s process is different. I don’t believe anyone is completely lacking creativity, but some people are better at exercising it and solving problems than others.

In the end, there will be a result, for better or worse. If it isn’t what is needed, it is good to distract the mind, go out for a walk, look for shapes in the clouds, feel the wind, ask questions and daydream a little. The mind is sometimes like a puppy: it has to be distracted, walked and maybe given a treat. It cannot get lazy. It has to stay playful and curious, and sometimes that leads to unexpected results.