How to think of great ideas

How to think of great ideas...

Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 35 seconds

Hello there. Welcome to the Curious Creator.

This week we're focusing on ideas and here's why you should keep reading...

1/ Creator Quote - Some hard-hitting truth. 

2/ Bangers of the Week - Stuff every creator needs to consume.

3/ Weekly Ramble - My advice on thinking of great ideas

Let's go...

Creator Quote

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” Mark Twain

Too often, people try and completely reinvent the wheel when they don’t have to.

This isn’t me giving you permission to go and steal ideas but emphasising that new ideas are just better combinations of old ones.

Expose yourself to good ideas and you’ll be surprised by how they can combine together into new ones.

Bangers of the Week

Ed Sheeran might be known for writing incredible pop songs but this advice is absolutely essential for every creative.

It's only 2 minutes...

This TED talk was when Mark Rober had 190k subscribers...

He now has 23.4 million.

No ‘hacks’ just some great tips to be more creative and think of better ideas.

Without sounding cheesy, this book fundamentally changed my life.

People are so focused on the very specific mechanics of how to think of better ideas, they overlook the fundamentals.

This book is a deep dive into all of them - periods of focused time, intrinsically rewarding, setting rules and more.

Must read.

Weekly Ramble

There’s a theme here…

Those looking for ‘secrets’ or ‘hacks’ to think of better ideas are missing the point.

If you want to think of truly great ideas you need to be deeply curious about the topic you’re trying to brainstorm and become intrinsically motivated to actually think of great ideas.

With this, thinking of ideas won’t be a chore but something you look forward to.

Like your favourite game you can’t stop playing, it’s just you and a set of obstacles that you want to figure out.

And while this notion that good ideas ‘just come to you’ might work once in a while, you need to have consistent, focused time to consistently think of great ideas.

Some days, your ideas might suck but every bad idea is one closer to a good one and it’s the only effective way of getting there.

Thanks for reading. Jay Alto.

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