Ask HN: How do you generate ideas? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you generate ideas?

When I have time for myself, I find myself thinking about the same things often in a loop. I will try to think about or solve problems that I have failed to solve before, without any new inputs or a different approach. There are some things which seem to break this cycle which include: 1) reading books of any kind where I'm introduced to a different way of thinking 2) stress-free vacation where ideas seem to come like a waterfall 3) Important changes in my life which seem to break the routine and give space for new thoughts.

What are your tricks to get into a state of producing new ideas? To clarify, I don't only mean ideas meant to increase your productivity but also ideas about how the world works, understanding yourself, new ways to have fun and so on.

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I come up with 2-10 ideas a day. Most are not good.

How I come up with lots of ideas:

- I consume a lot of high-quality inputs from different fields (reading, podcasts, etc). If it's not difficult to consume, it's probably not worth it.

- I make the idea capture process extremely easy. I use a Siri shortcut to log to a text file with my ideas list, which is ~3k lines long right now.

- I publicly write about my ideas, and allow others to refine what I think.

- I choose one idea to pursue at a time until it's finished. I accept that execution is generally more important than ideas.

- Every morning, I run `cat ideas.txt | shuf | head -n 20` to review and refine my ideas.

- I ask people lots of questions. Every moment I'm talking about myself is a lost opportunity to explore.

> I use a Siri shortcut to log to a text file with my ideas list, which is ~3k lines long right now.

If you don't mind, can you describe this system?

On iOS, there's a shortcuts app that enables you to automate things.

I have a shortcut for the following:

  Receive Any input from Share Sheet, Quick Actions
    If there's no input Ask For Text
      |
  Append Shortcut input to Documents/inbox.txt (make new line)

Every morning I sort lines from my inbox file into todo.txt, ideas.txt, calendar, etc. It's pretty much a modified version of GTD:

[1] https://hamberg.no/gtd

I have one idea per line in my ideas.txt file, so I use the following to pick some random ideas:

  cat ideas.txt | shuf | head -n 20

Reviewing old ideas is all about cross-pollination. With fresh eyes, I'll sometimes append a small insight to the line, or delete ideas that have lost their magic.

When ideas get too large to fit on a single line, I break them out into unpublished essays. And if I work on them long enough, eventually I publish them :)

---

Whoa, what a coincidence! I just checked my ideas file, and I'm exactly at 3333 lines.

    cat ideas.txt | wc -l
    3333

- Read outside your "interests"/"comfort zone" [0]

- Talk to other people (especially those a couple degrees separated from the field you're trying to think about)

- Try to come up with bad ideas [1]

- Carry something to write on and with (no - just typing it into your phone is not good enough (but it's better than not recording it at all))

- Ask questions - they're more important than ideas [2]. I reprinted "35 great questions" from Inc a few years ago [3] ... maybe they'll be of help here :)

- Listen to music (especially instrumental or in a foreign language you don't know (eg Carl Orff's Carmina Burana)) that isn't "your thing" ..discovery mode (or whatever the different services call it) on streaming offerings can be pretty interesting; likewise checking-out random albums from your local library

There're a few ideas for you on how to get ideas

-----------

[0] https://theexceptioncatcher.com/blog/2012/11/varying-your-re...

[1] https://seths.blog/2018/06/the-two-simple-secrets-to-good-id...

[2] http://paulgraham.com/ideas.html

[3] https://antipaucity.com/tag/35-questions/

Get lost.

No, seriously, get lost. Go out for a walk somewhere remote, let your mental juices flow, and bring a pad of paper to write down whatever comes to mind. Your mind will naturally gravitate to what preoccupies you if you are up for it. Talk to yourself as you walk, visualise what you’ve got ahead. If what you have is a problem to solve, zoom in and look for entry points. No electronics, no phones, no interruptions whatsoever. Then when you get back into your normal life, try and flesh it out or implement it or whatever.

All ideas I come up with are made up of a library of existing ideas. It is impossible to come up with an idea without building material. So it helps to be on the lookout for new material. The form doesn't matter: books, knowledgeable people, nature, visuals, even fantasy.

But then, just like in architecture, there are ways of arranging the material. How to put together ideas, for various sorts of purposes? There are so many disciplines, so many fields of knowledge and human activity. It's dizzying. The key is to build up heuristics to create meaning, to create coherence, internally.

For learning to build internal coherence/structure, first, it is useful to learn about the fields that teach you to abstract: mathematics and philosophy, certain types of computing, etc. Listen to lectures from serious and dedicated researchers, pay attention to every word, extract different styles of thinking.

Once you build up the power of abstraction, sail through various existing disciplines, you'll be able to find things that others have missed. For instance, if you're a trained elite programmer/computing person, you can have new ways of looking at rock climbing or mountaineering.

In summary: new ideas, new structure/coherence = library of ideas + abstraction + analogies

I probably do other things as well, but this is what I'd start with.

To generate a quality idea your brain has to have a good understanding of the final goal (why bother coming up with ideas) and a deep domain understanding (for ideas to be detailed and relevant, not generic and worthless).

This is exactly why most of successful startup were founded by people already experienced in the industry of a startup.

To your question, ideas in my area of expertise come up by themselves naturally, just like you write code and don’t try to create a class definition, but just create it.

i never waste time on this nonsense train yourself to be creative activities.

But I tried in the past to be confident that it is a nonsense to make a profit from naive “success seekers”.

There is no generic creativity, no generic idea muscle to train, no general answer on “how” question.

It’s all about the details and specifics. Even though creative people in one specific area tend to stay creative in many others, this is not how they do it.

I like to build a cross matrix. A row of new problems to solve and/or new applications, and a column of things I enjoy and/or skills I already have. Then, I find intersections that make sense to try.

I like this approach a lot. I'll give it a try.

I once came across a study that suggested the possibility of training synesthesia and its potential to improve problem-solving. I then created a system in which each number and letter (from 0-26 and .,a,b,c...z) is associated with a color, an object, a scene, an animal, a shape, a position on 3x3x3 cube, a body part, etc. and I trained with it.

For example:

0, ".", grey, stone, mountain landscape, wolf, irregular shape, beard

1, "a", red, fire, burning forest, bull, square, penis

2, "b", blue, water, ocean, whale, circle, breast

Now, I visualize a blue water cell working and growing when I do bench presses.

Looking back, it might seem somewhat autistic, but it makes my daily life (especially mundane tasks) more interesting, as sometimes images randomly pop up. I believe such a system might greatly enhance the ability to generate new ideas.

Generate ideas is a way of thinking and a special skill.

1) Ask questions: Idea people are curious people. They ask a lot of questions of others and especially of themselves.

2) Write Ideas Down: Creative people keep lists and notes. Leonardo Da Vinci’s notes were written in mirror writing and his notebooks also contained fascinating drawings.

3) Think associatively: I mean taking an idea in one context and joining it with another possibility or opportunity. Steve Jobs had a great ability to adapt computing technology to new practical uses.

4) Put ideas to the test. Innovators know the importance of experimentation. Testing is key to many advancements.

I have periods of intense thinking of a problem I am trying to solve.

Then I just do something different. Take a shower, go for a walk, whatever. For me changing the environment helps a lot, or using my body.

Then the ideas start to flow.

I consume, do and try a lot of things. To actually unlock things then I usually need to go for a run, which is the only time in my life where I’m awake not being distracted every 5 min by something, someone or myself. That seems to be the only time I can think clearly, zoom out enough and start connecting the dots.

That’s for the more thought-through, or, defined ideas. Random ones happen way more frequently, but usually are more high-level and about the what, missing the how part.

Usually all of my ideas go through while I am walking or while I am reading a book that has nothing to do with my career etc... When the ideas come make sure you have a Notes app or notebook to keep track of it because in an hour there is 0% chance you remember what it is.

I read the newspaper. Seriously...the news. It consistently provides me with problems that need solving that don't yet have a widespread "tech" answer and the subsequent research always leads me to new sources to learn from.

Editors are the unheralded SEO stars of this age. People don't make the connection between newspapers always making headlines and having to be in with the zeitgeist of the times, but they really should take another look. Sentiment analysis on the scale which matches the audience is a superpower. Hence my belief that the Bankers/VCs of our current age run the risk of some real "French Revolution" moments of they don't better control the current narrative. For too long, the story has been "excess, excess, excess" at a time when everyone else was suffering major contractions in their living standards and were constantly being sneered at for not learning to code. "Free laundry" "free lunch" and "free massage Monday" don't sound so good when at the same time vast swathes of people can't afford proper housing, food or health insurance. The costs, all of them, to society as a whole has to be reckoned with...preferably without turning to communism or fascism. Tech can solve for "X", but only if it allows many more seats at the hallowed table.

Now the Piper is coming home to roost (wow, what a mixed metaphor!) and everyone (ie: techies, VCs etc) is expressing shock and amazement at the lack of sympathy. That lack will increase significantly if the taxpayer has to bear the brunt of anymore SV/Wall Street excesses.

I can read the paper, any issue, any paper and send you a passage and my subsequent analysis if you wish...my email is in the box.

Quality ideas don’t come up on demand. They come sporadically over time, so it’s best to have a system to capture these ideas. I capture my ideas using Drafts on Apple Watch or phone if I’m not on my computer and eventually move them to Roam where I have a super flexible tagging system to keep them organized. I do this for insights and lessons learned as well.

To generate ideas on demand (for example if I want to come up with questions for my next podcast guest, I’ll go for a walk and jot down notes on my phone as I’m walking. My brain works best when walking.)

Keeping a “thought library” helps:

[0] https://medium.com/@swamiphoto/create-your-thought-library-b...

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