6 ms·

Where Do Great Ideas Come From?

88 points by SongofEarth 3y ago

Animats 3y ago
Not from these guys. As for the "Beginner's Mind", read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman". Feynman writes that bringing in someone who's good at a different field may be useful for getting new insights. Merely bringing in a beginner may not be as useful.
- Haga 3y ago
  [dead]
- SongofEarth 3y ago
  I think here we can assume it's not someone completely ignorant in the field(they did mention "outsiders in analogous fields"), so it's really about someone with a good understanding of an adjacent field, whose skills and knowledge can often be applied to the field in question, like bringing a computer scientist to robotics or biology, not like asking an accountant to design a rocket.
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    > a good understanding of an adjacent field All fields share some amount of border. The amount varies, but there's no such binary thing as adjacent or not, and the important insight you need may come from absolutely anywhere.
- mdekkers 3y ago
  Anecdotally, I was brought in to improve data processing for semiconductor manufacturing quality control. To say that wasn’t exactly my field is an understatement. Working with an amazing team that was open to change was a great experience and we managed to implement significant improvements for many aspects of the processes we looked at.
  - svnt 3y ago
    I think there is a critical balance between education and experience where a person has both sufficient capability and (critically) interest in using it, that enables this sort of thing. Of course it also requires the opportunity to improve something, which is not universally present. Often the opportunities to improve stem from a recent change in organizational priorities, or the prior party’s lack of interest (instrinsic motivation) or incentive (extrinsic motivation), not necessarily their specialization or lack of understanding.
- fuzzfactor 3y ago
  >Not from these guys. Good call. >Certainly, ideas cannot impact society without “effective placement,” but there would be nothing to “place” without them. They are the seed of all progress, the beginning of every great invention. They're correct about this, but as I mentioned just recently the proper attitude can make a world of difference. They're also correct about Intrinsic Motivation. >They subsequently analyzed this information alongside the number of hours worked per week (a proxy for effort) and the number of patents issued in the past five years (a proxy for creative production). >The authors found that effort and innovative production were much more correlated with intrinsic motivators. R&D scientists who chose their positions because they provided more independence and fulfilled their curiosity worked more hours and had more patents to show for it. These are not very good metrics, nor even ideal test subjects, but still point toward the realistic conclusion. It takes a lot to hide this, unfortunately there is usually more than enough effective obscurity in place to conceal more widespread recognition. >Nor are ideas abundant. Indeed, there is evidence they are growing rarer by the year. Wrong. Misguided research organizations are bound to be less effective than free-flowing creativity. >What incentives encourage originality? Real natural originality requires no incentive. >Who should you hire to boost an organization’s innovation? Someone who doesn't need any incentive to create, only to perform their best without undue limitations. >And how do you harness the abilities of a collective? If the collective has less-effective creativity than a single individual, you don't. You can't lead by committee. Like I said, you don't harness this, you unleash it! I think the best ideas come from people who do not have the resources to implement hardly any of them. The ones that don't let that stop them, eventually do come across something sensible to implement and go forward with the resources they do have. And continue not to let that stop them from the endless stream of new ideas which are still out-of-reach to take action about, including those that will certainly never come within reach. They're too busy taking action at the scale they do have. Like a train that can't be stopped. The action they are taking may seem so small and insignificant, for so long compared to one of their more lofty but out-of-reach concepts, these are most often considered merely "idea people" with no big concrete accomplishments. Usually those with the resources to build rails across the continent are often the least likely to seriously consider a small-scale model railroader to have anything worthwhile to offer. Far below the radar of someone or committee who is already in a position of moving & shaking in a more noticeable way at bigger scale, even when they recognize the need for new ideas other than their own. Too bad.
samsquire 3y ago
For me YMMV, but writing is thinking. I journal my computer software ideas everyday in the open on GitHub. Write down your ideas and practice ideation. Go create an "ideas" repository on GitHub and every day in README.md create a markdown heading of a thought you're having. Make it private if you're worried people shall steal them. Please use my ideas but point people towards my repositories, as I want people to try things out and see them in the world. I don't get obsessed about a single idea for more than a few days. I just try keep myself open to inspiration based on what others say and I focus on what qualities I want (elegance, beauty, efficiency, preferred capabilities, intuition) if you want inspiration, there's also halfbakery https://www.halfbakery.com/user/chronological https://www.halfbakery.com/user/chronological
- ilyt 3y ago
  For me it's opposite, the moment I start writing it down is when I start to build it, I get it mostly built in my head before I start putting down code or wire. With some components having basically "don't even think about it once the prototype is in and you can do more educated guesses. > if you want inspiration, there's also halfbakery https://www.halfbakery.com/user/chronological https://www.halfbakery.com/user/chronological That's funny, I remember having few ideas that I thought were interesting but someone just.... did them, I just didn't knew. So I started browsing. > https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Backup_20tester#1583186965 https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Backup_20tester#1583186965 That's a feature enterprise backup software kinda have; you can run verify job that do that , and full "restore environments from backup" is already a thing in big enterprises Some, sadly mostly in form of config validation, also have the "verify whether files are correct in batch mode" > https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Backward_20pricing#1680630496 https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Backward_20pricing#168063049... That's kickstarter. > https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/URL_20Powered_20Computer#1675394342 https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/URL_20Powered_20Computer#167... I've so far seen few apps in k8s environment doing that. Like for example in Victoriametrics' vmagent you can instead of config post an url that will be polled
  - samsquire 3y ago
    I tend to write about what I want and then do experimental short projects for 1 evening to a few weeks. Then I try integrate the separate projects together. Sometimes I just jump into a project based on an idea, usually on repl.it See https://replit.com/@Chronological https://replit.com/@Chronological
ricardbejarano 3y ago
Boredom.
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  That's valid if you're too well off to have any other serious problem. And that's sure how we got most of our philosophy in the west, Descartes was is no way struggling to survive. For comparison, double entry accounting was surely not invented through boredom.
  - KineticLensman 3y ago
    No, but perhaps from the tedium of trying to reconcile accounts managed without double-entry
    - ilyt 3y ago
      I'm pretty sure everything you and I think boring have someone interested in it enough to research.
  - ilyt 3y ago
    > For comparison, double entry accounting was surely not invented through boredom. The man that invented it had time to spend writing books and not slaving away at work. Your "for comparison" is same "a well off man did what they liked" as the thing you're comparing to.
    - makeitdouble 3y ago
      He was a merchant, and instead of writing a book actually did the thing and spread the practice: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping
- cliffwarden 3y ago
  I can't agree with this more. I've never been able to "think" my way into a good idea. I always have to daydream and have an idle mind about it for a while
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rapnie 3y ago
Steven Johnson's "Where Good Ideas Come From" is an inspiring video. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU https://yewtu.be/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU
juanani 3y ago
[dead]
drumhead 3y ago
Its all just luck ultimately.

88 points by SongofEarth 3y ago

Not from these guys. As for the "Beginner's Mind", read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman". Feynman writes that bringing in someone who's good at a different field may be useful for getting new insights. Merely bringing in a beginner may not be as useful.

Haga 3y ago
[dead]
SongofEarth 3y ago
I think here we can assume it's not someone completely ignorant in the field(they did mention "outsiders in analogous fields"), so it's really about someone with a good understanding of an adjacent field, whose skills and knowledge can often be applied to the field in question, like bringing a computer scientist to robotics or biology, not like asking an accountant to design a rocket.
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  > a good understanding of an adjacent field All fields share some amount of border. The amount varies, but there's no such binary thing as adjacent or not, and the important insight you need may come from absolutely anywhere.
mdekkers 3y ago
Anecdotally, I was brought in to improve data processing for semiconductor manufacturing quality control. To say that wasn’t exactly my field is an understatement. Working with an amazing team that was open to change was a great experience and we managed to implement significant improvements for many aspects of the processes we looked at.
- svnt 3y ago
  I think there is a critical balance between education and experience where a person has both sufficient capability and (critically) interest in using it, that enables this sort of thing. Of course it also requires the opportunity to improve something, which is not universally present. Often the opportunities to improve stem from a recent change in organizational priorities, or the prior party’s lack of interest (instrinsic motivation) or incentive (extrinsic motivation), not necessarily their specialization or lack of understanding.
fuzzfactor 3y ago
>Not from these guys. Good call. >Certainly, ideas cannot impact society without “effective placement,” but there would be nothing to “place” without them. They are the seed of all progress, the beginning of every great invention. They're correct about this, but as I mentioned just recently the proper attitude can make a world of difference. They're also correct about Intrinsic Motivation. >They subsequently analyzed this information alongside the number of hours worked per week (a proxy for effort) and the number of patents issued in the past five years (a proxy for creative production). >The authors found that effort and innovative production were much more correlated with intrinsic motivators. R&D scientists who chose their positions because they provided more independence and fulfilled their curiosity worked more hours and had more patents to show for it. These are not very good metrics, nor even ideal test subjects, but still point toward the realistic conclusion. It takes a lot to hide this, unfortunately there is usually more than enough effective obscurity in place to conceal more widespread recognition. >Nor are ideas abundant. Indeed, there is evidence they are growing rarer by the year. Wrong. Misguided research organizations are bound to be less effective than free-flowing creativity. >What incentives encourage originality? Real natural originality requires no incentive. >Who should you hire to boost an organization’s innovation? Someone who doesn't need any incentive to create, only to perform their best without undue limitations. >And how do you harness the abilities of a collective? If the collective has less-effective creativity than a single individual, you don't. You can't lead by committee. Like I said, you don't harness this, you unleash it! I think the best ideas come from people who do not have the resources to implement hardly any of them. The ones that don't let that stop them, eventually do come across something sensible to implement and go forward with the resources they do have. And continue not to let that stop them from the endless stream of new ideas which are still out-of-reach to take action about, including those that will certainly never come within reach. They're too busy taking action at the scale they do have. Like a train that can't be stopped. The action they are taking may seem so small and insignificant, for so long compared to one of their more lofty but out-of-reach concepts, these are most often considered merely "idea people" with no big concrete accomplishments. Usually those with the resources to build rails across the continent are often the least likely to seriously consider a small-scale model railroader to have anything worthwhile to offer. Far below the radar of someone or committee who is already in a position of moving & shaking in a more noticeable way at bigger scale, even when they recognize the need for new ideas other than their own. Too bad.

samsquire 3y ago

For me YMMV, but writing is thinking. I journal my computer software ideas everyday in the open on GitHub. Write down your ideas and practice ideation. Go create an "ideas" repository on GitHub and every day in README.md create a markdown heading of a thought you're having. Make it private if you're worried people shall steal them. Please use my ideas but point people towards my repositories, as I want people to try things out and see them in the world. I don't get obsessed about a single idea for more than a few days. I just try keep myself open to inspiration based on what others say and I focus on what qualities I want (elegance, beauty, efficiency, preferred capabilities, intuition) if you want inspiration, there's also halfbakery https://www.halfbakery.com/user/chronological https://www.halfbakery.com/user/chronological

ilyt 3y ago
For me it's opposite, the moment I start writing it down is when I start to build it, I get it mostly built in my head before I start putting down code or wire. With some components having basically "don't even think about it once the prototype is in and you can do more educated guesses. > if you want inspiration, there's also halfbakery https://www.halfbakery.com/user/chronological https://www.halfbakery.com/user/chronological That's funny, I remember having few ideas that I thought were interesting but someone just.... did them, I just didn't knew. So I started browsing. > https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Backup_20tester#1583186965 https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Backup_20tester#1583186965 That's a feature enterprise backup software kinda have; you can run verify job that do that , and full "restore environments from backup" is already a thing in big enterprises Some, sadly mostly in form of config validation, also have the "verify whether files are correct in batch mode" > https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Backward_20pricing#1680630496 https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Backward_20pricing#168063049... That's kickstarter. > https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/URL_20Powered_20Computer#1675394342 https://www.halfbakery.com/idea/URL_20Powered_20Computer#167... I've so far seen few apps in k8s environment doing that. Like for example in Victoriametrics' vmagent you can instead of config post an url that will be polled
- samsquire 3y ago
  I tend to write about what I want and then do experimental short projects for 1 evening to a few weeks. Then I try integrate the separate projects together. Sometimes I just jump into a project based on an idea, usually on repl.it See https://replit.com/@Chronological https://replit.com/@Chronological

ricardbejarano 3y ago

Boredom.

makeitdouble 3y ago
That's valid if you're too well off to have any other serious problem. And that's sure how we got most of our philosophy in the west, Descartes was is no way struggling to survive. For comparison, double entry accounting was surely not invented through boredom.
- KineticLensman 3y ago
  No, but perhaps from the tedium of trying to reconcile accounts managed without double-entry
  - ilyt 3y ago
    I'm pretty sure everything you and I think boring have someone interested in it enough to research.
- ilyt 3y ago
  > For comparison, double entry accounting was surely not invented through boredom. The man that invented it had time to spend writing books and not slaving away at work. Your "for comparison" is same "a well off man did what they liked" as the thing you're comparing to.
  - makeitdouble 3y ago
    He was a merchant, and instead of writing a book actually did the thing and spread the practice: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping
cliffwarden 3y ago
I can't agree with this more. I've never been able to "think" my way into a good idea. I always have to daydream and have an idle mind about it for a while

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

rapnie 3y ago

Steven Johnson's "Where Good Ideas Come From" is an inspiring video. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU https://yewtu.be/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU

juanani 3y ago

[dead]

drumhead 3y ago

Its all just luck ultimately.