Dear Reader,
For the past few weeks, I’ve been pondering ideas, which was initiated by books.
How is it that there are so many great books discussing so many incredible original ideas? Yes, there are books that just popularize something already in practice, but most books, or at least most great books often discuss ideas that are new.
Even if some parts of the shared ideas already exist in some form, the majority of those books have new applications, methods, or strategies for implementation. So a sensible question arises: where do those ideas come from? And how can we form such original ideas for ourselves?
The answer lies in my existential crisis, which I talked about in this issue.
I dare to propose that there are no real “original” ideas. Every idea we are exposed to is based on ideas that came before it. And that is a very good thing. If ideas were not built on top of other ideas, we wouldn’t be where we are as humans. We make progress because we learn, experiment, develop, and then share those ideas for others to build on top of.
So coming back to the main question: Where do ideas come from?
From other ideas.
Every idea is a combination of two things:
- A foundation from other ideas
- A leap of imagination
For example, this is how Newton formulated the laws of motion and gravitation. Physics existed before Newton, so he knew how some fundamental things worked. But when the apple fell on his head (we don’t know if that actually happened), it took a leap of imagination to compare the apple falling on the ground to the moon revolving around Earth, and other bodies to pull one another.
This is also how research works. In almost 99.99% of cases, researchers know something to be true about something, and then they create a hypothesis that a different object (often unrelated) might show similar behavior. That is their starting point, a leap of imagination.
Then they test that idea, their hypothesis/assumption, and adjust their theory accordingly. Once the theory is tested and adjusted accordingly, it becomes an evidence-based theory. Hence, new “original” ideas are formed.
Tim Ferriss and Cal Newport are excellent examples of applying this in a non-science scenario. Both of them are published authors with excellent original ideas, but they’ve both followed the exact steps to formulate those ideas.
Now, the second part of our question: How do we form such original ideas ourselves?
One of the easiest ways is to read more or learn from documentaries. In whatever format you prefer, expose yourself to more information. Be careful about the quality though. There is a lot of low-quality, and often inaccurate, information out there. Books are usually more trustworthy than other sources.
The more ideas you expose yourself to, the better your imagination will become. This is also how you become a competitive entrepreneur or effective knowledge worker, through exposing yourself to more high-quality knowledge.
The good part is that most people are not doing this, which is what makes it better for us. When something requires some amount of work, the number of people who actually do it gets that much smaller.
This is an opportunity to become a stronger candidate in our current increasingly competitive world.
I hope this gave you something interesting to think about. If you read this far, let me know by responding to this issue or dropping a comment.
I will see you next week.
Take care!
Warmly,
Suraj
If you'd like to hear more from me, here's my YouTube channel where I share lessons, experiments, tools, and resources to make life just a little better.
