Every good idea is a remix
Creativity is one of the most valuable skills you can have.
Yet, less than 40% of people think they are creative.
And very few know how to turn it into their advantage.
The majority have no clue how to come up with better ideas or even don't believe this is something they can do.
The good news is - creativity isn't something you're born with.
Actually, studies show creativity is something you're born with, but you lose it along the way. You get the point, though.
The bad news is - if you think it is, you'll need to get rid of this thinking pattern.
And this won't happen overnight.
I used to be there too. I used to think creativity was a gift some people had, and others were left hopeless without. This belief was deadly effective in slowing down or stopping my progress in all areas of life. I sometimes still think this way and get stuck on something for no reason, but it has gotten better with time.
Having infinite ideas for solving a problem you're facing is extremely valuable. Whether you're trying to learn a new skill, start a new business, or come up with a concept for the book you always wanted to write, it comes in handy.
And there is a simple solution for that.
Not the most romantic, but still - a solution.
Every good idea is a remix
Nothing is created out of thin air.
Everything you create is built upon others' work. The source of inspiration is subconscious, leading you to think this new idea is entirely yours. While you may not be aware of the influence, it's just a series of awkward events that shaped your thoughts as they are now.
Similarly, every idea you think is brilliant is just a combination of various other ideas, but you aren't conscious of the context in which they were created.
When we perceive something as brilliant, chances are that the person who created it doesn't feel this way. To them, it's just a matter of connecting the dots already present on their table. However trivial this sounds, it doesn't diminish their achievement - the dots didn't end up on the table by themselves.
If I ask you to draw a tree right now, you already have a brief idea of what it might look like.
Imagine you have never seen any tree before. What would you draw now?
The question to ask isn't "What are you talking about?" but rather, how can you draw a tree if you have no idea what one looks like? It doesn't exist for you. Blank page.
But you already know what a typical tree looks like and have your own version in mind. Sounds quite creative to me.
You collected thousands of examples across many years, and now you can combine all of them into your own unique version. That's it. You're creative.
We and all of our ideas are just a combination of what's already there.
Expose yourself to more ideas
So, to generate better ideas, we need something to start off.
We need to constantly fuel our creativity. The more and the better the quality of ideas you consume, the easier it is for you to generate your own great ideas.
The term called adjacent possible defines a shadow surrounding the edges of the present state of things. The current state of things can be expanded slightly using what's already possible to create something new. New ideas extend adjacent possible and allow for new ideas to be found.
You cannot come up with something outside the adjacent possible. It needs to be a process of small improvements. The discovery of the wheel didn't immediately allow anyone to build a modern car. Thousands of discoveries were required along the way to make that happen.
New discoveries lead to new discoveries.
From Tissue to Organ to Organism - without primary tissues, organs would never exist, and without organs, organisms would never live.
From Social Media Platforms to Content Creation to Content Monetization.
From Movie Theaters to Television to Streaming Services.
Of course, other discoveries were also needed before Streaming Services were possible because complex ideas are interconnected.
But you get the overall theme - every new idea relies on previous creations.
So, what are we even talking about?
On a smaller scale, we all live in our own adjacent possible.
Our possibilities are limited by our own knowledge and consciousness.
If you can buy groceries, use the oven, and find recipes online, you can make yourself a meal.
It's a silly example, but it's exactly the same for everything else.
Yet people tend to overcomplicate.
If you have no clue how web pages are designed, how good copy is created, or how basic web pages work, you'll think creating one is pure magic. In reality, experienced people can do this in 30 minutes, but you haven't collected enough pieces of the puzzle yet to make that happen effortlessly.
The same goes for starting a business. If you're unaware of business models, why people are willing to spend money, what makes a good business, and how to find clients, opportunities will pass you by.
There are plenty of opportunities, but you're not conscious enough to spot them.
So go ahead and explore the world a little.
Expose yourself to concepts and ideas with reading. The more you collect, the easier it is to combine them and create something yourself.
Develop curiosity. Get interested in everything that surrounds you. Read about this. Google things up. Follow references. Go deeper. Ideas will come to you naturally.
The truth is that inspiration can be found everywhere: in books, conversations, architecture, business models, biographies, paintings, poems, movies, music, tutorials, and whatever else comes to your mind.
Depending on why you are looking for ideas, some sources will be more helpful than others. The chances of finding a new business idea by observing stars in the sky are rather low, so choose sources that best suit your needs.
Bonus points for writing it down somewhere.
Create your own swipe/notes file. If something catches your attention - write it down. Store it somewhere, whether it's a quote, your own thought, an inspiring image, or a cool graphic. This has two huge benefits:
- It allows you to save things you'd otherwise forget. If you think you won't forget about it, you will.
- It reduces chaos in your mind. Occupying your mind with trying to remember things is a questionable way to use your brain
I prefer to keep it as simple as possible and use the Notes app on my phone/computer to quickly access it whenever needed. You can also build a complex Notion second brain, but from my experience, it complicates things even more and tends to be a waste of time in most cases.
Try it for a week. Then, after a week, take a look at the notes from a week ago. You'll be surprised at how many great things you have noted that you'd otherwise forget.
Do your research
You should expose yourself to new ideas all the time. The more ideas and concepts you collect, the more possibilities become open to you and the easier it is to spot them. But sometimes, you want to narrow down on a specific one.
Imagine building from Lego bricks. If you have a ton of random blocks in your hand, you can only build so much with it. To create something unique, you'll need some rare and custom blocks to come into play.
After all, there is little fun in building a giant cube from a thousand 2x4 bricks. Well, that actually sounds fun, but this is not the point.
And a manual wouldn't hurt, right?
As we're exposed to different ideas throughout our lives, we collect more and more blocks. Different shapes, sizes, and colors. The more of them you have, the more possibilities await you.
But when it's time to build something, things may get a little overwhelming.
Building manuals make it easier. And you're missing a few bricks anyway, so it would be great to know which ones.
You can create your own building manual by doing research.
When you want to start a project (whatever this means for you), you can narrow your research on a specific problem that will show you what building blocks you already have, which you need, and how to put them together.
At a minimum, you can:
- Analyze what others do - dissect their process into pieces to see how they are working to improve your own process
- Gather examples - create a board for inspiration, gather work you enjoy in one place, and analyze what makes them work
- Read 1-2 topic-related books - to get familiar with basic rules
- Buy a course - a good one will take you from A to Z step-by-step. Optional, but will save you time.
You passively collect ideas throughout your life, but when working on a specific project, you can speed up this process tenfold by narrowing down to a particular problem.
Start and make errors
There is only so much your brain can store.
Sadly, you won't remember 90% of what you read or research.
Reading and researching feel good. It feels like making progress.
This article sounds excellent; I can only start after reading this one. Oh, and this YouTube video, let me watch the whole tutorial series. Now, it's time to spend an hour scrolling through Instagram. I'll find something cool I can use.
In reality, you're stuck in the same place.
Not everything has to be perfect before you move to the next step.
You won't create a better version until the first version is created.
If everyone would try to be perfect, we'd still live in caves.
The world's first car seems like a considerable achievement. While the ones we use now are a little bit more convenient, we would never have been able to manufacture modern cars without thousands of previous versions that used what was available to them and explored the boundaries of the adjacent possible.
Creation requires evolution.
The only way to turn your learning into creativity is to start acting on it. So, put together all the puzzles you've collected and start.
You'll come across obstacles you hadn't even thought of earlier, and then you can start your research again, even more narrowed down.
You'll find new ways to explore your adjacent possible.
You're truly exploring now instead of theorizing in your mind.
And you'll make errors. That's unavoidable and also the best thing that can happen.
This is true for two reasons:
- you're getting real-life experience, and that's way better than watching all the tutorials in the world
- you immediately see what you're missing and can research more effectively from that point
Imagine you want to design a website:
- You read a few blog posts and watch two YouTube tutorials.
- You find a design tool.
- You start creating. Add some background, text, and icons here and there.
- You realize that the colors look terrible together, the icons seem off, and the font size is way too small.
This is the best part.
Now, you can pick up the right book or google for the answer. In 15 minutes, you can learn about color theory and type scale and that icons generally look better when they are all similar in size.
No matter how many books you read or YouTube videos you watch, you'll never catch such details. Exposing yourself to experience is the most effective way to evolve your work.
Being wrong forces us to challenge our assumptions and confront what we know with reality.
Being wrong itself doesn't make you creative but forces you to look for things you're missing.
Creativity isn't black magic. It's a process you can develop.