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Where do Ideas Come From?

1 + 1 = 3.  “What?” you might say. "That is not what I learned in school."  You will be right, and though mathematics does play a role, you have to look at reality to learn that facts are not always able to be put in neat summations that make sense.  New ideas fall into the category of unexplained and unexpected happenings that are sometimes exhilarating and at times appear to be delusional.  So, what brings about great ideas and is there a way to increase ingenuity?

According to Drew Boyd in Psychology Today, many artists, authors, and composers use templates to their stimulate their creativity.   Paul McCartney of the Beatles said that John often came up with the first verse which gave direction to the whole song. Agatha Christy used a template in the over 60 novels she wrote. Use of a familiar pattern helped both artists to be more imaginative. 

Regulated, systematic methodology provided a way a teacher friend used when directing his high school jazz band.  His students were all well trained musicians, but unable to improvise harmoniously (in fact it was chaotic) until he provided a musical template that all could subscribe to. Once grounded, band members were able to improvise individually, building on what the last person’s contribution.  The band won awards for their well coordinated,

1 + 1 = 3.  “What?” you might say. "That is not what I learned in school."  You will be right, and though mathematics does play a role, you have to look at reality to learn that facts are not always able to be put in neat summations that make sense.  New ideas fall into the category of unexplained and unexpected happenings that are sometimes exhilarating and at times appear to be delusional.  So, what brings about great ideas and is there a way to increase ingenuity?

According to Drew Boyd in Psychology Today, many artists, authors, and composers use templates to their stimulate their creativity.   Paul McCartney of the Beatles said that John often came up with the first verse which gave direction to the whole song. Agatha Christy used a template in the over 60 novels she wrote. Use of a familiar pattern helped both artists to be more imaginative. 

Regulated, systematic methodology provided a way a teacher friend used when directing his high school jazz band.  His students were all well trained musicians, but unable to improvise harmoniously (in fact it was chaotic) until he provided a musical template that all could subscribe to. Once grounded, band members were able to improvise individually, building on what the last person’s contribution.  The band won awards for their well coordinated, unique improvisations.. 

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Dr. Boyd uses a mathemadical model to explain five ways to regulate thinking to trigger innovation on demand. 

1. First is subtraction, the elimination of something that at seems essential but is not necessarily so. 
2. Second is unification, adding an additional component that the product was not originally designed to do. 
3. Multiplication follows third, when a component is copied and changed in a counterintuitive way. 
4. With division the product is divided and then put back together in a new way. 
5. Fifth is dependency where there is a correlation between two attributes, product and environment, so if one changes the other does as well. 

My experience is that most people have an appetite for novelty, though some more than others. Many like change and fight against repetitive tasks. They enjoy varying the clothes they wear and changing the car they drive. Some are propelled by an intrinsic need to do something different.  I, for instance, when driving home from the grocery store purposefully vary my route. I want to see if anything in the neighborhood has changed since my last tour down the road.

There are times in life when everything seems to be going smoothly. When that happens for an extended period of time, it is not unusual to seek new challenges that interrupt your comfort zone, creating occasional unwanted chaos. People enjoy new puzzles (problems) that need solving, ones that require out of the box thinking, the stuff that makes them want to get up in the morning.  

When that happens to me I often use the forth way of problem solving, and divide my new puzzle into pieces in order to reassemble them in a new configuration.  Life is likely to get disorderly before it is reassembled into a new and hopefully better configuration.

There are also unwanted problems caused by  illness, accidents, divorce, and even death, but these too are puzzles that  depend upon creative solutions. A person who loses a loved one is likely to use subtraction as their path to innovation. Living as one, rather than two, requires  the grieving person to find new ways of coping. Counselors often suggest going through motions, and making a to-do list, and following a schedule. Over time, the daily templet becomes a comfortable tool that makes it possible to reach out, try new activities, and become more innovative.

Ideas rarely happen in a vacuum.  Information is passed down from one generation to the next for others to contribute to and modify.  But occasionally, someone comes forward with an idea that transforms the way we view the world. Physicist Richard Feynman supposedly envisioned nanotechnology from his own imagination, spurring the growth of a billion dollar industry.    What he and other brilliant innovators are able to do is synthesize information from across various fields. Their ability to cross pollinate ignites a creative spark within.

 When you are in need of inspiration, it is important to look, grab , and blend what you see with other unrelated ideas.  A friend shared that when young, he studied law for a year in order to augment his training in philosophy. With an understanding of two analytical approaches he engineered a cutting edge career as a medical ethicist whose advice is sought by hospitals, physicians and patients. 

There is one other important factor leading to that wonderful “aha moment” when a new concept takes shape.  Dr. Jonathan Schooler  and Claire Zedelius at the University of California, Santa Barbara, study creativity and offer their insight.    Their research shows that an increased tendency to mind wander is associated with an increase in creativity when there is an analytic strategy (templet) in place for considering a dilemma.   All aspects of the problem need to be understood before a relaxed period of mind wandering can provide insight leading to an “Aha” moment that points to a change in direction. 

Increased mindfulness, on the other hand, leads to reduced intuition, which impairs performance that relies on spontaneous insights.  Artists such as writer Suzanne Collins, author of the Hunger Games got her idea of youth fighting death matches when lying in bed channel surfing between a reality TV program where a group of young people were competing and coverage where young people were fighting an actual war. She claims that she was tired and that the two stories started to blur in her mind. 

I like to remind myself that creativity is a practice. There are tricks that can be used to increase one's ability to see things in a new way. However, it is also necessary to be prepared for confusion because problem solving is not straight forward.  Relaxed attention and a willingness to seek input from multiple sources is a sure path for innovation. 

Please share your creative moments on my blog post at eichingerfineart.com/blog.

References:

1. Boyd,D. 2016. Where Do Creative Ideas Come From? Psychology Today. retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/inside-the-box/201611/where-do-creative-ideas-come

2. Jones,O. 2016. Where Do Truly Original Ideas Come From? Big Think. retrieved from http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/where-do-truly-original-ideas-come-from

4. Schooler, J. & Zedelius.C. 2015. Mind wandering”Ahas” versus Mindful reasoning: alternative Routes to Creative Solutions. ResearchGate. retrieved from 

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication 278678064_Mind_Wandering_Ahas_versus_Mindful_Reasoning_Alternative_Routes_to_Creative_Solutions