Creativity & Innovation
How to get new ideas
What can anomalies teach you?
January 2023
(Someone fed my essays into GPT to make something that could answer questions based on them, then asked it where good ideas come from. The answer was ok, but not what I would have said. This is what I would have said.)
The way to get new ideas is to notice anomalies: what seems strange, or missing, or broken? You can see anomalies in everyday life (much of standup comedy is based on this), but the best place to look for them is at the frontiers of knowledge.Knowledge grows fractally. From a distance its edges look smooth, but when you learn enough to get close to one, you'll notice it's full of gaps. These gaps will seem obvious; it will seem inexplicable that no one has tried x or wondered about y. In the best case, exploring such gaps yields whole new fractal buds.
The essay "The Top Idea in Your Mind" explores the concept that individuals typically have one predominant idea that occupies their thoughts
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Paul Graham discusses the changing landscape of startup funding driven by the decreasing costs of starting a startup and the increasing normalization of entrepreneurship
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This essay explores the concept that certain actions or investments can yield disproportionately high rewards relative to their size or effort, emphasizing the exponential potential of innovative ideas and effective teamwork.
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Paul Graham examines the thin line between groundbreaking ideas and those considered heretical, arguing that true innovation often requires challenging established norms and risking controversy.
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Read about the importance of embracing unconventional and innovative thoughts that challenge the status quo, and how breakthroughs often come from ideas initially perceived as absurd.
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