The Art of Ideation: Where Ideas Come From (and How to Get More of Them)

We all want better ideas.
But most people wait for them like a bolt of lightning that may or may not strike.

The truth is, ideas don’t arrive out of nowhere. They assemble themselves out of everything we’ve seen, felt, and thought before. Ideation is less about summoning something new, and more about colliding what already exists in new ways.

Where Ideas Come From

1. Collisions, Not Creation

Ideas are combinations.
When two unrelated things bump together - a problem and a passion, a memory and a metaphor - a spark happens.

That’s why the best thinkers are collectors, not inventors. They fill their minds with raw material: art, history, science, conversations, smells, sounds, and stories. The more diverse your inputs, the more collisions you create.

“Chance favors the connected mind.” — Steven Johnson

2. The Quiet in Between

Ideas rarely arrive when you’re trying to have them.
They show up when your mind drifts - showering, driving, walking, staring at the ceiling. That’s because your brain’s default mode network connects dots while your conscious mind is off duty.

If you’re always scrolling, you’re never allowing silence. And silence is where thoughts finally bump into each other.

Schedule boredom. Seriously. (More on this another time)

3. The Problem Lens

Sometimes the best way to generate ideas isn’t to ask “What should I make?” but “What problem am I trying to solve?”

Constraints sharpen creativity.
If you start with a specific problem - a broken process, an outdated assumption, a customer frustration - you give your brain a lens to focus through. That lens turns chaos into clarity.

How to Generate More Ideas

1. Feed Your Curiosity

Follow curiosity like a bloodhound.
Read outside your field.
Talk to people who disagree with you.
Travel to places that make you uncomfortable.

Every time you absorb something unexpected, you widen the field of possible collisions.

2. Document Everything

Keep a digital or physical “idea vault.”
Notes, scribbles, overheard phrases, shower thoughts - they’re all puzzle pieces.
Most brilliant ideas start as half-formed notes that sit for months before connecting to something else.

Your brain is a terrible filing system. Write it all down.

3. Use Quantity to Find Quality

Creativity is a numbers game.
You don’t get one great idea by waiting for it - you get a hundred okay ones, and then you find the great one hiding inside.

When in doubt, generate fast:

• Write 20 taglines instead of 2.
• Sketch 10 ad ideas instead of 1.
• Push past the “obvious” layer. That’s where the gold starts showing up.

4. Collaborate Intelligently

Ideas multiply when shared.
The right group (small, curious, egoless) can turn one spark into ten. But beware the wrong kind of brainstorming, the kind where people talk over each other or wait for someone else to go first.

Good ideation sessions have rules:

• Suspend judgment while exploring.
• Build on others’ ideas (“yes, and…”).
• Capture everything before editing.

5. Refine Relentlessly

Generating ideas is only half the job. Refinement is where they turn into something real.
Execution separates “good thought” from “great idea.”

The magic is in iteration — revisiting, rewriting, redrawing until it feels inevitable.

Ideas aren’t rare. Attention is.

When you fill your life with novelty, curiosity, and silence, and when you take the time to actually record your thoughts, ideas become a renewable resource.

The more dots you collect, the more connections you can make.
And creativity, at its core, is just that:
Connecting the unconnected.