JOIN USDavid Lynch is right. Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep the fish are more powerful and more pure.
They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful. True progress is often measure by one’s success. And this success is only guaranteed with innovation and creativity. And how does one become creative and innovative? Well, just dig deep into your mind for some refreshing and new ideas.
But our current education system doesn’t encourage such digging for ideas. All we are taught to do is to rote defined concepts, which culls the inquisitiveness of our minds. So, in such a situation, can we expect to experience the sweet taste of forming ideas and giving them life? It is well-known that if we need to progress, we need a good sense of scientific temper. But how can we develop this attitude? It’s pretty simple. You can start by nurturing your personal ideas, applying them in different situations and finally transforming them into a staircase to reach greater heights.
Ideas should be caught not taught. Just like mobile signals, ideas are floating all around us. Ideas are just like newborn babies that require utmost focus and attention. Maximal care should be taken to avoid deforming an idea or its principle.
When we sense an idea, we have to adapt, equip ourselves to receive it. If the idea seems like a big lump, break it down into smaller, manageable pieces. This helps you grasp the nitty-gritties of the idea.
On the other hand, if only the essence of the idea is in the purview, before reaching the very core, the fragrance gets dissipated. In that case, the idea will be applicable to local situations only at certain points of time and its global application will be far from reality.
How to nurture?
While nurturing any idea, one should keep perceptions of vision and audition in full vigour. Allow the ideas to get stored in the transit block, which is the superficial memory. Try not to meddle with the idea in the formative stage itself. When you catch yet another idea similar to or related to the one, scan your memory and try to develop a broader perspective.
Broader (horizontal) or deeper (vertical) perspective depends on the type of the idea perceived. You can then nurture the idea with relevant data and start working towards making the idea a full-blown concept. Sadly, most of us let our ideas sit for too long and lose out on some ingenious visions.
A scientific attitude can surface from anybody. Science is only in our minds and doesn’t have any physical representation. But it can be given a form and made mobile. It can be brought to use only when people of different skills join together and work together. Hence, the need of the hour is to locate and catch the ideas and use them to better our world.
When a set of people see a beautiful sculpture, different people perceive it in different ways. A geologist may start pondering over the age of the rock, a historian may think about the living styles of the people then, an artist may think about the colour mix or implements used, an atheist may marvel at the beauty while a theist may see god in the sculpture.
Persistence matters a lot in this field. Archimedes kept thinking about the problem before an idea finally struck him. For Newton it was the falling apple, which led him through to discover the gravitation principle. To take another example, while walking through the garden, the fragrance of the jasmine flowers reach us before we actually see it. Look for the source and try to find whether only white petal flowers are fragrant. The facts start unveiling that light-coloured petal flowers are usually
fragrant for the purpose of pollination.
Innumerable ideas flash across after keen observation and analysis. A chain of facts link one to another, making a beautiful garland. The only requirements for opening our minds to new ideas are a scientific temper and positive attitude and keen observation skills.If nothing else helps, you can always try the following things:
Whenever an idea pops in your head, make it a point to write it down. It doesn’t have to be a detailed description. Just few points describing your idea would suffice.
In your idle time, start training you mind to think about useful things. Instead of procrastinating, think about something productive. This helps generate ideas faster.
Doodling is considered to be effective in producing ideas. While you catch a break, take out your pens and pencils and unleash your creativity on a notepad.
Get started right now because the next big thing might be lurking in some corner of your mind!