New ideas aren't really new

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Daily Five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we?

[00:00:16] How do you come up with new ideas? Is there such a thing as new ideas? Well, the saying goes that there's nothing new under the sun. And that's true, but also..not? New ideas aren't really new, but they are often new ways of putting together some other existing ideas. You mash 'em together and once in a while you get something greater than its parts.

[00:00:49] The something new. I think most people think ideas come from fresh perspectives. This pipe dream of the youngling coming into an industry full of old stodges, seeing it from a fresh perspective and boom, revolutionizing the whole industry in one go. And I mean, it's not totally made up. I bet it does happen once in a while, but it, it doesn't really happen that often.

[00:01:20] No, new ideas come from deeply knowing a topic and often lightly knowing some other topics. When you know something very well, you can see more possibilities. When I talk to a new potential client about their needs, I can often see what they don't even know they need yet, because I know the tech better than they do.

[00:01:45] They explain what they wanna achieve and may even take a stab at figuring out and telling me how they wanna achieve it. But if it's an area I have experience in, I'll see the gaps that they can't, and I'll see the solutions they can't.

My parents are excellent in the kitchen. They can walk into any kitchen, and I know this because I've seen them do it, survey what's available and whip together an excellent meal.

[00:02:16] Even if it's a kind of meal they've never made before. Give my dad a handful of spices, a pot, some produce, or meat, and in 30 to 45 minutes he can whip you up a great meal. Put my mom in a kitchen of floundering people and she'll take charge, clean up the mess and get everyone working in sync creating something tasty, and she'll talk you through what she wants you to do so that you know for next time and understand why.

[00:02:46] They've been cooking for a long, long time. They've encountered a million situations and faced at least a million combinations of stuff available to cook with. They can walk into a kitchen and immediately see a bunch of possibilities. Sometimes I wonder, you know, if my parents can do that, how cool would it be to look at a kitchen through the eyes of an Iron Chef?

[00:03:11] Someons so good, so versatile, so flexible that they can create absolute wonders without knowing ahead of time what they'll have to work with. They come up with cool new ideas because they know so much. Their vault of knowledge is so deep that they can pull out and combine all kinds of things together.

[00:03:32] And because they've tried so many things, they have an intuition that they've developed for what might work, what could work, and what probably isn't worth the risk. So if you wanna be someone who has lots of ideas, well you have to get learning and then basically never stop learning. You learn and experience and try lots of stuff, and eventually possibilities and the potential of things..

[00:04:08] they start to take shape in your mind, because your mind simply cannot resist combining stuff you know together. I mean, do you think about some of the crazy dreams you've had? Of course, ideas are just a step, a valuable step, but not the most important step. I'm not even sure the ideas even come first, although it often feels like it does.

[00:04:33] But nevertheless, lots of ideas is how you try a lot of things and eventually something sticks and becomes worth exploring even more.

[00:04:45] Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.