What is an Idea?
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In the spirit of Insanely Interesting September, I gave myself a simple task: For one day, write down each and every idea that crosses your mind. Then at the end of the day, count how many you got.
It turns out that this wasn’t such an easy experiment after all: with each new idea I was more and more lost trying to figure out if it qualifies as an idea or not.
My first idea in the morning was to take care of my errands during the lunch break so that I wouldn’t have to hurry too much in the evening.
I didn’t come up with an amazing new product for taking care of your errands. And I didn’t even build myself a new process for taking care of the running tasks I need to handle.
But still, this simple thought saved me a lot of stress throughout the day.
So, was it an idea?
If it was, it wasn’t a very useful one.
It could be a seed for a bigger idea, though: I could write a blog post about how it makes sense to take care of your business during your lunch break, or I could come up with a new business targetted at people who are too busy to take care of their errands.
But does an idea really need to be new in order to be accepted as an idea?
And does an idea need to be useful in order to be a real idea?
You tell me! What do you think an idea is?
What about this video, are the ideas in it ideas, or just things you do?
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6 Responses to “What is an Idea?”
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September 3rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
As a beginning meditator I have to say that the flow of thoughts and ideas in my mind is so overwhelming I wouldn’t be able to count the ideas that I have let alone write them down! If only the ideas applied to an actual problem I was trying to solve …
BTW – funny video :)
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I would say an idea is something that involves creativity, change or difference in order to accomplish something, not a brainless routine. Getting up to make coffee every morning the same way is no longer an idea, it is a routine. But decide to make it differently one day, or drink milk instead, that would be an “idea”.
Lucys last blog post..Labor Day Relaxed outfit
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Personally, an idea is to easy our or other people’s life.
An idea is created to solve issues.
Many rich people are making not OK money, not big money, but huge money by helping out other rich people to spend their money.
An idea is easier said than done, but it’s also the most important trigger to move our life forward. Recently, I stop saying “I have no idea” when people ask me questions. I realized that I should think about the question and trying to find answer before throwing back the short answer.
I have the same practice for years now. It actually comes up to me with the newest idea to help other business grow. Without finishing it, I will never know an idea is working or not.
So having an idea is very important. Actually go for it is the key to make the idea happening.
Keep it up! :-)
Terence Changs last blog post..Enough is never enough - are you a Middle-Class Millionaire?
September 4th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Jarkko - what a great question, but tough to answer! The free dictionary defines and idea as:
Something, such as a thought or conception, that potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity.
So, I guess I agree. :)
September 4th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I believe Joe Vitale said that Ideas need swift action. Several times it has happened to me where I came up with an idea and not taken action and that idea came to fruition by someone else. Just today I was stumbling through web sites with StumbleUpon and a couple of hacking websites came up. One was life hacking and the other I don’t remember. I just happened to think about Ikea furniture and my hacking of an item from Ikea - I made a router table out of it - when the next web page was about Ikea hacking! I don’t understand it but I believe that we’re all connected in the universe and ideas flow through all of us. If you don’t listen and act on your ideas they will flow through to the next person who might.
September 4th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
@Aaron: So you would say that meditation brings you more ideas? How do you handle them? Do you write your ideas down after meditation (the ones that you still remember)?
@Lucy: I like it how you say that an idea must be a change from the routine. In that sense, maybe my example of taking care of my errands during the lunch break was a small scale idea for me, because it was something I usually don’t do…
@Terence: So, do you think that an idea always needs an issue / problem that it helps solve?
Actually, I thought about something similar today. Maybe the word idea is not the best here as conceptually it means so many things. A solution could be more useful as a term for ideas that have the potential to become innovations?
And I love your idea of not saying “I have no idea” anymore. I must try that too :)
@Mark: I guess that’s what makes “idea” so hard to define. The definition is so broad that it practically encompasses all the thoughts that cross our minds, whether actionable or not…
@Ryan: I don’t quite believe that such events are anything more than happy coincidences… Being connected to the universe and all that sounds a bit creepy to me ;) I might be wrong, though…