What is An Idea?

 

What is a good idea?  There is usually a process behind the madness.  I do not think I have a definite process behind the ideas I come up with. Ideas usually come to me and I either take off with the idea or leave it in my mind.  The impulse behind my ideas are usually my driving force; how interested I am with the ideas determines whether or not the idea will make it into the realm of reality.  I do not find myself trying to come up with ideas on a daily basis.  It is not because I am a speculator as Young probably would classify me as, but because I do not have to as much.  I find my profession to be very creative, but it is also interpretive as well.

A good idea to me would be an idea that brings about a change in one’s life that has a major beneficial impact whether it be financially, spiritually, skillful, or anything overall good.  An idea that sparks an influence that can bring someone success.

When I try to come up with an idea, like I said it is usually no set process, so I would say my process of ideation is in no way parallel to what James Webb Young shows us in the book A Technique for Producing Ideas. However, this is not a bad thing.  He explains in his book before he gets in depth warning the reader “….not all who read it accept it.”  It could be lack of experience as well. Maybe as life goes on those skills will come in handy.

I find Webb’s process to be both creative and intellectual.  The process has a lot to do with one’s own mind, making it creative, but after the thought the concrete steps behind it such as recording and birthing the thought is very intellectual. 

Elements that I think will help me create better ideas would be the act of writing it down, thinking about new ways to improve the idea and as I stated before, experience.  Because my process of creating ideas is strictly creative as of now.

For my Independent project I think it’s more on the creative side.  Creating something that does are does not already exist but is coming strictly from my imagination and thoughts and creativity.  I chose creativity because it is the best way, I feel, to describe my individuality. In my opinion, social and practical are things that do not seem as intimate.

I look forward to creating a speech that talks about many controversial topics. My key point in the speech is not to trigger a debate or provoke strife but simply to examine and define the controversy and the reason as to why the topics are controversial.  The idea is just an idea as of now and is bound to change.  The process is still as Young describes, “just above the surface of the mind.”  However the project will be beneficial in many ways.  The speech will provoke questions that perhaps people with intransigent minds felt about the particular subject, and it will allow them to see the subject from a different view.