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lolotehe"Where do you get your ideas?"
"There's this little store in Schenectady. Every month I send them a check for $25 and they send me a bundle of ideas," said Harlan Ellison.
Bruce says, "I get them while fucking your mom."
Both answers are asshole answers.
Yes, I do. I understand where the question comes from and I can appreciate the question. I've wondered it myself on occasion and I think being a douche about it helps no one.
I read a lot of non-fiction, for starters. I read history books, instruction manuals, and sociological papers. If someone says that they have a blood-pressure medication that reduces racist thought, I read that paper. If there's a theory about how mitochondria therapy helps kill cancer, I read it. There is a lot of wonderful stuff that happens in the real world that I think about. You want to know about how spaceships work? Hell, read some of the papers at eagle.org and learn about how we deal with ships and rigs today. There is too much information out there to be ignored.
I play word-games with friends. If someone makes a typo, I look at it and play with it. Just what is "schadenfudge"? Some of the best ideas you'll have aren't yours at all. I knew a guy who worked in an office downtown, but the elevator was so slow, everyone joked he worked "fifteen minutes from downtown". Play with mis-heard statements and go for the literal meaning of statements.
Hang out with people smarter and more accomplished than you are. I've got friends who were in the Peace Corps who have some fascinating tales of how people think about things. Listen to stories of people who came before. You're not as smart as you thought you were.
Live your life. I got new windows and housed an exchange student once. Both experiences gave me an idea for a deaf girl and aliens defeated by cicadas.
Start from the end. I wrote a ghost story based on the advice that "if you sleep on your left side, you won't get heartburn."
Talk to people outside your area of expertise. My frustration with people who aren't "computer literate" gave me a story about humans, our ability to anticipate actions, and a robot that didn't know the difference between a pile of junk and six-years-old child.
Play. If ideas were physical things that could be taken from you, or if hours were something you could pack up and ship to someone...both are playing with the meanings we give things. Be literal. See what happens.
Do you have pets? Do you talk for them?
Ask "what if?" I hate smart-phone and how they make people behave.
Read read read. If someone says they write more than they read, avoid them. Always read and ask questions.
Watch the TED talks.
Don't be too serious and never take criticism personally. If they don't get it, you haven't been clear enough.
Listen.
My buddy Dan and I were talking about the movie Moon in a Chinese restaurant and I leaned over and asked the only other person there if we were ruining the film for him. This kid said he thought we were talking about work.
What kind of work would we be doing to have that conversation?
Make assumptions and second guess everything. You'll be wrong about the truth, but you might get an idea.
"There's this little store in Schenectady. Every month I send them a check for $25 and they send me a bundle of ideas," said Harlan Ellison.
Bruce says, "I get them while fucking your mom."
Both answers are asshole answers.
Yes, I do. I understand where the question comes from and I can appreciate the question. I've wondered it myself on occasion and I think being a douche about it helps no one.
I read a lot of non-fiction, for starters. I read history books, instruction manuals, and sociological papers. If someone says that they have a blood-pressure medication that reduces racist thought, I read that paper. If there's a theory about how mitochondria therapy helps kill cancer, I read it. There is a lot of wonderful stuff that happens in the real world that I think about. You want to know about how spaceships work? Hell, read some of the papers at eagle.org and learn about how we deal with ships and rigs today. There is too much information out there to be ignored.
I play word-games with friends. If someone makes a typo, I look at it and play with it. Just what is "schadenfudge"? Some of the best ideas you'll have aren't yours at all. I knew a guy who worked in an office downtown, but the elevator was so slow, everyone joked he worked "fifteen minutes from downtown". Play with mis-heard statements and go for the literal meaning of statements.
Hang out with people smarter and more accomplished than you are. I've got friends who were in the Peace Corps who have some fascinating tales of how people think about things. Listen to stories of people who came before. You're not as smart as you thought you were.
Live your life. I got new windows and housed an exchange student once. Both experiences gave me an idea for a deaf girl and aliens defeated by cicadas.
Start from the end. I wrote a ghost story based on the advice that "if you sleep on your left side, you won't get heartburn."
Talk to people outside your area of expertise. My frustration with people who aren't "computer literate" gave me a story about humans, our ability to anticipate actions, and a robot that didn't know the difference between a pile of junk and six-years-old child.
Play. If ideas were physical things that could be taken from you, or if hours were something you could pack up and ship to someone...both are playing with the meanings we give things. Be literal. See what happens.
Do you have pets? Do you talk for them?
Ask "what if?" I hate smart-phone and how they make people behave.
Read read read. If someone says they write more than they read, avoid them. Always read and ask questions.
Watch the TED talks.
Don't be too serious and never take criticism personally. If they don't get it, you haven't been clear enough.
Listen.
My buddy Dan and I were talking about the movie Moon in a Chinese restaurant and I leaned over and asked the only other person there if we were ruining the film for him. This kid said he thought we were talking about work.
What kind of work would we be doing to have that conversation?
Make assumptions and second guess everything. You'll be wrong about the truth, but you might get an idea.
