A great article on how to effectively diversify your inputs and thereby improve your idea flow.
One easy change is to reduce the overlap in idea sources. Go through your Twitter, Feedly, Podcast, or YouTube feed and see what sources are saying the same things in different ways. Now of those, which are your favorites. Keep one or two, and ditch the rest.
He also talks about creating things from your ideas, which I thought was truly well said.
If youâre not in the habit of creating things from your ideas, your ideas are never forced into some kind of coherency. They never become memes: idea-viruses that can reproduce in the brains of other people.
The best writing is the writing you donât care if anyone reads. Itâs what you create to help yourself understand and clarify whatâs bouncing around in your head. If someone reads and finds value in it, great, but simply by creating it youâve gotten most of the value.
Another one by Scott Young. If youâre a sucker for mental models like me, you might like this article where he explains his favourite mental models in plain words.
You might have heard of most of them before, but itâs amazing to see how these basic mental models can be used to explain lots of things in the world.
Why is hotel bedding white? Why do we pay more for medicine than prevention? Why would most people rather have credentials than an education? The answer isÂ
signaling.
Signaling is taking visible actions to change what other people think. The fact that you can lie, creates strange incentives for would-be signallers to choose things that make lying harder. Bedsheets in a hotel are white, typically, because patterned sheets hide stains. If youâre worried about cleanliness, a pristine white sheet is harder to fake.
We tend to be suspicious of signaling, as it feels less authentic. But it is likely embedded into our psychology at a very basic level.Â
Much of our behavior may be optimized for sending signals, rather than merely reaching direct ends.
The concepts of âMaker Timeâ is useful for anyone who creates (e.g. writing, filming, codingâŚ). If youâre familiar with the ideas like âDeep Workâ and âSingle-taskingâ, you might find it interesting.
More and more, our jobs require creativity and innovative thinking. Yet few people take the time to engage in real creative thought during the day.
who can âget creativeâ in a 15-minute slot between their mandatory lunch meeting and the hour-long call with the sales team at 1:30?
If your job is to think up new and innovative ideas, this just doesnât work. So what does?