Ways of Exploring

Ideas are stepping stones to more ideas.

Selecting stepping stones then is of utmost importance. How we select these stepping stones matters. We must choose our compass.

In Greatness Cannot be Planned, Stanley and Lehman propose a set of compasses worth considering.

important clues we can consider: inspiration, elegance, potential to provoke further creativity, thought-provoking construction, challenge to the status quo, novelty, analogy to nature, beauty, simplicity, and imagination.

Let's take these apart. Let's examine a few.

Inspiration is a two-fold thing. A measure of how drawn we are to a topic. But also a proxy measure for how generative the idea is likely to be. What faint outlines of future stones are sparked from this one.

Elegance points to an underlying beauty; a light-quality imbued within an idea's structure. Elegance has symmetry and simplicity; it is more likely to be generalisable than something cobbled together and clunky. We are drawn to beauty and should trust it. Beauty begets beauty.

Analogy to nature. There is 4 billion years of evolutionary experimentation evoked and encoded within design in nature. Ideas, inventions and directions that are in alignment with nature - that are biophilic - have elements that have made these designs successful. These Lindy designs have Lindy underpinnings; they have lasted the test of time. We know from structures in nature that these designs will have natural evolutionary steps forward too.

Simplicity. All complex systems arise from simple systems. Simplicity is generative. Simple things are useful components of more complicated things. Simple patterns are easily replicated across domains.

Potential to provoke other creativity. Most of us have an intuition of what is generative. What are the ideas that lead to more ideas. Some ideas just drip of that potential. Those ideas are alive almost; pulsing with a vital force of their own. Waiting, rattling to be unleashed. Follow those ideas. Take those paths.

Choose your compass.