It is possible that every author, director, researcher, artist, or other idea-driven worker who does interviews has had to answer the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" It is a generally unanswerable question that the vast majority of these interviewees entertain with great good humor and tolerance.
I wish my colleagues in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience had more to say about ideas and having them. There's a little about "moments of insight", mostly using jokes (which I will probably talk about later), but so very little on how ideas happen. This is probably because it's hard to define "idea" without echoing Justice Stewart on pornography.
So I'm going to expand the scope of this blog; from ideas as such, to the science and experience of having ideas. This is where I say something appropriately "fasten your seatbelt"-y, but I'm going to yoink from Gary Larson instead.
“Where do you get your ideas?” has always been the question I’m most often confronted with. (“Why do you get your ideas?" is a close second.) I’ve always found the question interesting, because it seems to embody a belief that there exist some secret, tangible place of origin for cartoon ideas. Every time I hear it, I’m struck by this mental image where I see myself rummaging through my grandparents’ attic and coming across some old, musty trunk. Inside, I find this equally old and elegant-looking book. I take it in my hands, blow away the dust, and embossed on the front cover in large, gold script is the title, Five Thousand and One Weird Cartoon Ideas.I’m afraid the real answer is much more mundane: I don’t know where my ideas come from. I will admit, however, that one key ingredient is caffeine. I get a couple of cups of coffee into me and weird things start to happen.
–Gary Larson, The Far Side.
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