Szymon's Zettelkasten

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PN: Recipe for creativity


How to be creative?

You need many ideas coming from various sources. You can find the best ideas in liquid environments – ones that invite numerous concepts and enable them to connect in multiple, unpredictable ways.

New ideas are usually in the form of hunches that tend to slip away. Therefore, write everything down in a place where you can collect and connect them. The system for managing your ideas should facilitate connectivity between them. Don't worry if your folders are messy; they should be. Messiness acts as fertile ground for unconventional combinations to form.

New ideas are usually incomplete and need other people's insights to gain strength. Share them with others wherever you are. Moreover, borrow, recycle, and reinvent their ideas so that you will build a tangled bank of concepts.

Your ideas need time and space to develop. Go for a walk, frequent coffeehouses and other liquid networks, and cultivate various hobbies. Don't worry. Your mind will be working on the ideas in the background, subconsciously. Remember, however, whenever a serendipitous idea pops into your mind, write it down immediately.

Lastly, treat errors positively. They are doors to innovation because they push you to explore different possibilities and force you to rethink your assumptions and biases.


Referenced in

PN: The secret to entrepreneurship is to start small

PN: Recipe for creativity: When you lack ideas follow these steps to creativity.

PN: Standardization is key to creativity

PN: Recipe for creativity: although messiness is helping creativity because it facilitates unexpected combinations, it can be combined with standardization to ease the process of idea navigation and comparison. The zettelkasten embodies that.

P: Use randomness to improve yourself

PN: Recipe for creativity: innovation requires an environment in which many diverse ideas can mingle and mix with each other. From there, unexpected combination can be born leading to innovation.