Decoding Idea: Things you never thought before

What is an idea? Why people say that they have an amazing idea which can change someone’s life?
Idea gives a hope to find solution to the problem, it can decide scope of work or sometimes it can change course of one’s life. Ideas are essential and defining feature of human beings.
Let’s look at what is an idea?
Idea is nothing but a thought. A thought which with a difference. A thought when occurred, one feels ‘it’s might be a way forward’ or ‘this is something I should work on’. Baldwin in Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology says, It’s a reproduction with more or less adequate images, ‘while actual object may not be present’.
Can idea be completely new?
Well, is there a way to think about something which you don’t know? I guess, No. Thought is nothing but reproduction of what you already know. You may rearrange the information you know in a different format than the way you know the information. But information lies with you and it’s your brain processing on that.
So what does it mean when I say ‘I have a completely new idea.’ ‘Nothing like this exists in the world’?
Will I be able to think about a car if I had never seen it before? May be yes, may be no. But someone has invented a car without prior knowledge of it. Their lies an idea.
Let’s decode what is a New idea.
Even if I have never seen a car, I may know about an engine. If not, I know about existence of energy or fuel. If not that, I had seen an animal walking on 4 legs and I wish to travel faster than I can travel now. And I think is it even possible to move faster than I can like an animal? Then I start looking for solutions to solve my problem.
Can we say that an idea emerges from a will or a problem?
It has to be. Otherwise how can I think about a way to move forward?
Solutions for the problem can be thought in different ways. My approach to solve a problem can be totally different than yours based on knowledge and experience we have and what we explore while solving the problem. But there has to be some base knowledge on which we explore.
Okay, so what’s that when I say, “I have an idea! I want to open a sandwich shop!”
Will this thought occur when I am not willing to do something different than what I do? Will this thought come if I don’t know what a shop is or what is a sandwich? No, right? Until and unless I have some basic knowledge and a desire to do something, an idea can not happen.
Inspiration is the basis of birth of an idea.