‘A Constant Churn of Ideas’

Ideas can feel intangible. When they come to you, it can feel like you need to hold on for dear life — when doing just that could be the worst decision you’ll ever make. Ed Catmull, head of Pixar, talks about ideas in his book ‘Creativity Inc.’, where he shares a question he asks whenever he speaks at universities:

I made a habit, when giving talks, of posing the question to my audience: Which is more valuable, good ideas or good people? No matter whether I was talking to retired business executives or students, to high school principals or artists, when I asked for a show of hands, the audiences would be split 50–50. (Statisticians will tell you that when you get a perfect split like this, it doesn’t mean that half know the right answer — it means that they are all guessing, picking at random, as if flipping a coin.)

People think so little about this that, in all these years, only one person in an audience has ever pointed out the false dichotomy. To me, the answer should be obvious: Ideas come from people. Therefore, people are more important than ideas.

This point seems even more emphasized by some more words of wisdom, this time from the 99U book ‘Manage Your Day-to-Day’:

Frequency sparks creativity. You might be thinking, “Having to work frequently, whether or not I feel inspired, will force me to lower my standards.” In my experience, the effect is just the opposite. Often folks achieve their best work by grinding out the product. Creativity arises from a constant churn of ideas, and one of the easiest ways to encourage that fertile froth is to keep your mind engaged with your project. When you work regularly, inspiration strikes regularly.

Last night I took part in a creative exercise where myself and four others were tasked with generating 99 business ideas and creating small business plans for them all, in a matter of a few hours.

‘Grinding out the product’ is exactly what began to happen as we built and began to work through a list. At first, each idea was given careful amounts of time and attention, but we quickly realized we’d be together until far past midnight if we continued forward at this pace. We began to work faster, and I realized that instead of feeling like I wasn’t doing enough I had actually been giving each idea too much time in the first place.

It made me realize the value in ‘churn’, I word I would typically think of rather negatively. Without a doubt one can do quick and constant work that is half-hearted — but it is also possible to give work your all while stillpushing through it and moving on to the next thing. By the end we were getting through each idea in a minute or less, while still remaining focused and allowing for the care each ‘business’ deserved.

I realized that there is value to the churn, and that if there was ever an idea that needed more time, it was always possible to go back later, reconsider it, and move forward from there.

The entire process was a learning experience that reminded me that people — including myself — are more important than ideas…because those ideas came from within in the first place.