It's been a while since my last post, but I've finally had a good idea for one. My sister suggested that I write about how distraught I was over the fact that an evolutionary biologist had the same idea about why fingers prune as I did almost a year ago. But I decided that a more interesting and less tortuous topic for the reader might be where such ideas come from.
I actually heard a story on NPR earlier today that mentioned how people usually get their best ideas when they are most relaxed, and I only just realized how that influenced my decision to write this post. I suppose I must be relaxed while typing but most of my ideas come in the shower, or as I lay awake at night not really trying but sort of trying to go to sleep. Of course the pruney finger thing came to me in the shower as I clawed at the wall. I thought it would make an interesting science fair experiment to test the force it took to pull on different wet surfaces with pruney versus normal hands, with a control of a dry surface. I forgot the idea, thinking it wasn't really a question for me to tackle because it wasn't in the field of science I was interested in studying, and I thought surely someone had already thought of it before me. So I concede that maybe I should have explored it and researched it more and I'm not that upset over it anymore, but more to the point, I now wonder, how many great ideas are lost because somebody thinks it's already been thought of? Inspiration can come from anywhere but it's wasted when the idea is forgotten. I should write down my ideas more often I suppose.
Many people claim dreams as their inspiration. I can't put myself in that group as every time I've ever been inspired I was either being hygienic, listening to music, watching a show, reading, writing, or thinking through the day's events. But I do find it interesting since I think that ideas are usually initially just subconscious thoughts. This may not be the nature of all ideas, such as small seemingly insignificant ones that happen all the time, but ideas about invention, innovation, stories, rhythms, what have you, those come from a culmination of events that burst out or seep into the primary thinking centers of the brain. Dreams are an extension of the subconscious mind and they are usually related to recent events, they probably help stimulate inspiration in some people because they focus so much information. Just writing about this has somewhat made me interested in studying the idea forming process, I wonder if ideas have ever been seen in an MRI scan? I'll leave this one to the psychologists and neurologists to answer, but it's good that I'm documenting it.
I suppose some people are more suited to inspiration in different forms, they have different processes at work that focus information in different ways. I would bet that there are both genetic factors and environmental factors that help determine those processes, but I wonder how related it is to the layout of the brain. I imagine that the more interconnected a brain's neurons between different sections, the more processing power it has and therefore the more idea prone, though I could be wrong, I'm merely spit-balling my ideas.
Oftentimes ideas will come from associations between certain thoughts I have. I believe that the more associations one can make between different things the more interconnected their thoughts will be. I already know that association is a technique used to memorize things so perhaps more associations would lead to more triggers and therefore more activity in the brain and then perhaps more inspiration. It's not something easy to research but I'm sure one day this will all be understood, and then we'll see whether or not my ideas on ideas were accurate.
