Ideas
Deborah Soloman interviews Peter Watson, author of Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, From Fire to Freud, in the NYT Magazine.
Soloman: I find I seldom have ideas away from my desk.I always wondered if that happened to anybody else besides me.
Watson: That is because ideas come from other ideas. I used to sleep with a piece of paper by my bed. But I never had an idea in bed. The other thing I noticed is that when you are out to dinner and you have a good idea and write it down, the next day when you're sober, it's terrible.
Soloman: Perhaps if you went out less, you would have better ideas.
Watson: I think the interesting thing in life is not having an idea, but realizing it.
posted by Lynn @ 8:37 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I think ideas sometimes have a limted shelf life. Sometimes, I'll write down an idea for a blog. It would probably work well if I wrote it right then. But when I find the list again later, the idea generally seems cold to me.
Anvilcloud,
I carry around a few blank postcards in my back pocket--the free ones with advertising on them you find in the postcard dispensers. I write down the odd thought on them. By the time I look at them again I can only wonder what the heck I was thinking.
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