{"id":40202,"date":"2021-06-20T14:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=40202"},"modified":"2021-06-28T10:10:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T14:10:06","slug":"how-to-generate-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you struggle to find that one perfect idea and hold yourself back from entertaining less-than-perfect ideas? What can you do to increase your chances of getting novel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/original-ideas\/\">original ideas<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No matter what field of work you\u2019re in, you\u2019d likely benefit from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-become-more-creative\/\">being more creative<\/a> and generating more good ideas. The most important rule of thumb to follow is to brainstorm lots of ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a spread of advice from Tim Ferriss on how to generate ideas, how to identify the best ones, and how to put them to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Generate a Lot of Bad Ideas to Get Good Ideas<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To increase your idea output, spend your energy coming up with LOTS of ideas, even if they\u2019re silly. What matters isn\u2019t your hit rate, but rather the number of good ideas you have at the end. The more ideas you generate, the more you exercise your \u201cidea muscle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Multiple people reinforce this idea:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Author James Altucher challenges himself to come up with 10 ideas a day. These aren\u2019t necessarily business ideas, but also around themes like \u201c10 ways I can save time,\u201d \u201c10 ridiculous inventions,\u201d or \u201c10 ways to solve a problem I have.\u201d<\/li><li>Author Malcolm Gladwell comes up with as many ideas as possible, scrutinizes them, and kills them off. The unkillable ideas are worth going forward with.<\/li><li>Many writers don\u2019t believe that writer\u2019s block exists. Author Paulo Coelho (<em>The Alchemist<\/em>) says that even if he doesn\u2019t feel inspired, he enforces the discipline of writing his way out.<\/li><li>IBM had a notably effective salesforce, and they did so by setting sales quotas low. This prevented salespeople from being afraid of picking up the phone. Then, after getting their first sale, they had momentum to get the next ones.<\/li><li>For writers, author Cheryl Strayed suggests writing 2 pages without stopping (for editing or any other reason). You can collect prompts to write about, such as \u201cwrite about why you couldn\u2019t do it\u201d or \u201cwrite about something you\u2019ll never get back.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to Think of Ideas<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So, how do you actually brainstorm new ideas? Here are some helpful suggestions on how to generate ideas to increase your chances of getting a <em>good<\/em> idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ask the dumb questions. <\/strong>These get you to look at situations in a new way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Founder of Gimlet Media Alex Blumberg: Important stories often have a very basic question no one\u2019s asking. Like leading up to the 2008 Great Recession, \u201cwhy are banks loaning money to people who can\u2019t pay it back?\u201d<\/li><li>Author Malcolm Gladwell had a father with no intellectual insecurity. He\u2019d ask obvious questions without any concern.<\/li><li>Founder of Duolingo Luis von Ahn had an adviser who constantly stated, \u201cI don\u2019t understand what you\u2019re saying.\u201d This forces the other person to reflect on how the concept isn\u2019t clear in the listener\u2019s mind.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Put yourself into an environment that gives you maximum exposure to new ideas, problems, and people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look back to history. Consume the greatest works of all time, rather than what\u2019s popular today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Music producer Rick Rubin suggests listening to the 100 greatest albums of all time for musicians trying to find their voice.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to Imagine the Future<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>If you work in innovation of any kind, then you likely want to build for the future. How can you push the boundaries of your thinking to arrive at big ideas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Titans who speak about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/imagining-the-future\/\">imagining the future<\/a> have a consistent theme of <strong>contradicting consensus. The biggest changes to the future may be things we don\u2019t currently expect.<\/strong> If what you\u2019re working sounds reasonable to most people, you may not be thinking creatively or innovatively enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are the best quotes on innovation and boundary pushing from&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/tools-of-titans-tim-ferriss\/\">Tools of Titans<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Futurist Jim Dator: \u201cAny useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous.\u201d<\/li><li>Futurist Alvin Toffler: \u201cIt\u2019s far more important to be imaginative than to be right.\u201d<\/li><li>Entrepreneur and investor Marc Andreessen: To do innovative work, you don\u2019t have to know a secret no one else knows. You do have to believe something few other people believe.<\/li><li>Founder Scott Belsky: \u201cWhen 99% of people doubt you, you\u2019re either gravely wrong or about to make history.\u201d<\/li><li>Entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant: \u201cYou get paid for being right first, and to be first, you can\u2019t wait for consensus.\u201d<\/li><li>Braintree founder Bryan Johnson: \u201cWhat can you do that will be remembered in 200 to 400 years?\u201d He also thinks often about Ernest Shackleton, the explorer of the Antarctic. Johnson asks himself if he\u2019s working on the most audacious endeavor he could possibly imagine.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stress-Testing Ideas<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you have a lot of ideas, how do you find the good ones?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Comedy writers Scott Adams and BJ Novak use their bodily reactions to gauge a good idea. If they feel adrenaline or endorphins, they know they have some good material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But often, you\u2019re often not the best judge of your own ideas. <strong>By yourself, you\u2019re unlikely to find the very best solution or see the entire picture. You need other people to stress-test your ideas.<\/strong> If it survives the trial by fire, then it\u2019s a good idea. If it doesn\u2019t, you\u2019ve just saved yourself a lot of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Titans discuss how they develop their ideas with other people:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Investor Marc Andreessen develops his ideas with his co-founder Ben Horowitz. Whenever each person brings in a deal, they just \u201cbeat the shit out of it.\u201d Even if the idea is good, they force themselves to rip the idea apart. Then, at the end, if they still feel it\u2019s a good idea, it\u2019s survived the torture test.<\/li><li>LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman tests the mettle of his staff by whether they push back on the strategy given them. Instead of just taking it fully as is, the best people suggest improvements to the plan based on their expertise.<\/li><li>Evernote founder Phil Libin mentioned talking to Elon Musk about plans for going to Mars and getting excited about visiting Mars. He then ran into Jeff Bezos (himself interested in space exploration), who said going to Mars was dumb. Instead, once humans got to space, they should just live in zero gravity and mine asteroids rather than simply living on another planet.<\/li><li>To challenge their plans, the military creates \u201cred teams\u201d of people whose mission is to sabotage the plan.&nbsp;<\/li><li><em>Freakonomics<\/em> author Stephen Dubner: Put away your moral compass when evaluating ideas, because you get biased by your beliefs. For example, the cause of air quality doesn\u2019t automatically have to do with corporate greed. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jumping-to-conclusions-psychology\/\">Jumping to conclusions<\/a> will cause you to make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cognitive-errors\/\">cognitive errors<\/a> and bypass the best solutions.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Give Your Ideas Away<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you generate a lot of ideas, you\u2019ll probably have far more than you have time to pursue yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Instead of hoarding your ideas, give them away. <\/strong>Give people great ideas and encourage them to work on it. Most people probably won\u2019t do anything with them, but some will; and all people will be grateful to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Wired editor Kevin Kelly uses this as a filter for ideas that he should be working on. If he can\u2019t get an idea out of his head but he also can\u2019t find himself giving it away, that might be what he should work on.<\/li><li>Tim Ferriss gives away 99% of his content for free (such as on his podcast or blog). This builds him connections that have yielded far more valuable opportunities, such as investing in early stage companies Shopify and Duolingo.<\/li><li>MMA fighter Marcelo Garcia releases videos of his sparring sessions, an unusual act since it could expose his strategies to competitors. He\u2019s not worried\u2014if other people are studying him, they\u2019re playing his game, and he\u2019s confident he\u2019ll be better at it.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you struggle to find that one perfect idea and hold yourself back from entertaining less-than-perfect ideas? What can you do to increase your chances of getting novel, original ideas? No matter what field of work you\u2019re in, you\u2019d likely benefit from being more creative and generating more good ideas. The most important rule of thumb to follow is to brainstorm lots of ideas. Here\u2019s a spread of advice from Tim Ferriss on how to generate ideas, how to identify the best ones, and how to put them to action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,43],"tags":[399],"class_list":["post-40202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-self-improvement","tag-tools-of-titans","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do you come up with novel, original ideas? Here are some tips on how to generate ideas, identify the best ones, and put them to action.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do you come up with novel, original ideas? Here are some tips on how to generate ideas, identify the best ones, and put them to action.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-20T18:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-28T14:10:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"870\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"596\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-20T18:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-28T14:10:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/\"},\"wordCount\":1323,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Tools of Titans\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/\",\"name\":\"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-20T18:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-28T14:10:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"How do you come up with novel, original ideas? Here are some tips on how to generate ideas, identify the best ones, and put them to action.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png\",\"width\":870,\"height\":596},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle - Shortform Books","description":"How do you come up with novel, original ideas? Here are some tips on how to generate ideas, identify the best ones, and put them to action.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle","og_description":"How do you come up with novel, original ideas? Here are some tips on how to generate ideas, identify the best ones, and put them to action.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-06-20T18:33:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-28T14:10:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":870,"height":596,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle","datePublished":"2021-06-20T18:33:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-28T14:10:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/"},"wordCount":1323,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png","keywords":["Tools of Titans"],"articleSection":["Psychology","Self-Improvement"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/","name":"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png","datePublished":"2021-06-20T18:33:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-28T14:10:06+00:00","description":"How do you come up with novel, original ideas? Here are some tips on how to generate ideas, identify the best ones, and put them to action.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png","width":870,"height":596},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-generate-ideas\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to Generate Ideas: Exercise Your Idea Muscle"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/lightbulb-hand-idea-pink-blue-landscape.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40202"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40654,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40202\/revisions\/40654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}