• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

[NT] How you got your ideas

Park

New member
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
263
MBTI Type
INTP
The shower

That's the problem, we don't have central heating - the water turn cold too quickly. Probably why my coffee maschine with a jumpstarter and gear box never made it into production.
 

snegledmaca

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
145
Personally I lack creativity and have poor imagination so I kind of need other people to "guide me" or show me the way. My best ideas come from talking to other people, more specifically Ne ego types, where they somehow make me realize things I never though of before. A mind blowing experience. I absolutely love it. Oh, and taking other people's ideas and refining them. And ideas born out of necessity, like I have a problem and I need to overcome it so I'm forced to be creative. And interpreting observation, I notice something but can't explain it with current models and again I'm forced to be creative. Actually, those situations are where all of my ideas come from.
 

Jaguar

Active member
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
20,647
Usually, I get them a while after I've thought some issue deeply. I'll be doing something mundane, like the laundry, and have a flash of insight.

I'm the same way.
I begin the thought process, throw it out to the universe, and damn if I don't get a sudden knock at the door of my brain with a message.
 

Arandur

New member
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
60
MBTI Type
INTJ
When I'm sitting outside and thinking (possibly under the influence of a certain herb). Otherwise they happen if I'm thinking deeply into a subject I'm interested in.
 

bluebell

New member
Joined
Apr 30, 2007
Messages
1,485
MBTI Type
INTP
By stuffing massive amounts of information in my head, then letting it all cross-pollinate... Works like a charm. :nice:

Yeah, that works too. But long hot showers help the process. Sometimes.
 

Dansker

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
341
MBTI Type
INTP
Ideas usually come to me when I am laying in bed at night in that stage where one isn't exactly awake or asleep; sort of that in between stage.

Other times I will wake up in the middle of the night and have such clarity of thought around something that I have to reach for my laptop and capture whatever was going on in my head before it escapes. I usually then find it hard to get back to sleep and find myself awake for hours trying to further clarify or make sense of my new idea.
 

ThatsWhatHeSaid

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
7,263
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
In what moments and how did you get your best ideas in life?

For me, I find that my best ideas came from moments of strong introspection. Being alone from time to time was important as it allowed me to envision possibilities more easily. Another way I got good ideas was simply through debating with people about things... to the point where I would feel an "a-ha" moment and things would get clear.

In the past, the coolest Ni moments would come right before I would fall asleep, but generally I'd forget them.

Lately, when I'm alone just wondering, in the car, or good conversations that are low stress.
 

niffer

New member
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,217
MBTI Type
ENfP
Enneagram
8w9
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Everywhere and anywhere. Maybe even while being chased by a bear. I seem to always be thinking about things like this.
 

Crabapple

New member
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
165
MBTI Type
INFJ
1.Asleep. I try to gather as much information as I can and/or examine the problem before bed. I often dream of the issue or suddenly wake up with the answer.

2. Reading poetry or listening to music. How that works, I don't know. It just works.
 

"?"

New member
Joined
May 2, 2007
Messages
1,167
MBTI Type
TiSe
I may get an idea, but need to exert some physical energy to put it in perspective. Not necessarily a hard workout, but a long quiet walk.
 

terrencemcb

New member
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
25
MBTI Type
Intp
talking to myself is really helpful for developing difficult ideas. and releasing anger--sometimes I raise my voice and argue with myself when i'm sure no one else is within earshot. bar none, my best thinking requires dead silence.
 

The Ü™

Permabanned
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
11,910
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I get ideas from lying down and talking to myself.

I also get good ideas when I play video games, because I'm a visually oriented kind of person.
 

BlackMita

New member
Joined
May 25, 2007
Messages
53
Most of my ideas come to me when I’m listening to good music, or walking to some destination. A lot of them have also come from dreams, which may indicate that most of my ideas aren’t revolutionary practical things, but constructions and fantasies that only I can really use in some way. Like, when I’m making games, drawing, or writing.

Ew, now that I think about it, it’s been too long since I’ve had a truly tangible idea. Oh well... excessive mental masturbation isn't completely lame, right?
 

Cerpin_Taxt

New member
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
132
MBTI Type
INTP
Walking, solitude, arguing from both sides of an issue, books(history, philosophy and literature) and films with a strong visual aesthetic.
 

The Ü™

Permabanned
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
11,910
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I just try not to take myself seriously. Like sometimes I wonder what if dogs were marsupials, for examples, and when I picture it in my head, I laugh. I also wonder what if a dog had a snake's body but a dog's head. Obviously, this seems like a goofy idea, but someday I could probably use it for something.

I like coming up with silly off-the-wall ideas not caring about practicality, but just because it's fun.

I also try to look at things from a different perspective. One day at work on Valentine's Day I observed that Valentine's Day was really a holiday about death (why else would an arrow be going through a heart?)

You'd be surprised how my coworkers got offended by this and thought I was weird. But I honestly didn't care; I just loved getting people's reactions.
 

substitute

New member
Joined
May 27, 2007
Messages
4,601
MBTI Type
ENTP
When I'm breathing, haha... or especially when I'm travelling and/or drunk. Sometimes they come so thick and fast it overwhelms me and I get depressed at how I won't be able to remember any of them, and at how most of them will never be realised.
 

Nighthawk

New member
Joined
May 23, 2007
Messages
423
MBTI Type
INTP
For some reason, I get my best ideas in the shower. Often, solutions to sofware problems I have been pondering the previous day.
 

Cerpin_Taxt

New member
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
132
MBTI Type
INTP
For some reason, I get my best ideas in the shower. Often, solutions to sofware problems I have been pondering the previous day.

I'll second that.

For me its one of the few places of genuine solitude, its so good infact that sometimes my showers stretch out to 30 mins. The same goes for the time in bed, before one falls asleep.
 

The Ü™

Permabanned
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
11,910
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Oh yes, showers often do the trick, as long as the shower is clean and not clogged. I hate taking showers if there's a lot of mildew.

I'm also a movie buff and make up movies in my mind. Sometimes I'll see someone in a photo or someone walking in the street who catches my eye and then I'll do this casting call for the movies in my mind and imagine the person in a role.

Usually these people are seductive women that I imagine as femme fatales or just other guys who have a beautiful physique. (NO! I'm not gay.)
 
Top