Ask IH: How do you actively identify problems?

Looking for problems is great, but I think the real heuristic is to look for things that people want. Often, what they want is a solution to a problem. But the opposite is also true: there are some problems that people don't really want the solutions for, and of course there are things people want that aren't exactly solutions to problems.

I think you're onto something with your "make it a habit" advice. I came up with the idea for IH after spending 2-3 days doing nothing but researching and brainstorming ideas. Like any other process, you get better at creating ideas with time. Even though it was a long slog, the ideas I was coming up with toward the end of that period were far better than my early ideas.

Another tip that helped me was to look at what else was working. I was combing through profitable projects as fast as I could, hoping to discern some sort of patterns. I ended up being exposed to a huge variety of inputs, which made me far more creative, and IH was the result of combining a couple of those ideas together. So it's similar to your "talk to as many people as possible" point, but a little bit easier — read about as many businesses as possible.