Hacking breakthrough ideas

Breakthrough ideas come at seemingly random times - however you can cleverly set your life up to have these ideas come to you wayyy more often.

It’s not a surprise that you probably get good ideas when you aren’t expecting them, in fact, seeking for breakthrough ideas often has the opposite effect.

But this is indie hackers, so let’s hack it..

The Medici Effect claims:

Breakthrough Insights come at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures.

Meaning in order to get new ideas, you need to be constantly exposed to NEW topics, the combination of your expertise and the ones you are exposed to can lead to some pretty amazing results.

In fact, some of the greatest creators of our time have applied ideas that they found from other crafts, making for breakthrough inventions and insights.

Here’s what you can do right now to make this process more natural.

1. Join communities and groups that focus on crafts/science/projects/specialities DIFFERENT from yours. Like really step out of your comfort zone.

2. Subscribe to journals and newsletters that regularly send you new material or cutting edge resources on a particular topics DIFFERENT than yours. Understand these topics deeply and think through how how they can be applied to your field, no matter how silly the merging of these concepts may seem.

3. Make friends with people who are experts in their craft, and speak with them regularly. You both will be benefiting as you exchange ideas.

4. Take notes on subjects that most interest you OUTSIDE of your area of expertise. You likely are interested in them for a reason, and it would be fantastic to come back and reference them as you progress in your own discipline to explore more potential combinations.

Often times we ‘niche down’ on our topics. Which is great, and you shouldn’t replace that. However, a “niche” community or resource can close you off to new ways of thinking (just as a by-product of the focus). Developing a healthy system to periodically step back and expose yourself to new topics can significantly improve your creativity and approach to hard problems.

[Full Disclosure] I’ve created the group Creative Brew to do just that. It’s dedicated to cross-collaboration and mending diverse disciplines into one community which prides itself on artistic diversity. In fact, we launched our free newsletter, which feeds you diverse resources and inspiration weekly, on product hunt today: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/creative-brew. Would greatly appreciate your support if you find this initiative important.

Otherwise, find places to cultivate this system. You’ll surely be surprised by what you come up with.