Ideas Are Born

The most common metaphors we apply to idea creation are what I call “generative” metaphors.

An idea arose; we came up with it; it popped out of my head; it grew on me. We planted the seeds of it. It sprouted, it hatched. An idea is born, it comes of age, grows old and dies. “We sat around the whiteboard and generated a bunch of ideas.”

It seems clear that these are biological in essence, either botanical or zoological, or at least mytho-biological, like Athena being born from the head of Zeus.

In this metaphorical universe, an idea starts as a seed or egg. It has a kind of DNA, by which it can be related to other ideas, and by which it can be traced back to its creator and beyond to earlier progenitive ideas.  It has kinship with other ideas, it is part of a family. It can mutate, evolve, give birth to other ideas.

Creativity as a concept is closely associated with this universe. The image of “creating” ideas could be theoretically be constructive or manipulative (about building or shaping) but is more often biological – planting, growing, procreating, incubating, fertilizing.

One of the strengths of the generative metaphor is that it seems to relate to some of the unconscious processes by which ideas appear in our minds. Associative thinking, for example, calls to mind all sorts of reproductive metaphors of meiosis and cross-fertilization.

Because it is so ubiquitous, the generative metaphor in particular should be examined for potentially misleading, confusing or limiting implications. Here are a few …

• An idea has a certain organic integrity, separateness, a boundary, almost like a cell membrane.
• Changing a small aspect implies surgery, mutation, evolution.
• You need to be in a special state of some kind in order to generate new ideas. You need to be creative or feel creative; this is a mysterious condition, which some people experience more than others.
• My idea is my idea, because it has my DNA. There is a proprietary link; I am its “creator”.
• Changing “my” idea, or “stealing” it, implies a certain amount of pain.