How Do We (Get) Them?

All the customary ways you might phrase this question (How do we create ideas?  How do we find them? How do we come up with them?)  imply specific concepts for where ideas come from, demonstrating how strongly metaphors shape how we deal with ideas.  Do we find them, or do we generate them?  Or do we make them?

There are thousands of different approaches to ideation, creativity, and innovation out there, and all of them depend in part on a particular conception of what an idea is.