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What do you think about how you think and come up with ideas?

One day as I was talking to my co-worker about how human beings create or
come up with new ideas? It can be simple, like aha moments when you say I got it
now. How does that occur? How does thoughts occur in our brain?
Have you ever thoght about that, like how you come up with solution or new
idea?
Or is science unable to answer how we think ?

Topics: Entrepreneurship TED business ideas interesting learning questions
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    Kate Blake 50+

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    Mar 16 2013: I believe our thoughts come and go randomly, often too many for us to catch most of them. I find by letting them flow without buying into them eg letting my mind calm, then I can come up with much more creative solutions.
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    W. Ying 10+

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    Mar 16 2013: .
    .
    It is simple!

    Our brain is a computer made of living cells.
    We give it a “search”,
    and then it gives you results ---- Aha, you got it.


    (See also the 1st article, points 2(5), at
    https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=D24D89AE8B1E2E0D&id=D24D89AE8B1E2E0D%21283&sc=documents).

  • Robert Galway 20+

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    Mar 16 2013: When I find myself in need of a new design or solution to a design problem, I tend to look at similar past solutions first, then similar products in the same area, then similar products in different applications. Things like vendor's literature, patent sketches, nature's solutions to similar problems, toys, mechanism source books, and internet images to other solutions are my inspirations.

    As a previous responder points out, it is essential that you undertsand the physics of the problem, try an break complex problems down into smaller simpler problems, consider systems of systems thinking relative to requirement apportionment, weight, required power, cost, and producability.

    I think the exercise of trying to help answer questions such as this one actually helps this creative skill set.

  • Zdenek Smith 100+

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    HostAssociate
    Mar 16 2013: Some ideas and inventions are result of a mistake that scientist or engineer made when working on a problem.

    Other ideas can be found by combining old ideas together in a unique way.

    As society and technology evolve we see new opportunities, new options and new horizons and opportunities.

  • Charles Curt

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    Mar 15 2013: no science can answer everything we are just a dumbass species, now as for how we create an idea that is ancient and is what your brain was designed for it has been problem solving ever since it was a brain, unless you wanted the physical transfer of activities and information in the brain itself because we do indeed know that just by looking at a scanned brain during problem solving

  • Betty Anderson

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    Mar 15 2013: Scientific studies show that neurons can be firing in areas related to certain things before the individual is conscious of thinking about that thing. Essentially, subconsciously we think about things before we are consciously aware of doing so. It would be interesting to know what neural firing characteristically are indicative to conscious thought.

  • Barry Palmer 50+

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    Mar 15 2013: I try to think rationally and analytically. Most often, good solutions require a complete understanding of the problem.

    I have found that a meticulous and thorough analysis of a problem (breaking it down into its components) often leads directly to a solution which others will then label as very creative, just because the solution was not obvious. In other cases, the analysis will reveal aspects of the situation that can then be seen as very similar to other situations, and trigger associations that otherwise never would have occurred. Examining a problem in detail can lead to viewing the whole from a different viewpoint, or in a different context.

    Creativity does not occur in a complete vacuum.
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    Lawren Jones 10+

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    Mar 15 2013: I believe that you must expose yourself to a broad range of other's ideas to increase your ability to create your own.
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    Farokh Shahabi Nezhad 10+

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    TED Translator
    Mar 15 2013: It's not sitting down and try to come up with a new idea.
    You just have to think about stuff and ideas will pop up in your head! After that just work on the idea and try to make it better.
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    Fritzie Reisner 100+

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    Host
    Mar 15 2013: There is a lot to read on this fascinating subject! You have a fun search ahead of you.Here are some talks about the brain: http://www.ted.com/talks/tags/brain. Beyond this, check out some of Steven Pinker's popular writing on the subject. He is a psychology professor at Harvard.
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