thinking up new things

I have to think stuff up.  I have to think it up when I don't feel like it and it's almost always on other's schedules.  Which is probably good because you just tell yourself, I need to do this now.

A lot of this has changed for me over time and in coming up with volumes of ideas I've become more curious about how much effort should be spent defining the problem and how much is for  generating solutions to the defined problem.  Sometimes it's good to ignore parts of the definition you've been given.  Or ignore it entirely.  

Finding a third way no one had considered can come out of working hard instead of just thinking so much at the beginning.  Do something.

I used to be much more about defining the problem and now I'm not because often it's wide ranging solutions that lead to new ideas.  So I sort of define it a little and then start working.

Then you define it some more and work some more.  It's really hard to invent things and I think defining problems too narrowly never gets you to fresh inventions.

Just sayin'.