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120 - Ideas Are Infinite

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Description

It's not useful to think about originality. It is useful to think about infinity though.

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Music and links from this episode

  1. Man Alone Chimes the Hour by Nihilore
  2. Pineal Gland's Goodbye by Sro
  3. And the track playing right now, my new favourite track: Invisible by Camilla North x Jens East

Line-by-line notes

  1. In episode 118
  2. I spoke about the idea that ideas are infinite
  3. That, given enough pressure, we can squeeze out ideas forever
  4. We shouldn’t believe the mantra that everything has already been done
  5. And nothing is original anymore
  6. Because that’s just not true
  7. This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
  8. MUSIC
  9. In design, we’re already setting ourselves up for a fall
  10. Most people on this planet today believe the mantra
  11. “It’s all been done before”
  12. “Nothing is original anymore”
  13. I hate that mindset with every bone in my body
  14. It’s destructive and just plain unhelpful
  15. It just sets your mind up for defeat before you’ve even tried
  16. Why bother trying hard, if everything you’re about to make has been done before?
  17. Why bother trying at all?
  18. Why don’t I just copy somebody else?
  19. After all, it’s all been done before right?
  20. This is not the attitude to take when it comes to idea generation
  21. It’s a deeply destructive train of thought
  22. And just to confuse you more
  23. I don’t think the direct opposite is a helpful stance either
  24. Trying to be original with everything you do is unhelpful too
  25. Thinking the complete opposite sets you up for equal failure
  26. If you’re trying so hard to be original, you’ll forget the original purpose of any design
  27. To communicate something effectively and efficiently
  28. I’ve been there myself
  29. And this is why generally designers are so bad at doing things for themselves like their own portfolios
  30. Because they want it to be so original, and so perfect, it creates inaction
  31. I prefer to believe a much simpler thought
  32. That ideas are infinite
  33. Your mind and everybody else’s mind are so full of ideas, you can never run out of them
  34. There might be days when you struggle to come up with a single one
  35. Those days where nothing works
  36. And they’ll be lots of bad ideas
  37. Yes, LOTS of bad ideas
  38. But that doesn’t matter
  39. Because ideas are infinite, you’ll eventually, no, inevitably get to a good one
  40. This removes the idea of originality completely
  41. Originality is important
  42. Just as important as it is to develop your own designer’s...