So, there's five steps to the creative process that kinda spans all across the board,
whether you're an architect or a writer.
So, let me just start off by saying that there are no new ideas.
The creative process is the act of taking old ideas and creating new connections between them
or seeing them in a new light.
You're never starting from a blank slate.
In fact, that would be kinda terrifying.
You're taking existing constraints, you're taking old ideas,
and you're just combining them
in a way that's never been done before.
So, in his book, "A Technique for Producing Ideas",
James Webb Young describes the five processes
and I've just added a couple of my own,
and so the first step, is gathering.
You're gathering all the data,
all the information there is to know about your topic,
about areas around your topic,
and also learning about concepts from other areas
that might relate to your topic.
For example, when I was doing research for my thesis,
which was a library,
I was researching about the history of books,
the cognitive psychology behind reading,
monasteries, the Parisian arcades,
and then collecting all the data around libraries
that exist now, and that has existed before,
and doing a very thorough case study.
And the second step, is processing.
That's when you look at all the data you've gathered
and you try to see how you can fit them
into different angles
and combine them in ways that hasn't been combined before.
And the third step, is you try to come up with a solution.
At a certain point, you have to stop researching
and you have to start designing.
Try to come up with solutions.
Come up with five solutions, come up with 10 solutions.
The more, the better.
The more solutions you try to come up with,
you'll be able to see what works and what doesn't work.
You have to think by doing.
And number four, take a walk.
Stop working on the problem for a little while
and go and do something else that interests you
or something that's mentally stimulating.
You could go to an art gallery,
you could go for a run, you could go to a film festival.
Number five, let your idea simmer
and let it come back to you.
After some time,
it's gonna come back in a new form, attached to other ideas.
If you're really focused
on trying to solve this one problem,
no matter what you're doing,
as you're going about your daily life,
everything will inevitably
gravitate around that, and it'll feed that.
Even if you try your best not to,
the world is just so full of connections.
And after doing that much research into something,
your idea is gonna pull other ideas
and they'll latch on to create new ideas.
So many inventions throughout history
have happened not through isolated studying,
but by mingling with other ideas,
and actually, a lot of times, by accident.
In some way, you could call this serendipity.
But don't expect to just wake up in that eureka moment.
I think these connections build over time
so it's important for you to be consistent in your research,
and in your designing, and in your thinking.
And step number six, is get feedback.
This step is so important.
You can't wait 'til your product is perfect
to show it to the world.
You have to show them your progress,
try to explain them the idea,
and get critiqued,
whether it's your friends or your family,
and adjust your idea, based on that.
Put your ego aside.
And then number seven, you iterate.
You repeat processes three to six
over, and over, and over, and over, and over,
and over, and over, and over, and.