202109090947 Idea gardening

Idea gardening is the practice of sitting on ideas so that they can germinate in your mind on the back-burner. If the idea is something you're thinking about occasionally over a period of time, you'll find that each time you revisit the idea, there's more there than when you left it. Our minds have a fascinating way of working on things without requiring conscious thought.

Related to 202107272242 The Art of using a Zettelkasten in that a Zettelkasten is a structured, textual way to plant atomic ideas as Zettel and let them grow and expand and link together over time through additions, linkages, and updates.

Idea gardening is half of the 202109091124 Anti-flow state. There's also a 202109091125 Free association of thought aspect that happens in idea gardening, but the anti-flow state is more deliberate time to allow the harvesting of an idea garden.

Idea gardening has been shown to be effective at facilitating creativity and original thought (202211030958 Creative accomplishments happen over time), though also creating a tendency towards moderate procrastination. (202110212227 Moderate procrastination facilitates creativity)

The Idea Garden

We plant ideas, consciously or not, deep in the depths of our mind. The place is dark, quiet, and damp, heavy with the breath of life.

There they sit in a timeless state, slowly spreading their tendrils, taking root, nourishing themselves on the fertile soil of id.

Sometimes they tangle with other ideas, competing for nourishment or becoming indivisibly fused.

Sometimes they shrink, wither, and decay becoming part of the soil they took root in. Here they'll feed others. Or maybe their seeds will sprout again.

Sometimes they grow in a streak of tenuous height, bursting into the light. If they aren't plucked, their strength wanes and they sink back down to try once more.

And sometimes — very rarely — they grow strong and big. They form pillars between the soil and the sky, connecting deep intuition and emotion to the brilliant light of human intelligence.

This is the harvest of an idea garden and we reap the bounty.

— by Mike Kalvas 2021-09-10