Day 31
Writing is a skill. In here I send notes of my writing from the 50 days of writing course by David Perell, to reflect, develop and build my writing style.
In the 31st email from 50 days of writing, David Perell talks about Intellectual Phase Transitions.
Phase Transitions occurs when a substance changes its form. The most popular example given is how ice changes to water and then water changes to vapor by heating. During this process none of the original molecule changes, but they take a new structure.
David mentions that Creativity is also the same. He writes -
As a writer, you can transform existing ideas into epiphanies by combining other people’s ideas. All creativity is inspired by other people’s ideas. The faster you embrace that, the more successful you can be as a creative.
Intellectual phase transition is combining other's ideas and adding them to your list by blending them. This will not change the molecule or idea of the original source but will change in structure.
David also states that all ideas are second-hand consciously or unconsciously. Coming up with new ideas always is not possible. It is a blend of ideas mixed up that forms the better idea.
My thoughts:
Intellectual Phase Transition is a unique way of telling us that It is okay to build upon existing ideas. In this essay by Scott Berkun, the author of eight books on creativity, leadership, philosophy and speaking.
There is this part which goes on to say -
An idea is a combination of other ideas. Say it five times out loud. Say it to your cat. Yell it out you car window at strangers waiting for the bus. Every amazing creative thing you’ve ever seen, or idea you’ve ever heard can be broken down into smaller ideas that existed before.
An automobile? An engine + wheels. A telephone? Electricity and sound. Reese’s peanut butter cups? Peanut butter and chocolate. All great creative ideas, inventions, and theories are comprised of other ideas. - says Scott Berkun.
Few of my examples that I can provide from observation is
- Notion - An all in one workspace.
Now this application is a combination of all the smaller applications in a more nuanced and elegant way. (word, sheets and many things combined). - Figma - A tool to deliver better products, faster.
A combination of photoshop, Adobe XD and tools as such.
These two application come to my head. You get my point.
Combining ideas is bringing an unknown insights that only you have seen, I talked about it in detail on Day 16 and Day 12. Do check out.
Key takeaways:
- Combining Ideas will be unique and only you can see bring out the insights, because you looked for common things.
- It will take a lot of observation.
- Intellectual Transition Phase is changing the structure of ideas and combining them to bring better ideas.
- It is okay to take ideas from others to build upon them and not if you are copying everything (Day 27).
Thank you for reading.
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