We learn what’s possible by:
- Seeing it done
- Being immersed
- Using the tools
- Playing
- Trying and failing
- Improvising
- Speculating
- Reading
- Being driven be necessity
- Riffing on what we already know
- Asking how
- Asking why
- Asking for help
- Developing structural literacy
- Applying known techniques to the unknown by analogy
- Seeking the new
- Going deeper with the old
- Getting hurt
- Getting our hands dirty
- Making a mess
- Learning the theory
- Reading history
- Striving for excellence
- Trying to do things the lazy way
- Reading science fiction
- Going somewhere new
- Meeting new people
If innovation is mostly recombinant (see 1, 2, 3), then we will greatly increase the available possibilities by getting into the mix of life and keeping moving.
There are lots of ways to get a better view, but sitting still and doing nothing isn’t one of them.