
Ask HN: What do you do to deal with a lack of inspiration? - krrishd
By lack of inspiration I mean having the desire to create but having no idea what to create.
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anigbrowl
That's easy enough. Make something every day, 6 days a week. Don't make
anything polished or clever, just something quick and dirty. I don't know what
it is you want to create specifically; if you want to crite, just commit to
cranking out a page a day; if you want to make video games, get comfortable
with Unity or some adequate game engine and make some toy; if you like
operating systems start building little things in assembler.

You won't necessarily accumulate components that can all be assembled into a
larger whole, and some days you'll just be frustrated or demoralized (which is
why the requirements are set low). But this is an excellent habit to have in
place to recognize _ideas that you like_.

A lot of times people focus on what they want to be (an artist, a movie
director, a billionaire) and see the products as the means to that end. But
generally success like this can't be planned, it's the product of obsession.
Obsession is something you can cultivate through practice, but you can't plan
it in advance, any more than you can design a specific tree to look a certain
way in a garden. So you plant seeds and then wait for something interesting to
sprout.

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twobyfour
Step away from the grind. There's a reason we get our best ideas in the
shower, and it's related to the type of brain activity that relaxation
enables. Creativity requires two ingredients: 1) raw materials of information
and ideas to mash together randomly, and 2) boredom - the ability to let the
mind wander.

Most of us in modern life are exposed to plenty of ingredient 1 but have a
shortage of down time to devote to ingredient 2.

Me? I'm most creative during a long holiday weekend on those mornings when you
wake up at eight and laze around in bed until 11 letting your mind wander and
then semi-doze for another couple hours after a shower.

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hnarayanan
One important thing that works for me is to set aside time to get inspired.
You could try it too.

Set aside a few hours, with no distractions, and let your brain wander through
the sorts of ideas and projects that are interesting to you. (You could also
choose to direct this, e.g. towards things that bother you that you know
making something can help solve.) Don't pressure yourself with amazing
expectations, just put in the time to try.

Interesting things will often if you try this a few times. (If not I will
happily share many many ideas I've dreamt of but haven't pursued ;))

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louiswilbrink
I booked myself a tiny house for a weekend.

In the evening I hit up a brewery with live music. In the morning i biked to
delicious breakfast joints. In the middle of the day I journaled and coded to
chill music for long stretches. Got inspired on day two late in the evening.

Effectively changed my surroundings to bias my mind.

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eurticket
Do. One key click, turns into one letter, into one word, to one sentence, to
one paragraph, to one page, to one set, to one book.

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RossBencina
Pick someone else's existing work, try to reproduce it, or decide how you
would do it differently and try doing that. You'll probably find this leads to
more ideas. If not, start again.

On another tangent, there's some good advice in this video:

How To Design Deep Games with Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0m0jIzJfiQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0m0jIzJfiQ)

Not just for games developers, worth watching in spite of the terrible audio.

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nicksalt
I like zooming out and taking a birds eye view every now and then.

From there I start to deep dive on things that are interesting to me at that
point in time

Based on those interests, i'll start to look for things or experiences around
me that I could start to get my hands dirty with.

IE: Months ago I was in a low inspiration vibe. When I zoomed out, I realised
I was super interested in cheese. I decided I wanted to jump into a cheese
making class. I found a master cheese maker in Vermont headed down for a one
day one on one. From there the magic happened

When I got home my inspiration for so many different parts of my life was on
fire. Sometimes you just gotta deep dive on the things that your interested in
and it will pay dividends in non related areas of your life!

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jimothywales
I start by accepting the fact that being derivative is really not a bad thing.

If I want to create things but have no inspiration, I often look up project
ideas on the internet that line up with my interests. Once I get started
working on something, my brain naturally branches off into new, original ideas
to pursue. Naturally these ideas are more interesting to me since I
brainstormed them myself.

I do this everytime I want to create things but have no idea where to start.

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SkyLinx
I'm in the same boat. I desperately want to build something but I'm short on
ideas...

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kleer001
By having a firm deadline.

~~~
SkyLinx
That just adds pressure imo

