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---
tags:
- wiki
- creativity
- ideas
- concept-creation
- writing
title: Creativity & Ideas
type: wiki-compilation
visibility: public
---

# Creativity & Ideas

Jeremy Nixon's compiled knowledge on systematizing creativity, generating ideas, creating concepts, and writing. Synthesized from 40+ raw entries.

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## Systematizing Creativity

Jeremy's signature contribution: treating creativity not as mysterious inspiration but as a **process that can be decomposed, systematized, and taught**.

- [[systematizing-creativity]] -- The central document
- [[17-04-08-systematizing-creativity]] -- Earlier exploration
- [[17-12-10-operationalizing-systematizing-creativity]] -- Making it practical
- [[18-02-11-workshopping-creativity]] -- Workshop format for teaching creativity
- [[18-01-13-grigorys-compiled-creativity-shannon]] -- Shannon's creative method compiled
- [[19-10-07-mathematical-creativity]] -- Creativity in mathematics specifically

## Idea Generation

Jeremy maintained extensive idea lists as a practice -- generating ideas systematically across domains:

### The Meta-Practice
- [[15-07-16-idea-lists-meta]] -- Ideas about generating idea lists
- [[idea-list-ideas]] -- Ideas for what to generate ideas about
- [[idea-lists-upon-request]] -- The full catalog of idea lists
- [[19-02-03-how-to-make-ideas-or-concepts-generative]] -- Making ideas that generate more ideas
- [[19-01-20-generating-generators]] -- Generating the generators of ideas

### Startup & Project Ideas
- [[17-02-05-machine-learning-startup-ideas]] -- ML startup ideas
- [[17-03-23-unusual-startup-ideas]] -- Unconventional startup concepts
- [[18-10-15-funding-transcendent-enlightenment-startup-ideas]] -- Consciousness/transcendence startups
- [[07-01-14-website-ideas]] -- Web product ideas (2014)
- [[19-05-20-projects-worth-doing]] -- High-value projects
- [[20-07-28-worthy-problems]] -- Problems worth working on
- [[17-11-30-envision-ideas-to-make-happen]] -- Ideas to manifest

### Scientific & Research Ideas
- [[18-06-02-grand-scientific-projects]] -- The biggest scientific projects worth pursuing
- [[18-03-05-metalearning-research-ideas]] -- Meta-learning research directions
- [[17-10-26-representation-learning-research-ideas]] -- Representation learning ideas
- [[17-10-30-nips-creativity-and-interpretable-representation-ideas]] -- Conference-inspired ideas

### Writing Ideas
- [[15-07-21-writing-ideas]] -- Ideas for things to write
- [[17-09-17-books-to-write]] -- Books worth authoring
- [[19-05-04-posts-essays-articles-to-write]] -- Posts, essays, articles
- [[to-convert-into-posts]] -- Ideas to develop into published posts
- [[15-08-18-technical-hyperanalytic-posts]] -- Technical writing ideas

## Concept Creation

Creating new concepts as a thinking tool -- one of Jeremy's most distinctive practices:

- [[18-09-10-words-to-create-creating-concepts]] -- How to create new concepts
- [[19-02-02-quality-examples-of-newly-created-concepts]] -- Examples of successful concept creation
- [[18-09-18-rare-concepts-i-think-with-daily]] -- Unusual but powerful concepts
- [[18-11-28-most-general-concepts]] -- The broadest concepts
- [[18-08-29-meta-concepts]] -- Concepts about concepts themselves
- [[18-09-15-renaming-generalization]] -- When a concept needs a better name

## Humor

- [[18-07-05-systematizing-humor]] -- Decomposing what makes things funny
- [[19-01-31-humor-decomposition]] -- The components of humor

## Decomposition Applied

Creativity applied through decomposition -- breaking things into components to understand and recombine them:

- [[19-02-01-conceptual-decomposition]] -- The general method
- [[18-11-06-decomposing-intelligence]] -- Intelligence components
- [[18-11-27-consciousness-decomposition]] -- Consciousness components
- [[19-01-29-games-decomposition]] -- What makes games work
- [[publishing-decomposition-recombination]] -- Decomposition applied to academic publishing

## Writing & Voice

- [[06-17-14-writing]] -- Early thoughts on writing (2014)
- [[17-09-11-components-of-voice]] -- What makes a distinctive voice
- [[19-06-11-elements-of-great-storytelling]] -- Storytelling fundamentals
- [[posts]] -- Published posts index

## Tools & Heuristics

- [[18-12-30-extremely-useful-tools-amp-heuristics]] -- The most useful thinking tools
- [[18-07-03-x-without-x]] -- The generative pattern "X without X"
- [[18-09-10-counterfactuals-fact-list]] -- Using counterfactuals as a thinking tool
- [[18-08-10-ideas-that-most-changed-my-decisions]] -- Which ideas actually changed behavior