Where do great ideas come from?

That's the intriguing-sounding title of an article by Dan Falk in the most recent University of Toronto Magazine.  It's about the "eureka moments in history".  Einstein's theory of relativity, Poincare's "Mathematical Creation", McCartney's "Yesterday," Watson and Crick.  UT's John Polanyi is featured.

The research on the article's main question is still wide open.  Falk makes two observations.  First, people who have eureka moments are people who have lots of ideas, good and bad.  What may distinguish them from the rest of us, is that they're better at sifting the good from the bad, ignoring the bad and the mediocre, and focusing on the really good. 

New research suggests the brain of people who are highly creative may function differently from the rest of us.  Our brains are constantly filtering information.  Most information we receive is unimportant; some is very important.  People who have high latent inhibition are good at filtering, ignoring the vast majority of unimportant information -- but they may be less creative.  Creative people have more permeable filters so they let more information through -- all of which may be a mixed blessing.  Falk quotes UT psychology professor, Jordan Peterson:

Imagine you have a hundred ideas.  Ninety of them are probably useless, and eight are probably downright pathological.  You've got to get rid of those and only keep the two or three that might be useful.  ... if you don't, then perhaps you're more prone to psychotic disorders

Those of us who won't win the Nobel Prize can now feel relieved.

Any candidates for "eureka moments" in economics?

Comments

[Gem Hudosn]

That depends what you are stuffing your brain with.