Gang Fang's Blog

Ideas are the core concepts that both science and art can relate to and share, and they are the ultimate proponents of human progress. The above statement might sound like a cliché, but it becomes powerful when put into action: instead of passively consuming information presented to me by the media (e.g., news), I actively seek out and acquire ideas that can form a foundation of understanding in different domains. These ideas can then be used to build my own thoughts and perspectives. Furthermore, I can structure my dance practice around ideas I want to develop and conduct research to explore and develop ideas worthy of investigation.

I was very impressed by how Darwin combined the most advanced ideas of his time: Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology, which state that geological features arise from gradual processes of natural events rather than from catastrophic events such as the Biblical Noah’s flood; Thomas Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population, which argues that population growth leads to competition for resources; and Adam Smith’s free-market notion of the invisible hand in economics, which suggests that individuals acting in their own self-interest produce maximum benefit for the entire community.

The lesson I learned from Darwin’s quest to his revolutionary theory of natural selection is that I must expose myself to a wide range of high-quality ideas and attempt to connect and combine them.

I am tempted to say “connect and combine them in my very unique way,” but I am reminded that history tells a different story: take Darwin again, his discovery occurred in parallel, independently, with another English naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace, formulating the same basic ideas of evolution by natural selection. The environment, which is the sum and forefront of human knowledge and ideas, sets the stage for inquisitive individuals to put together new cutting-edge ideas. The process repeats.

What should I do about ideas in daily life?

How do I prioritize around ideas? – “You are encouraged to be creative and spend a moderate amount of time pursuing a good idea rather than sacrificing all of your time on a mediocre idea.”

How can I customize my work to orient more towards ideas?

Most work is about labor, and labor is about repetitions. However, ideations are inherently exploratory and a creative process. So most work offered by society doesn’t involve ideation. But it’s indeed possible to “customize” your work to your liking, according to Barry Schwartz’s Why We Work, which will lead to higher job satisfaction and performance. Now, under the context of ideas, the question becomes: how can I customize my work to make it involve more ideation and creativity? I look at it from two angles: domains, levels and autonomy. The more ambiguous the domain, the more opportunities are provided for novel ways of doing things. With the opportunities, one needs to be in an environment which encourages, at least doesn’t restrict, experimentations. Then, at the level one operates, the individual can create at that level, given that no one is intruding from the top (i.e., micro-management).

High idea flux, Idea developments VS. idea applications, and Intuitions

“High idea flux” is a phrase that I heard from Sam Altman when he talked about starting startups, which is used to describe people who constantly come up with new ideas. Ideas don’t have to be good all the time, and they aren’t good most of the time, but the attempts are what matter. Then I will tie the two above sections in this blog post together into the idea development VS. idea application comparison: ground-breaking ideas need to be developed, over the long run, by inquisitive minds. Darwin’s theory of evolution is a ground-breaking idea that was developed during years of his study. On the contrary, there is idea application. It’s more about rapidly applying existing, likely advanced, ideas to work situations to achieve desired results. The application of ideas requires an individual to possess a large number of good ideas at their disposal, which in turn requires the continuous acquisition of ideas.

Lastly, the final ingredient that separate the visionaries from the ordinaries is intuition. Intuition is about feel. It is about making judgments under uncertainties and incomplete information. Intuition is the magic for the visionaries. Niels Bohr once said to Robert Oppenheimer: “The important thing isn’t can you read music, it’s can you hear it.” If I were to speculate why this is important, I would say: it elevates you from the drudgeries and mechanical work to a realm where you can be imaginative and strategic, while guiding you in the right direction.. It’s the ultimate leverage you can have.

I don’t know if someone can acquire good intuition through practice but I do have some interesting observations:

• If you work too hard, you are most likely NOT intuitive. Hard work is by definition tactical and brings incremental progress, which isn’t a bad thing per se. But hard work also deprives you of the freedom and energy you need to think. People I know who work hard are great co-workers, but they don’t usually have interesting ideas.
• You can evaluate your intuition by looking at important life decisions you made that led you to where you are now. When you “listened your heart”, did that lead you to a place you desired? Or, did you end up in a worse place because you didn’t follow through what you intuition told you to do? Of course, this can be heavily influenced by the environment you’re in, so try with cautions.
  For me, I certainly regret some decisions that I made against my intuition due to cultural or societal norms. So now, my attempt, especially when I dance, is to keep reminding myself of forgetting: forget what I learned and just let go.