I had a half-formed idea in my head. I couldn’t quite articulate it for awhile. I was watching a youtube video, and in the video he mentioned something that helped me finish the idea. That idea was the contrast of ideas vs inspiration.

Ideas: a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action. Going to the internet for ideas is draining. There are so many ideas out there: people to copy, projects to do, paths to take, ways to think. Many are good ideas, others just strange, and some are completely false. Ideas encourage us to copy a specific course of action. The ideas I often find often just leave me feeling discouraged, because my implementation will never quite measure up. It doesn’t lead me to be creative: copying others is never creativity.

Inspiration: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. I can get inspired from the Internet. The things I read or watch often inspire me to develop my own ideas. Inspiration doesn’t lead to copying. It helps me clarify and form my own unique ideas. I usually find inspiration in strange places, often from sources that are doing things drastically different from what I want to do. (Like getting inspiration for writing a gardening book from someone building a marble machine.)

So when I’m on the Internet, am I looking at ideas or am I gaining inspiration?