“So say whatever goes through your mind. Act as though, for instance, you were a traveler sitting next to the window of a railway carriage and describing to someone inside the carriage the changing views you see outside.”―Sigmund Freud
GENERATING MILLION-DOLLAR CONTENT IDEAS
As of 2024, the wealthiest YouTuber is Jimmy Donaldson, commonly known as Mr. Beast. Every single one of his videos go viral, raking millions of views. He mastered content creation, and in an interview he shared his secret behind generating great ideas. He revealed that he uses a dictionary to pick random words to spark a new video concept. “It works actually better than you would think,” he said. He explained that he does not limit himself to a dictionary. It’s more about taking in random inspiration. Then he writes down what pops in his head, and “usually one out of every hundred is good.” Odd connections breed genius ideas.
FREE ASSOCIATION
Mr. Beast was using a technique called free association. Sigmund Freud, one of the greatest psychoanalysts of the modern era, coined the term free association. It was a form of therapy he used on his patients to help them gain uncanny realizations about themselves and their trauma. Freud had them say or express every thought, regardless of how irrelevant, silly, or painful it seemed. He let their thoughts and feelings flow without judgment. This method helped his patients find patterns in their thinking that were invisible to them. Freud didn’t only use this technique to cure people with severe physical symptoms. He also helped others who felt “stuck” in any area of their lives.
Freud used free association as the therapeutic method of researching our unconscious mind, the storehouse of infinite ideas. Free association helps us produce new ideas through random word associations. It’s about “ideas suggesting ideas.” So one idea will trigger another idea, which will inspire another idea. Then it will continue to cycle until the process is over. Eventually, businesses adopted this strategy as a creative problem-solving technique. You can also use it to develop ideas in any creative field.
THE PRINCIPLE OF UNIVERSAL CONNECTION
Alexander Spirkin, a philosopher and psychologist who explored consciousness and the world around us, developed a mind-bending philosophy called the Principle of Universal Connection.
In his book Dialectical Materialism, he explained his concept of universal connection. He said, “Nothing in the world stands by itself. Every object is a link in an endless chain and is thus connected with all the other links. And this chain of the universe has never been broken; it unites all objects and processes in a single whole and thus has a universal character. We cannot move so much as our little finger without “disturbing” the whole universe. The life of the universe, its history lies in an infinite web of connections.”
This poetic philosophy observes that “everything is connected to everything else.” This is why free association works so well. The Principle of Universal Connection is why we can make valuable connections between seemingly random objects. Exploring the link between two odd associations is an opportunity to find fresh ideas.