I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day. It read something like, “Stop scrolling for inspiration. Ideas don’t come from outside, they come from inside.” It was delivered with the certainty that such posts often have, but it made me pause for a second and consider whether I agree.
To me, that feels like a rather romantic, even comforting idea, but misguided. It suggests there is a special place somewhere in the mind where original thought is produced, untouched by the world around us. A kind of inner creative spark. I am not convinced this exists in the way people imagine it, or the way the original LinkedIn poster suggests. I lean towards determinism, reluctantly at times, but firmly enough to believe that very little about us appears out of thin air.
I am reluctantly determined
Every idea we have is shaped by something. Our memories, our habits, the odd things we notice as we make our way through the world, the work we admire, the people we follow, the colours we are drawn to, the textures we dislike, the mistakes we have already made. All of it piles up, quietly, day after day. It becomes the raw material we draw from when we are trying to make something new. In that sense, inspiration might feel internal, but only because it has already been taken in from somewhere else.
This is why the “stop scrolling” argument falls apart for me. I understand the warning about over-consumption and comparison. I understand the value of stepping away from online noise so you can clear your mind of clutter. But if, when we are looking for ideas and inspiration, we cut ourselves off from visual input, cultural signals, technology, conversations, failures, successes, and the tiny sparks of other people’s thinking, what exactly are we drawing from? From where does the so-called inner well get refilled?
Standing on shoulders
Creativity appears to work in loops. We take things in, we make sense of them, we react, we adapt. The output might be original, but the ingredients are borrowed. That is not a weakness. It is how humans function. It is how we have always functioned. Even the people we call visionaries are influenced by something, even if they later forget, or ignore, where it came from.
So when someone insists that ideas only come from within, I find myself thinking that the truth is almost the opposite. Ideas come from a life that is porous. From paying attention. From exposing ourselves to unfamiliar things. From holding onto details without realising it, then stumbling across them again in a moment that feels spontaneous and new.
We are shaped by everything that has come before. Our ideas sit somewhere within that long chain. And with a bit of luck, they might become a part of what comes next.
