How to Get New Ideas
The essay argues that new ideas come from noticing anomalies—things that seem strange, missing, or broken. The best place to look is at the frontiers of knowledge, which grow fractally: from a distance edges look smooth, but up close they are full of gaps. These gaps are obvious to those who have learned enough to get near them, yet unexplored. Exploring them can yield entirely new fractal buds.
January 2023(Someone fed my essays into GPT to make something that could answer questions based on them, then asked it where good ideas come from. The answer was ok, but not what I would have said. This is what I would have said.)
2023年1月（有人将我的文章输入GPT，制作出一个能基于这些文章回答问题的工具，然后问它好主意从何而来。答案还行，但并非我的原意。以下才是我会说的。）
The way to get new ideas is to notice anomalies: what seems strange, or missing, or broken? You can see anomalies in everyday life (much of standup comedy is based on this), but the best place to look for them is at the frontiers of knowledge.
获取新想法的方法是留意异常：那些看起来奇怪、缺失或有问题的事物。你在日常生活中也能看到异常（很多脱口秀就基于此），但寻找它们的最佳地点是知识的前沿。
Knowledge grows fractally. From a distance its edges look smooth, but when you learn enough to get close to one, you'll notice it's full of gaps. These gaps will seem obvious; it will seem inexplicable that no one has tried x or wondered about y. In the best case, exploring such gaps yields whole new fractal buds.
知识呈分形增长。 从远处看，它的边缘很光滑，但当你学到足够多并靠近某一边缘时，你会发现它布满了缺口。这些缺口看似显而易见；会令人费解为何没有人尝试过X或对Y感到好奇。在最好的情况下，探索这样的缺口能催生出全新的分形芽。