Recently someone mentioned to me that a eureka moment is that instant when two ideas come together. The fact is, that is not true. Or rather, that is only one type of eureka moment. A eureka moment can be the moment we put two ideas together or it can be the moment we discover another idea buried deep within the original idea; it feels as if the new idea had suddenly POPPED to the surface. In other words, it can be a moment of discovery rather than invention or creation.
Most often it is actually not about an idea but a concept. You can think of some concepts as the defining elements or ideas buried inside any idea; they are the elements that further define and refine that idea. As an analogy, think of the idea as the human body, but a concept within that idea as the blood system or nervous system. It is one idea but it still has a lot of concepts contained within it. Discovery of those concepts is critical to idea development.
As another example, you could think of the idea of a fish. There are concepts associated with the idea of a fish that help define it, such as underwater breathing or swimming. In the discovery of new species, it is their characteristics that impact the categorization of them; you can think of most characteristics as concepts. In a recent posting by David Pescovitz on www.boingboing.net, he talks of a new species that uses its fins like legs. This is a relevant example: Gills, fins and legs are body parts but they are also concepts, and as such, impact the idea of a fish. What a eureka moment it must have been when this new species was discovered.
But here is the caveat and the point of this posting: What I just wrote about in those last paragraphs is still not accurate until I include the fact that a eureka moment is also an experience. That changes everything. You feel them. You experience them. And we love it. We love it because in that moment, we can feel as if someone has just injected us with a liquid rush of heart stopping excitement.
So think about the last eureka moment you had. Think about what new idea came out of it. But also think about how it felt. Think about how it seemed to physically come at you like a sharp blue-green wave gliding toward you off a tropical beach -- how excited you got and how instantaneously the whole thing came together and crashed into you. Then change your thinking and realize that we all experience that same eureka moment in a very similar way, even though they can be about very different ideas. It’s amazing.
An idea is one thing. The concept of idea? Well, we should think about it, enjoy it, but most of all, change our thinking around it. A eureka moment is a part of the concept of idea. Long live that eureka rush.
Copyright, Winston Perez, 2009
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