While many might look to the real world for connection, Carson’s initial methods for deriving inspiration begin on the digital frontier. He makes sure to prime himself by first collecting as much visual stimulus as possible, which allows him to store it for subconscious reference later. “Sometimes when you don’t have the luxury of leaving the house or going to foreign places, it’s always good to be able to access different types of imagery and articles.” To this effect, not everything you see at any given moment is applicable to the task at hand. He points to the concept of the “subconscious mind where you take in as much visual data as possible and store it in the back of your mind and it just comes out when you need it.”
The role that a strong body plays in a strong mind has been well documented. A study out of Stanford in 2014 extolled the virtues of thinking while walking and its findings suggested that a simple walk can increase creativity by upwards of 60%. The act of walking has served as a cornerstone to Carson’s creative process. It can’t be overstated how just a simple walk opens up a wealth of different ways to approach the task at hand. Inspired by an interview of a creative who refused to take meetings sitting down, Carson believes that “when you’re sitting around you have a harder time trying to come up with new things.” There’s a focus on pure thinking and conceptualization during the walk. “You get better conversations because you’re not stagnant and not falling asleep or distracted with another ‘like’ alert on your phone.”
This idea of always being active to work through problems extends beyond just walking. The physicality of movement is what enables one to unpack problems. “If you’re coming up with stuff quickly like writing them on a sticky note and putting them on the table without filtering ideas, your hit ratio is better.”
Once the body is prepared and free of tension, the next step is the indiscriminate extraction and recording of ideas. Whereas many people stare endlessly at a blank screen, paralyzing themselves as they analyze the best starting points, Carson finds putting any idea down is crucial to getting things rolling. We often stare aimlessly at a blank slate but get the ball rolling as fast as possible in hopes of eradicating the intimidation factor of “the white bull,” or the white sheet of paper.” The perfect idea rarely appears after one iteration, so pushing the ideation process means not expecting your first concept to be perfect. “You’ll never get the perfect idea on the first go around, so it’s always nice just to get dirty and start with something then build off of an initial idea.”
