The origin of ideas in general is an interesting topic. Finding out specifically how a certain talented individual courts and cultivates ideas is even more interesting.

Just last week I read an article about a brain biologist, Joe Tsien, who got an idea about testing the nature of memory in mice from a scary ride he was on at Disney World, The Tower of Terror. In "The Mouse that Remembered", Boston Globe staff writer Carey Goldberg reports the scientific findings of Tsien and then summarizes his idea-courting advice. "For now, Tsien said, one obvious lesson emerges from the inspiration he gained at Disney World: 'Go out and have fun,' he said. 'That's where your best ideas come from.'"

Postscript: It might need to be pointed out, however, that one person's evocative adventure is another person's moment of trauma. My last scary ride was decades ago but also at Disney World. Space Mountain on "Grad Night." (Anyone who graduated from high school in Florida will know what I'm referring to.) The only idea it gave me was to never go on it, or any other scary ride, ever again.:)