Struggling to come up with an idea for a blog post? Want to post ideas on social media but can’t think of what to write about? Want to come up with interesting topics for an intellectual discussion or meetup?
Use my lists of “Idea-Inducing Questions” to generate nearly endless ideas to write about, think about, or discuss!
Questions about learning and truth-seeking
• Recently learned: what’s a powerful idea, concept, or mental model that you’ve been learning about recently that you think is worth knowing?
• Changed opinions: what is a strongly held belief you used to have that you changed your mind about? What caused you to change your mind? Why do you think you were wrong before?
• Influential book: what is the name of one book that substantially influenced the way you think about things? What did you learn from it that you can pass on to your audience?
• Debates: what’s something you disagree with a certain group of people on? What do you think is the core of the disagreement?
• Thorny problems: Is there a complex problem, situation, idea, concept, or a set of competing ideas that you’re still trying to understand or figure out your opinion on? What are the factors that are driving your opinion in different directions or that make the issue tricky to figure out? What are the open questions or confusions you have about it still?
• Third perspectives: For any pair of opposing ideas that most people in the public sphere take either one side or the other on, can you think of a third perspective or synthesis of both ideas that could actually be better than taking either side?
• Misconceptions: What’s a commonly believed idea that you think is actually wrong or a misconception?
• Underrated or overrated ideas: What’s a powerful or useful idea that you think is significantly underrated? Or conversely, what’s an idea that is talked about a lot in a positive light that you think is overrated or that isn’t actually a good idea?
• Epistemics: how do you think about what to believe versus what ideas to reject? How do you approach understanding hotly-contested, thorny, or highly complex topics? What mental models or approaches do you use to help you think more clearly or analyze questions or evaluate evidence?
Questions about ideas that have useful applications
• Beneficial ideas: what’s an idea that, if it became widely known and adopted/used, would greatly improve the world?
• Versatile ideas: what powerful idea or concept do you think has many different useful applications across many life domains?
• Psychology tools: what’s a powerful idea, concept, mental model, or tool from psychology that you think is useful to people’s lives?
• Tools for making sense: what’s a powerful idea, concept, mental model, or tool that you think can help people better understand or make sense of the world?
• Scientific principles: what principle from a mathematical or scientific field (e.g., economics, statistics, evolutionary biology, etc.) do you think is important or valuable to know about (because it helps you understand the world or because there are applications of it to daily life)? How can you apply this idea in life?
Questions about your own ideas and experiences
• Your ideas: What’s an idea you’ve come up with that you think would be valuable for your audience to hear about?
• Ideas you’ve applied: What’s an idea that you’ve found to be very useful or powerful in your own life? How have you applied it successfully?
• Unique experiences: what’s something you have experienced that very few people have experienced (whether it’s a good thing, a bad thing, or just something strange or surprising)? What did you learn from that experience?
• On your mind: What’s an idea you’ve been thinking about a lot lately? What are your current thoughts about it?
• Area of expertise: what topic are you very knowledgeable about? What is the most valuable idea from that field that you think many people would benefit from knowing about?
Questions about unusual or neglected ideas
• Powerful obscure ideas: In your opinion, what is one of the most valuable or important ideas or concepts that most people don’t know about?
• Contrarian ideas: What’s something you disagree with most smart, educated people about (according to your own definition of smart and educated)? Or what’s your answer to the Thiel question: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”
• Overlooked areas: What’s a topic area that very few people have an opinion on or knowledge of, that you think it’s important to have an opinion on, or that is well worth learning about?
This piece was first written on August 2, 2020, and first appeared on this site on May 27, 2022.
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