I've been exchaning emails with an employee at an analytics company that I'd like to intern at next Summer and his advice to me was to "do something cool" this year.<p>The problem is that I don't know what to do. How do you come up with your cool ideas?
I get all my good ideas in the morning - when brushing my teeth or in the shower. Research has shown that you get good ideas when your mind is unfocused and relaxed - and away from distractions of any kind. I guess in today's connected world, the bathroom is one of the few places where this is still true! I also recommend you read the wonderful book "Where Good Ideas Come From.." by Steven Johnson (check it on Amazon) for a great set of principles on how discoveries and invetions come about.
The "Top Idea in Your Mind" is a great essay by Paul Graham that somewhat addresses how ideas happen. Thing is here he talks about only one Idea in your head receives that kind of attention. My humble opinion would be to find an issue, problem, or interesting concept loosely related to your end goal (Analytics Company Internship) and find something to work on, in the scope of the other comments. With the research and finding of that alone, some things might come to mind.
The way I've sometimes come up with my ideas is through writing. Not an essay per se, but just write down your idea, problem, anything. Use it to brainstorm, connect, categorize, or anything. Play around. Hope that helps.
Solve your own problems -- even the smallest of problems can be solved by creating a service around it. Usually, you are not the only one having the same problem (and you also may not be the only one trying to solve it).
Ideas just pop in, but what do you mean by cool?<p>cool like this: <a href="http://venturecrapital.us/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://venturecrapital.us/index.html</a>
or
cool like this: <a href="http://lal.com/home" rel="nofollow">http://lal.com/home</a><p>Your future boss may just want to see some little tool that gets his company a little buzz. He's probably not expecting you to solve a huge problem.<p>Query their api and make the desktop background change to an si swimsuit model when certain datapoints are triggered. :)<p>Take it easy, there is no pressure on you! :)
"Cool" is highly subjective. Turn it around: ask your contact for a few examples of some cool things he's seen lately.<p>Once you've acquired a short list of verified "cool" ideas, start digging into each one. Which one is the best, at least in your opinion? Which one can be expanded, extended, or modified?<p>Use the list of cool ideas to find more cool ideas; and from these atoms of cool, assemble your own cool molecule of coolness.<p>Once you've iterated this process and come up with something amazing, get to work.
Practice.<p>Seriously - like most other talents (sports, music, writing etc.) it all comes down to doing a lot of it repeatedly.<p>Start by carrying a notepad, and noting down anything that pops into your head that could conceivably be an idea - no matter how crap it might seem at first. Keep doing this day by day, and eventually you'll hit upon one that grabs your fancy. Don't stop there though - always keep adding :)
Have you ever had a moment where you want to have a service that solved a problem? Or a moment where you thought a piece of software/hardware etc. could be done in a better way? You could start with that.<p>Something cool could also mean helping out an opensource project, if you have time. Just my 2 cents.
I don't know what is your defnition of cool idea but for me every idea is cool if it is going to make people's lives easier and wonderful regardless of it was implemented by using some old fashioned technology or some newer one
I've started taking a long walk (like 7 miles or more) at least once a week. Often, part of it is with company and we talk and then part of it is alone and I think. My recollection is there are some historical figures (writers or what not) who walked a lot as a means to promote thinking. (And I think Ben Franklin was infamous for his long bathes which were a place he apparently did a lot of thinking.)<p>I have also read that "cool"/unique/brilliant ideas very often are the result of cross-pollination of unusual sets of interests. In other words, if you have two or more interests that don't typically go together, this tends to lead to new insights/approaches that no one else could come up with. So if you are feeling stuck, maybe you should seek out a new hobby/interest, something that seems counter-intuitive to your normal interests if at all possible. My sons have been gradually dragging me into gaming. I was a full-time mom for a long time. I like my kids. They know me well and know how to frame things to make a game sound do-able and appealing to me. They also do a lot of hand-holding. (I used to think video games were the work of the devil or some such. I was not thrilled that my sons were so into games. Now they are corrupting me. This will likely lead to great things. :-P)<p>Best of luck.