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Writer's pictureDavid Salariya

An Egg is a Dream: How Ideas Need to Be Nurtured

Updated: Dec 8

Neil Gaiman, said, “Ideas are like cats. You can’t herd them,” reflecting on the elusive, nature of inspiration. In a similar fashion, writer Alan Bennett made a comment about ideas often arriving at inconvenient times," like a cat that comes and goes as it pleases". Ideas are fragile, they begin as the tiniest flicker, a spark, a thought, a passing curiosity, or a question that needs to be answered. I feel ideas though are more like eggs than cats, ideas are a future potential, they need protection and nurturing, much like an egg, fragile and full of potential. Left alone, an idea may fade and shrivel, but with the right attention, an idea can develop into something fully realised, ready to hatch into the world. Ideas are what we fall in love with.


"Un Oeuf est un Rêve"

Using the metaphor of, ‘"An Egg is a Dream’"(or, in French, "Un Oeuf est un Rêve" everything sounds better in French: (Bidonville, Pain grillé brûlé, Poubelle, La poubelle de l’histoire!) serves as a reminder of the importance of patience, creativity, and care in the formation of ideas. The French language adds an air of poetry to the concept, and the connection to French philosophical thought can be a guide to thinking more about how ideas are nurtured and brought into life.


Box of marbled eggs to illustrate the egg as an idea
"An Egg is a Dream"  is the whimsy of fragility

The Fragility of Ideas

At the heart of this metaphor "An Egg is a Dream" is the whimsy of fragility. Like inside an egg, an idea starts small and unprotected, its potential invisible to the outside world. This stage is crucial, as it requires conviction and a quiet determination to let it grow before revealing it to others. If the delicate shell is cracked too soon or exposed to the harshness of criticism or doubt, the idea dies before it even has the chance to develop.

In the creative process, ideas must be sheltered, incubated, and given space to breathe. As creators, we often have to resist the urge to share our ideas too soon. This requires an almost parental care for our ideas. Think of how carefully an egg must be warmed, cosseted, turned, and kept safe until it's ready to hatch. Similarly, our ideas need time to grow into something strong enough to survive outside the protective walls of our imagination.



"Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act falls the shadow" TS Elliot

Jean-Paul Sartre and the Act of Becoming

French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre said, existence precedes essence,’ highlighting that both individuals and their ideas develop through choices and actions. Ideas require nurturing and effort to evolve into concrete concepts. Our decisions on how to feed, nurture, and tease out these ideas determine their success.


Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the Gradual Unfolding


Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a philosopher of phenomenology, emphasises that understanding life evolves gradually through lived experience, likening it to the slow development of an egg. Creativity, he suggests, involves continuous adjustments and fresh perspectives. Patience is key in allowing ideas to mature naturally, forming new thinking over time.


Gaston Bachelard and the Dream Space


Gaston Bachelard whose work on imagination and space ties directly into the nurturing of ideas believed intimate spaces like a bird's nest nurture dreams and ideas. His book The Poetics of Space (1958) explores how small, protected spaces foster creativity. This aligns with the metaphor 'An Egg is a Dream,' emphasizing the need for space for ideas to develop freely. Nurturing ideas involves giving them room to breathe and settle before they fully emerge.

Sometimes the house of the future is better built, lighter and larger than all the houses of the past, so that the image of the dream house is opposed to that of the childhood home… Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it. For a house that was final, one that stood in symmetrical relation to the house we were born in, would lead to thoughts—serious, sad thoughts—and not to dreams. It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.

The Moment of Hatching

All of this incubation and nurturing leads to a final, exciting moment - the hatching of the idea. The fragile shell cracks open, and what was once hidden bursts into the world, formed and perhaps ready to take flight. This is where the metaphor takes on new life, legs and wings. After so much care and attention, the idea is no longer just potential but something tangible.


Hatching

This moment of hatching is the culmination of the creative process. The idea, now strong and vibrant, can live outside of us, shared with others and free to grow in ways we couldn’t have imagined.


But just like a newly hatched bird, the idea will still need guidance, further honing, fine tuning, editing, and sometimes even protection from the outside world. But the hard work - the nurturing, the patience, the careful attention - has paid off. The dream is no longer just a dream. It is a reality. This is where the really hard work starts - taking the idea, to make it take shape and form...it can be the beginning of something remarkable. An idea in the philosophical sense is something profound, generative, and conceptually substantial, capable of altering perception or understanding. Changing the fonts in a book might influence the reader's comfort or engagement but doesn’t constitute an "idea" because it lacks depth, intent, and creative vision.


Red notebooks in a pile where ideas for books and illustrations start.
Notebooks and sketchpads are where ideas start

Nurturing Ideas in Your Own Creative Process

Whether you’re a writer, artist, entrepreneur, or creator of any kind, the metaphor of ‘An Egg is a Dream’ can serve as a reminder of the careful balance between nurturing and letting go. Like an egg, ideas need cocooning, time, and protection. But they also need to be set free when they’re ready, to stretch beyond their shell and live in the real world.


Pencil drawings by David Salariya of Ships in the Timelines series at the early planning stage.
Thumbnail sketches by David Salariya at the planning stage of the Timelines series 1989

Different ships from different time periods showing the cover that started as a spark of an idea by David Salariya
Front cover of Timelines Ships - series created and designed By David Salariya. Cover illustration by Mark Bergin.

As you nurture your own ideas, consider the wisdom of the French philosophers:


Sartre, remember that an idea is a process of becoming, not something that arrives fully formed.


Merleau-Ponty, take the lesson of unfolding - ideas reveal themselves gradually through your engagement with them.


Bachelard, embrace the importance of space - sometimes, the best way to nurture an idea is to let it rest in a quiet, protected place.


Just as the egg must be cosseted and watched over, so too must our dreams. With patience and care, we can guide them into the world, ready to grow into something extraordinary. So, next time you're looking after your fragile, brilliant idea like a precious egg, remember - some will hatch into soaring eagles, others... well, others may end up in Pseud’s Corner, and let’s be honest, even Sartre would have found some solace in œufs brouillés!


Existentialism encompasses various perspectives and approaches in philosophy that look into the existence of the individual and ultimately assert that, despite the universe's absurdity or incomprehensibility, individuals are obligated to take responsibility for their choices and endeavour to live authentically.


Architectural phenomenology focuses on human experience, context, intent, historical contemplation, interpretation, and the poetic and ethical aspects, as opposed to the lack of historical awareness in postwar modernism and the eclectic nature of postmodernism. Similar to phenomenology, architectural phenomenology should be viewed as a mindset towards conceptualising and creating rather than a defined aesthetic or movement. The interest in phenomenology in architecture emerged in the 1950s, gained popularity in the late 1970s and 1980s, and remains relevant today.


"No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main". John Dunne


Ideas on Ideas!

"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." – William James (c. 1890)


"To get a great idea, come up with lots of them." – Thomas Edison (c. early 20th century)


"The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through." – Henry Ford (c. 1920s)


"Everything begins with an idea." – Earl Nightingale (c. 1950s)


"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." – John Steinbeck (1955)


"My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living." – Anaïs Nin (1958)


"Creativity is thinking up new things; innovation is doing new things." – Theodore Levitt (1963)


"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." – Maya Angelou (1982)


"Good ideas often arise from unexpected combinations and connections." – Steven Johnson (2010)


"Innovation typically comes from recombining ideas in new and unexpected ways." – Steven Johnson (2010)


" I am my brain's publisher" - Philip Starke (Date unknown)


"It's always better to be looked over than overlooked" Mae West


Ultimately, ideas hatch only when they are ready. The culmination of this process is exhilarating - an idea, nurtured from its earliest stage, finally breaks free, becoming something tangible and alive. This “moment of hatching” is not the beginning of an idea but the result of long, dedicated effort.




Eggs as symbols of ideas - ready to hatch!
Eggs as symbols of ideas ready to hatch!

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