[giantg2]

Just be curious and cross pollinate your ideas between different domains. I think the best ideas are not forced, but organic.

I come up with an idea for an invention about every other month. Usually they've already been implemented, or wouldn't have a large enough market.

[krytz]

“they've already been implemented” - meaning validated by others. the notion that an idea has to be unique is silly. if every business idea worked that way we’d only ever have one jeans maker, one car maker, one social network and one bottle shape. ideas dont need to be “unique”. they do need to vary as different people have different expectations from similar products.

“wouldn't have a large market” - a billion dollar idea is not the only idea that should be chased. a corner shop owner can earn more than an office worker dreaming about becoming the next elon musk. as do thousands of nice products.

[giantg2]

The existing ideas are usually as good or better than mine, making it impossible to break in. Or if it's too similar, there could be patent issues. I'll give you two examples from when I was a kid.

I saw one of those geometric balls that expand and contract at the gift shop of the Smithsonian. I thought, what if they use something like that in a transmission instead of multiple gears? You could have one like that which expands and contracts with a smaller one that varies much less but just changes the pitch of the teeth to fit the big one. The next decade they came out with CVTs which objectively were a better design using (very basically) two rollers that change geometry.

In middle school, I created an invention for that young inventor program run by Sears. I made a device that would slide up and down on the side of an extension ladder. It was a basket to hold paint or tools. I couldn't find anything like it back then. 20 years later and I see an infomercial one. Perhaps this was my best idea I ever had. Sadly I was just a kid and never patented or sold them. I didn't even win the competition.