Your best ideas show up when you stop trying to look like you have them.

Performing cleverness uses up the exact attention that thinking needs. If part of you is monitoring how you sound, the half formed thought never gets said out loud, and half formed is the only state a new idea is ever in at the start. Good rooms are full of people saying unfinished things to each other.

Say the unfinished thing once this week, with the caveat that it is not worked out yet. And notice where your ideas actually arrive: in the shower, on the walk, doing dishes. Boredom is where the back of your mind gets room to work.