This spring, we set out to answer the question “Where do good ideas come from?” in the form of a motion graphic that would serve as a companion piece for a course we developed for Columbia University’s graduate program in Information and Knowledge Strategy (Visualization of Information). We quickly realized that perhaps we needed to reevaluate the basis of this question before we answered it. The notion that good ideas simply come to people out of the blue didn’t satisfy us because it didn’t give adequate credit to the creative enterprise of the individual or group. Good ideas aren’t simply lying around like seashells on a beach waiting for us to pick them up, nor are they so random.