I love ideas and soak them up like some people take baths.
Ideas come from everywhere and anywhere. One of my most relaxing sources for inspiration is listening to podcasts. Great design is delightful and magical and most of the time invisible.
Days after my post about a book I self-published, about the pioneer days of Canada’s western frontier, Roman put out episode 157: Devils Rope. In the article notes he used one of the same images in “The House Belongs To The Government“. Gotta a love the serendipity of that!
The story is about how a problem was solved by brilliant design and changed the face of an entire continent in the process. The simple design solution even helped spread the invention of the telegraph and telephone! There turned out to be sinister uses too, as so often happens with profound technological change.