Not sure who coined the term “idea sex”; according to [Ness Labs](https://nesslabs.com/inspiration-to-idea-sex), it was used in a [TED Talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex) in 2010 and was popularized by James Altucher. It’s now frequently used to describe **combinational creativity**, or the practice of combining old ideas to create something new. In an interview with Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Roam Researcher founder Buster Benson says: > “Good ideas come from when ideas have sex: the intersection of different things that you’ve been reading or different things you’ve been seeing.” It’s the practice (or unintentional result) of combining two or more ideas, processes, etc. into something new. ^a38dac **This is one of the primary functions of my digital garden / pkm practice: to find individual, self-contained, seemingly-disparate ideas and combining them into something fresh and innovative.** Note-taking, [[digital gardens|digital gardening]], [[🌲 atomic notes]] are all ways / methods / things to do to prompt and encourage idea sex. Rather than just, I don’t know, *waiting* for an idea to pop into your head, intentional [[personal knowledge management]] practices help you capture potential sources of inspiration, build a library of individual ideas, and — hopefully — link those things together for new and bigger and more interesting ideas. This is connected to a lot of what [[Kleon, Austin]] writes, e.g, [[{5.5a} finding your voice is an external process]] – inspiration is not passive.