Exploring Ideas

Sometimes I get a thought that is very curious to me. It deserves thinking about, but I don't know how to go about it. I've found a few different ways to explore ideas.

Concrete Examples:
Examples that come from real life have the benefit of being solid fact. In a conversation, the idea came up that it is complex things that are interesting. The very first thing I did was to find examples of complex or intricate things that are also interesting. I found analog clocks, human circulatory system, various governmental systems, and various economic systems are all complex and interesting. The idea has validity.

Extremes:
The problem with real world examples is that they are complicated. Every example has so many aspects to it that it is difficult to say what does and doesn't affect the validity of the claim (maybe analog clocks are interesting for some reason other than the fact that they are complex). So take the idea and bring it to its absolute most extreme and absurd. In doing so, you take away much of the factors and leave little room for anything but the idea itself. Particle physics is extremely complex, but is it interesting? Soap operas are absurdly complex, but are they intereting? Those are answers one has to decide on their own. From those answers, you learn more about the idea.

Pendulum:
Consider an idea like a pendulum. When you take the idea to its extremes, it is like pulling a pendulum as far as you can in one direction. Then, you let go. In terms of an idea, the first thing you will do is test its opposite. Can simple things be interesting? Personally, I could stare at a perfect cube for hours. It's one of the simplest 3-dimensional objects, but I find it fascinating. Since these opposites both have validity, then I let the pendulum keep swinging, each time not going quite as far.

Are there complex things that are boring? Are there simple things that are boring? what do simplicity and complexity have to do with interest? Do they have anything to do with interest? Well, what exactly does make something interesting?

By the end of this process, you are usually back to being right in the middle, neither black nor white, but very gray. On the plus side, you now have some very good questions to use for pursuing your idea.