Julien Gillet, Head Of Creative Strategy, FP7 McCann, DohaYou’re going to read this sentence twice. You will see. You’re going to read this sentence twice. You see? Yeah. Your brain loves loops. It craves repetition, predictability, the comfort of knowing what comes next. And in 2025, you don’t even have to try … algorithms do the looping for your ideas.
The songs you listen to? Curated to match your taste.
The headlines you see? Filtered to confirm your beliefs.
The ideas you think about? Reinforced by everything you already know.
And to make things worse, most of us run our days like Swiss watches, stuck in routines so predictable they could be programmed into an AI-generated calendar. Wake up. Same coffee. Same content. Same people. Same conversations. And for those of us working in creativity, that’s a damn problem.
Because when you stay on track, you think like everyone else. I remember a few years back when I first started my entrepreneurial journey. One evening, my co-founder and I cracked what we thought was a goldmine of a business model. We did all the research, mapped it out, and the idea was so fresh we felt like we were standing in front of an untapped market. Super excited, we worked all night.
But as per our daily routine, the next morning, we opened our newsletters from the tech industry to catch up on the latest innovations … and BOOM. Right there, in the first article: our exact same idea. Same concept, even a similar name and identity. We went ballistic. How the hell was this possible? But then we understood. Of course we all think alike. We all read the same books. We all watch the same TED Talks. We all eat at the same places, talk to the same people, attend the same conferences. We all feed the same inputs into our brains, so it’s no surprise that we output the same damn ideas.
We weren’t creating something new; just recycling culture we already knew. Trapped in our own algorithm. No exploration. No unexpected collisions. Just consuming a remix of ourselves.
But original thinking doesn’t come from loops. It comes from detours, collisions, and getting so off-track that you don’t recognize the landscape anymore.
That’s where anthropology comes in
It changed how I approach creativity, how I see, not just look. My background is in psychology, but anthropology? It taught me something deeper: most people look at the world, but they don’t really see it.
Anthropologists don’t just observe; they embed themselves. They look at what’s unsaid, unnoticed, and undervalued.
Here’s how you can do the same:
Go where decisions are made, not just where they’re sold
Want to understand how food culture is changing? Don’t just look at fancy restaurants but go to the wholesale markets where restaurants buy their ingredients. In the Middle East, Pakistani, Indian, and Filipino workers drive the real food economy.
The best insights don’t come from fine dining, they come from watching where laborers buy their naan, their tea, their bulk spices. This is where you see the real shifts happening. Like how ghost kitchens exploded because delivery is now a bigger industry than dine-in.
Mind-blowing insight? Some new real estate developments in Dubai and Saudi are designing apartments with no kitchens. Because people don’t cook anymore. They order. That’s not just an architectural trend; it’s a cultural shift in how we live, eat, and socialise. Any kickass idea to crack here for a home furniture brand? If people aren’t cooking at home anymore, what’s the future of the kitchen?
Maybe brands shouldn’t just sell modular kitchens but sell modular ghost kitchens for apartments. Tiny, adaptable, AI-connected cooking spaces that work only when needed. Because in a world of food delivery, the kitchen isn’t dead; it’s just evolving into something radically different.
The ‘opposite choice’ rule for ideas
Paul Arden said it best: “Whatever you think, think the opposite.” The mind is lazy. It will always choose what’s comfortable, what’s easy, what it already likes. So you have to force disruption into your thought process.
Try this and create your own ‘creative roulette’: Twice a week, listen to a radio station you’ve never heard before, even in a language you don’t understand. Watch something completely opposite to your interests. If you love sci-fi, watch historical documentaries.
If you’re obsessed with football, watch ballet performances. If you love reading about business, pick up an issue of Vogue or an art magazine. Ask your colleagues to take you somewhere they go but you never would. Next time you get food delivered, talk to the driver. Ask about his biggest daily problem. That’s where a real startup idea lives.
Crossroads create genius
Some of the best creative breakthroughs come from clashing worlds. Hip-hop happened because DJs started looping drum breaks in a way no one else did. The best sneaker collabs don’t come from sneaker companies alone but happen when sneaker brands collide with artists, architects, and even Michelin-star chefs.
Some of the best business innovations came from applying completely unrelated industries. The olive oil industry took inspiration from perfume and hygiene spray bottles, transforming how we cook with a simple packaging shift.
The ‘wrong turn’ principle for ideas
If you always optimize for efficiency, you will always get predictable results. Instead of planning every step, try taking a wrong turn on purpose.Instead of seeking the right answer, spend time exploring the wrong ones. Instead of avoiding confusion, embrace it.
Some of the best innovations in the world, Post-its, Penicillin, Velcro, came from mistakes. If you don’t allow space for getting lost, you don’t allow space for breakthroughs.
The world is designed to keep you on track. But tracks only take you where others have already been. If you consume the same, think the same, move the same…you create the same. The only way to make something truly fresh? Go off-road. Get lost. That’s where the new ideas live.
So start today. Pick a wrong turn. Get into an unfamiliar place. Consume what doesn’t feel natural to you. You might just come back with an idea no one else has thought of yet. Yalla, enjoy the ride!
By Julien Gillet, Head Of Creative Strategy, FP7 McCann, Doha
