At first glance, it’s obvious that we don’t need more ideas. Everybody has ideas. Ideas are cheap. Ideas don’t matter. So they say. 

Yet the ephemeral thoughts we label as “ideas”—other words include insights, complaints, challenges—are the fundamental raw ingredients to solutions. Ideas are the soil for solutions to emerge. 
When you express an idea in a way that intersects with someone else’s problem, that’s when a solution emerges.