Christopher Nolan's discovery process
Technology doesn't have all the information you are looking for.
It’s the weekend of Odyssey, so I find no better time to share this piece which I had been procrastinating on for more than two years, sitting in my drafts ever since I finished watching Oppenheimer.
Christopher Nolan shared an important observation during interviews promoting Oppenheimer (2023), where he emphasized the limits of modern search engines like Google in the context of deep thinking and critical inquiry.
“Google can give you 100 answers. A good teacher can give you the right question.”
— Christopher Nolan
If it did, then you would have probably written that novel, or written about that idea you so badly wanted to.
So then, why haven’t you?
It is because unconventional and fresh ideas will never come out of this process. And even if you do find an idea, writing or expressing yourself about it can only come by either reading about it or immersing yourself in the experience, which takes time.
The quote actually reflects Nolan’s belief in the value of education, curiosity, and the kind of inquiry that prompts deeper understanding, beyond just surface-level answers.
For the wiseasses thinking it- yes, this is applicable to AI as well. (even though this piece was first drafted in 2023 which is the Pre-AI era, the logic remains the same)
The seed for his Oscar-winning historical epic was planted by this unconventional process of finding ideas.
Toward the end of filming his 2020 movie Tenet, Robert Pattinson gave Nolan a book of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s printed speeches. Nolan read them and became instantly captivated by how the brilliant scientists of the Manhattan Project wrestled with the irreversible, world-altering consequences of what they had built. That single gift directly led Nolan to adapt the biography American Prometheus into a film.
The core concept for his movie, Inception in 2010 which is an exploration of the human mind, originated from Nolan’s own experiences as a student at University College London.
During that time, he began having lucid dreams and realized he could actively control the narrative of his own sleeping mind. He started wondering what would happen if multiple people could share that same dream space, a thought experiment that bounced around in his head for a decade before he finally cracked the script for Inception.
Here is a snippet of his very unique method that no form of technology can ever even think of replacing (Extracted from a June 25,2026 New York Times Article)
There’s no way we would have had the brilliant movies he has made without this unconventional process.
Serendipity and the 'aha!' moments for brilliant ideas can only find you this way, and your way will be unique to you.
Most of my writing ideas come from such readings, randomness, and experiences as did the writing of this blog post.
Obviously my simple ideas would be found in a process very differently from the great Chris Nolan, but that is the point. The uniquness of one’s process if what makes an idea great and this is applicable across every single field.
I have just used Nolan’s film making process to explain my thought process.
Ben Affleck is quite firm in his view on this topic of the creative process. Check out this short snippet of his talk at the forum on AI and filmmaking
https://youtube.com/shorts/LigIOZueNKw?si=qKOfqK9WabNq9KOw
“Movies will be one of the last things if everything gets replaced to be replaced by AI.
AI can write you excellent imit imitative verse that sounds a little bean it cannot write you Shakespeare.
The function of having two actors or three or four actors in a room and the taste to discern and construct that is something that currently entirely eludes ai's capability.
And I think will for a meaningful period of time what AI is going to do is going to disintermediate the more laborious less creative uh and you know more costly aspects of film making that will allow cost to be brought down that will be lower the barrier to entry that will allow more voices to be heard that will make it easier to for the people who want to make Goodwill huntings to go out and make it.
Look AI is a Craftsman at best, Craftsman can learn to you know make stickly furniture by sitting down next to somebody and seeing what their technique is and imitating that's how large video models large language models basically work a library of vector"
Original ideas and thinking will, in fact, get a sense of leverage in this age.
It reminds me of the time when the iPhone was released and wedding photographers faced an existential crisis, thinking the quality of such a phone would replace their craft and livelihood. However, the wedding photographers who were excellent at their craft gained even more, and their value increased with their level of quality and differentiation. This is going to be the case with a lot of industries.
Now off I go for the Odyssey, no spoilers here. Maybe that movie gives me inspiration for a future blog post :)
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Excellent read, as always. And very reassuring. The idle thought, the meandering rabbit hole we 'can' go into even if not for what we were looking for... the process and learnings can stick in expected ways, and compound into something precious.
I enjoyed this, Ankush!! It made me wonder if the uniqueness of a creative process isn't in what we consume, but in how we perceive it. The same book, the same film, or the same experience can become completely different ideas in different minds. Perhaps originality begins with PErception before it becomes expression. I guess perception is what - make all the difference.