Forget about endless workshops and brainstorming sessions. Get lost in rabbit holes for the ultimate creative inspiration.
Down the rabbit hole
Rabbit holes have gotten a bad rap since Alice took that tumble into Wonderland. They’re considered a place where time loses meaning and productivity grinds to a halt: “Look at these lazy louts, they’ve sunk precious time into frivolous curiosity. Off with their heads!”
But, as you’ll recall, that trip down the rabbit hole did Alice a lot of good. So, what if we followed her lead and dove headfirst into the land of untapped creativity? Imagine what might wait for us on the other side…
A mad tea party
The best ideas often come when your mind is preoccupied with something completely unrelated: singing in the shower, talking to your grandma over the phone, googling 17th century monks just…because.
Suddenly, you’re hit with a brilliant idea that never would have occurred to you if you’d stared at a blank page.
That’s because these periods of distraction are incubators for creativity. And creativity – according to Steve Jobs – “is just connecting things.” When we let our minds wander, we give them the space to create connections that lead to some of our weirdest, most brilliant ideas.
For example, back in 2023 we were given a simple brief. But rather than settle for the ordinary, we tumbled down a deep and winding rabbit hole and came out with a magical idea: “What if Battersea Power Station could talk?”
An immersive theatre performance laced with AI was on no one’s bingo card – and yet it did something that no white paper or conference ever could. It made people feel.
And for the metrically-minded, it also generated millions in direct sales and even more in future opportunities. So, yeah, rabbit holes are pretty great.
Alice’s evidence
But what about the optics? It’s only natural that we recoil at the prospect of not appearing productive. Afterall, around every corner lurks a new software that can do everything we can in a fraction of the time.
But our robot counterparts are crucially lacking in creativity. The ability to venture down rabbit holes and come out with “eureka” moments is what sets us apart.
Not only that but the activities we lose ourselves in can also provide a treasure trove of inspiration for future projects.
Just taken up woodworking? Congrats, your next main character is a carpenter. The annoying guy in your medieval reenactment troupe keeps hogging the best foam swords? You’ve got the makings of a great antagonist for your next drama series.
While they may not look productive from the outside, rabbit holes are anything but.
So, maybe rabbit holes aren’t quite the time trap we once
thought they were. Maybe there’s value in pursuing
the topics and hobbies that intrigue us and
exercising the creative muscles that give
us purpose. Perhaps rabbit holes are
actually the best route to finding
life-changing stories
in unexpected
places.
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We're proving the importance of creative curiosity at the Evolve Conference 2026. We’ve designed a business card that encourages you to take a moment, dive down rabbit holes and get lost in creating something new.
