My research idea logfile, 2016-2019

How do I pick what research problems I want to solve? I get asked this question often, most recently in December at NeurIPS, and so on my flight back I decided to describe the only piece of my incredibly rudimentary system that's at all a process. I maintain a single file called ideas.txt, where I just append a new entry every time I think of something that might be an interesting topic for a paper. When it's time to pick my next project, I skim through the list, and pick whichever I think is most interesting. or exciting. or important. or whatever I'm looking for at the moment. (Or find something new entirely if nothing looks compelling.)