Genesis Of A Project

People have different ways of learning and different ways of working.  Some folks learn best by reading, others by watching a video, and still others by doing.  In one of my prior posts, a comment was made about putting together ideas in order to embark on a photography project.  I found that interesting as I suspect that, like learning, different people have different approaches to planning such projects. I know that, try as I might, I find it hard to say to myself  "I am interested in subject X and I want to put together a photographic project about it and so I will go out and try to photograph all aspects of X in as many situations as I can."  I believe I may have tried that once or twice but, well, it never really worked out and the projects never came to fruition.  Rather, I find that what works for me is to simply go out and photograph as many different things that I find interesting in as many different locations as I can and process images that I find compelling from such outings.  At some point I find that I have several images that I like that are similar in some way, be it subject, style, or theme.   Only then, after the fact, do I end up discovering that there might be a the beginnings of a project hiding out among the images I have processed.

I am sure there are many photographers who work the other way and predefine a project and then go to work.  I wonder why it is that one approach seem to work well for some and not for others.