I hate that terminology but it isn’t wrong.
Explore mode is when you just wanna rummage around your ideas and everything is great and possible and expansive. Divergence is another term for it. This leads to that which leads to those and so on.
But eventually one must say ’enough’ and stop. One must converge. Take what is there and do something with it. Package it for the marketplace? Create something worth consuming? Something that has a point?
I mean, one doesn’t HAVE to do that, but it sure does help when communicating with other people.
This is, in some circles, called ’exploit’ which is a word i hate but nonetheless. I hate it because it was the word we used in my film distribution days - a filmmaker could ’exploit’ their non-theatrical rights, meaning they could make money off of them.
The word is shitty for obvious reasons - exploitation implies ’taking advantage of’ which implies that someone else loses, but that’s only when two parties are involved.
If you exploit an opportunity, you take advantage and thus benefit. This is the hard thing to do for moral and ‘i’m scared to do anything’ reasons but I believe it is the way to actually, you know, make a living.
Lots more to explore here.