PG's advice is not try to think of startup ideas, but start noticing problems around you. It's hard being creative on demand and so that advice makes sense. Like I said below, I am having the problem of noticing problems, not even startup ideas. Maybe we are so used to the status quo? Should I question anything accepted as a common sense in the industry?
Here's my issue: as a software engineer in the Bay Area that spends most of my day coding and then commuting for two hours, I am having this exact problem of watching and listening. Maybe I don't interact much with my environment, but nothing seems to jump out at me that could potentially resemble an idea.
I have had some ideas in the past that would have solved one of my problems, but they are very rare.
Don't want to hijack the thread, but even more basically, how do you get startup ideas? I've read what PG has to say and others, but nothing is clicking.