For me ideas come through conversations, reading tech news and working on one idea that turns into another. Also, as a songwriter where songs just pop into my head, ideas do to.
Odd as that may sound.
What I'm trying to say here is that the difference in thought is really thinking if anything that you are doing could be done differently or better.
I would argue that my thought processes pre-startup and post-startup are very different, and also that I've been able to have new ideas because of it.