Structures of ideas: Lists as things

I listened to a spiel the other day: the speaker was clearly intelligent, pleasant, trustworthy.  But her speech had no idea, despite being 20 minutes of quotes, grouped into three sets and explained one by one.  

The speech had a theme: all those quotes were about peace.  But the structure of the speech was a list: three big sections, with lists of items inside each section.  But giving and explaining quotes in a list, even one with subtopics, doesn't an idea make.

Ideas aren't lists, and lists aren't ideas.

Ideas, now that's hard to define.  I know what they aren't: they aren't a collection of things, though they can be about the why those items are collected together in a particular way.  I know that ideas aren't merely similarities and differences, though they can be about why those similarities and differences exist.  I know that ideas aren't descriptions, though they can be about what matters in picking what to describe. 

Ideas are verbs, not nouns.  Ideas are the why and the how of life, not the things of life. 

Things don't persuade; they just are.  To be able to persuade, have an idea.

What's an idea?  I'm still not sure, not really. But it's not a thing, I can say that much.