The central idea is the central, unifying element of the story, which ties together all of the other elements of fiction used by the author to tell the story.
Answer
Readers would most likely connect this excerpt to their lives by relating to wanting to make their parents proud.
It’s a shame, then, that the second part of Pauling’s advice tends to be overlooked: “Most of (your ideas) will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.” It’s certainly true that most ideas written on a Post-It note or submitted to an online system never get used, but the reason has more to do with a bias toward short-term payback in most innovation processes than informed filtration
