How do you come up with your ideas?

This is the number one question I get asked--but it's a little broad, isn't it? Silly question-askers. Let's focus on the part people usually want to know about:

How did you come up with this weird/cool/ghostly/insert-adjective-here magic system?

The short answer: Brandon Sanderson and Buddhism.
The long answer? When you love a genre like I love fantasy, when you grew up reading every book you could get your hands on and spending your allowance to get...