Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#1

Post by jamesbrewer » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 8:47 PM UTC

I've been exchaning emails with an employee at an analytics company that I'd like to intern at next Summer and his advice to me was to "do something cool" this year.

The problem is that I don't know what to do. How do you come up with your cool ideas?

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#2

Post by geekam » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 8:52 PM UTC

Have you ever had a moment where you want to have a service that solved a problem? Or a moment where you thought a piece of software/hardware etc. could be done in a better way? You could start with that.

Something cool could also mean helping out an opensource project, if you have time. Just my 2 cents.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#3

Post by pitchups » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 8:57 PM UTC

I get all my good ideas in the morning - when brushing my teeth or in the shower. Research has shown that you get good ideas when your mind is unfocused and relaxed - and away from distractions of any kind. I guess in today's connected world, the bathroom is one of the few places where this is still true! I also recommend you read the wonderful book "Where Good Ideas Come From.." by Steven Johnson (check it on Amazon) for a great set of principles on how discoveries and invetions come about.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#4

Post by jamesbrewer » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 8:58 PM UTC

geekam wrote: post #2

Have you ever had a moment where you want to have a service that solved a problem? Or a moment where you thought a piece of software/hardware etc. could be done in a better way? You could start with that. Something cool could also mean helping out an opensource project, if you have time. Just my 2 cents.

I feel like getting into the Python project and making some contributions would not only look good, but would make me a better developer as well. The only problem is that I've tried and I was so overwhelmed. I had no idea where to start and I tried fixing a bug and had no clue what I was doing.

Any tips are most welcome. :)

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#5

Post by jamesbrewer » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 9:02 PM UTC

pitchups wrote: post #3

I get all my good ideas in the morning - when brushing my teeth or in the shower. Research has shown that you get good ideas when your mind is unfocused and relaxed - and away from distractions of any kind. I guess in today's connected world, the bathroom is one of the few places where this is still true! I also recommend you read the wonderful book "Where Good Ideas Come From.." by Steven Johnson (check it on Amazon…

I never stay in the bathroom long enough to have good ideas. My shower time is approx. 5 minutes.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#6

Post by geekam » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 9:09 PM UTC

jamesbrewer wrote: post #4

geekam wrote: post #2

Have you ever had a moment where you want to have a service that solved a problem? Or a moment where you thought a piece of software/hardware etc. could be done in a better way? You could start with that. Something cool could also mean helping out an opensource project, if you have time. Just my 2 cents.

I feel like getting into the Python project and making some contributions would not only look good, but would make me a better developer as well. The only problem is that I've tried and I was so overwhelmed. I had no idea where to start and I tried fixing a bug and had no clue what I was doing. Any tips are most welcome. :)

I can point you to two places:

1. http://pythonmentors.com/ This will solve the mentor-ship problem you have. Folks in the core and around who are mentors will listen to your problems and can help you on the way. Although they are very nice with newbies, please make sure that you try to be as clear and professional in your approach/questions as possible.

2. http://openhatch.org/ This website gives you small, medium and tough level of bugs in most of the prominent opensource projects.

Hope this helps.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#7

Post by damoncali » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 9:11 PM UTC

Look for useful but poorly managed open-source projects. Compete with them.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#8

Post by james-fend » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 9:21 PM UTC

In the shower... sometimes I take a shower when I dont need to, just to relax and come up with more ideas..

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#9

Post by hagyma » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 9:21 PM UTC

Ideas just pop in, but what do you mean by cool?

cool like this: http://venturecrapital.us/index.html or cool like this: http://lal.com/home

Your future boss may just want to see some little tool that gets his company a little buzz. He's probably not expecting you to solve a huge problem.

Query their api and make the desktop background change to an si swimsuit model when certain datapoints are triggered. :)

Take it easy, there is no pressure on you! :)

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Come Up With Your Cool Ideas?

#10

Post by jamesbrewer » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 9:25 PM UTC

hagyma wrote: post #9

Ideas just pop in, but what do you mean by cool? cool like this: http://venturecrapital.us/index.html or cool like this: http://lal.com/home Your future boss may just want to see some little tool that gets his company a little buzz. He's probably not expecting you to solve a huge problem. Query their api and make the desktop background change to an si swimsuit model when certain datapoints are triggered. :) Take it e…

The guy I talked to didn't elaborate on what he means by 'cool', so I imagine he just meant that I should do something that I think is cool. I think data is awesome!