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Idea Debt

jessicaabel.com

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Re: Idea Debt

#21

Post by slavik81 »

jib wrote: post #13
benjaminjosephw wrote: post #7

> "If… you have 'binders of lore' and no book... you’re living with serious Idea Debt." Moving from a daydream to some actual artefacts the first step _away_ from Idea Debt, not further into it. In technical terms, this could be writing a script instead of building an application or creating a spec and some documentation before writing some code. I'd argue that this is where you start to flesh-out and make real your…

Inventory is waste. It is one of the most insidious kinds of waste since it feels productive generating it. In reality it is waste. It being waste doesn't mean you dont need it - that's how waste builds up: you create stuff in case, or you save things in case, or you build an extra large buffer just in case. It's all done with good intentions. If one of your goals in life is to be effective you need to work to elimin…

Sure, inventory is waste. You need to store it, protect it and organize it. Maybe you never even end up using all of it.

The thing is that without inventory, you can't build anything. Manufacturers optimize their supply chains to keep minimal inventory and reliably acquire the supplies they need just before they run out.

...but the creative supply chain is not reliable. You need a lot of inventory because good ideas might not arrive right before you need them. Fortunately, a binder full of notes is a lot easier to manage than manufactured parts for thousands of cars.

Re: Idea Debt

#22

Post by anonymousDan »

vog wrote: post #4

This is why I moved a huge portion of my TODO list into an IDEAS list. This is an outliner document (Org-mode) that contains notes on lots of different ideas. So why didn't I just delete those items? Because writing down that stuff helps me not to think about it the whole day if I don't want to. The IDEAS list grows and grows, but that's okay. I don't feel obliged to implement any of these ideas. Whenever I recall an…

I do the exactly the same. It's a similar principle to kanban/agile, where you have a pool of potential work to do (in your case your ideas list), but you only pull in a fixed amount to work on at any one time (in your case to your TODO list). Otherwise I find I tend to get overwhelmed by my evergrowing todo list and never get anything done. Of course it's key to periodically review the ideas list, but this can just be done whenever your todo list is empty.

Re: Idea Debt

#23

Post by vog »

boothead wrote: post #14
vog wrote: post #4

This is why I moved a huge portion of my TODO list into an IDEAS list. This is an outliner document (Org-mode) that contains notes on lots of different ideas. So why didn't I just delete those items? Because writing down that stuff helps me not to think about it the whole day if I don't want to. The IDEAS list grows and grows, but that's okay. I don't feel obliged to implement any of these ideas. Whenever I recall an…

This seems similar to the idea of a spark file? http://lifehacker.com/5941997/defrag-your-brain-with-a-spark... edit Also do you have anything written down about using org-mode for todos and ideas?

> This seems similar to the idea of a spark file?

Indeed! The concept of a "spark file" describes exactly what I'm doing.

> Also do you have anything written down about using org-mode for todos and ideas?

This is pretty basic Org-mode usage. My To-Do list is just nested headings, each with a TODO or DONE marker (Shift+Left, Shift+Right). My IDEAS list doesn't even have those markers, it is just nested headings and nested lists. The only "advanced thing" that I do is moving items via Mod+Up and Mod+Down. This is very handy, as that moves the whole subtree up and down. And I'm using the "Tab" key for folding and unfolding subtrees.

Org-mode offers much more than what I'm using here. I'm not yet a power-user of Org-mode. For example, the "agenda view" might simplify a lot of what I'm doing (not for IDEAS, but for TODO, meetings, etc). But I didn't find the time to dig deeper into Org-mode yet.

Re: Idea Debt

#24

Post by Tosh108 »

vog wrote: post #4

This is why I moved a huge portion of my TODO list into an IDEAS list. This is an outliner document (Org-mode) that contains notes on lots of different ideas. So why didn't I just delete those items? Because writing down that stuff helps me not to think about it the whole day if I don't want to. The IDEAS list grows and grows, but that's okay. I don't feel obliged to implement any of these ideas. Whenever I recall an…

Moved towards a similar approach. Now I finally have time to start a new project. Now the next step is: how to improve and structure the process of picking an idea. Any tips?

Re: Idea Debt

#25

Post by hellofunk »

Steven King has said something that I've come to support, that note/list-keeping is a great way to let bad ideas survive. He claims that a really good idea will survive in your head on its own, and a bad idea will die. And that by writing down every idea, you are polluting your landscape of possibilities by immortalizing ideas that are better left forgotten.

Re: Idea Debt

#26

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

jib wrote: post #13
benjaminjosephw wrote: post #7

> "If… you have 'binders of lore' and no book... you’re living with serious Idea Debt." Moving from a daydream to some actual artefacts the first step _away_ from Idea Debt, not further into it. In technical terms, this could be writing a script instead of building an application or creating a spec and some documentation before writing some code. I'd argue that this is where you start to flesh-out and make real your…

Inventory is waste. It is one of the most insidious kinds of waste since it feels productive generating it. In reality it is waste. It being waste doesn't mean you dont need it - that's how waste builds up: you create stuff in case, or you save things in case, or you build an extra large buffer just in case. It's all done with good intentions. If one of your goals in life is to be effective you need to work to elimin…

Creative people over-produce ideas because that's what being creative means.

The problem isn't having too many ideas - it's not finishing any of them, ever. At some point you have to spend enough time on at least one project to get it out into the world.

That always means work that can be boring and feel like a chore, even if the project is the most exciting thing to happen since the invention of fire.

The difference between professionals and amateurs is that professionals have a balanced tolerance for that part of the process, and understand that you have to do at least some of the boring stuff to finish.

Amateur dabblers have none at all. When they get bored they move on, so they never finish anything. (In extreme cases they never truly start.)

Re: Idea Debt

#27

Post by xiaoma »

This is pretty stark contrast to James Altucher's "idea machine" concept. That's where you push yourself to come up with 10 ideas daily in order to build your "idea muscle" concept. Some days he'd come up with 10 ideas for one specific person or business.

It seems a bit odd, but the guy did make millions repeatedly (after squandering 100% of his wealth, repeatedly).

Re: Idea Debt

#28

Post by edwinespinosa09 »

hellofunk wrote: post #25

Steven King has said something that I've come to support, that note/list-keeping is a great way to let bad ideas survive. He claims that a really good idea will survive in your head on its own, and a bad idea will die. And that by writing down every idea, you are polluting your landscape of possibilities by immortalizing ideas that are better left forgotten.

Kevin Kelly, when the creative director at Wired, said something similar about choosing which stories to write about. He would never write a story himself until a topic had been passed up by too many writers that it began to frustrate him.

Re: Idea Debt

#29

Post by tim333 »

boothead wrote: post #14
vog wrote: post #4

This is why I moved a huge portion of my TODO list into an IDEAS list. This is an outliner document (Org-mode) that contains notes on lots of different ideas. So why didn't I just delete those items? Because writing down that stuff helps me not to think about it the whole day if I don't want to. The IDEAS list grows and grows, but that's okay. I don't feel obliged to implement any of these ideas. Whenever I recall an…

This seems similar to the idea of a spark file? http://lifehacker.com/5941997/defrag-your-brain-with-a-spark... edit Also do you have anything written down about using org-mode for todos and ideas?

The "Where Good Ideas Come From in 4 Minutes" video in that link is good.

Re: Idea Debt

#30

Post by heipei »

vog wrote: post #4

This is why I moved a huge portion of my TODO list into an IDEAS list. This is an outliner document (Org-mode) that contains notes on lots of different ideas. So why didn't I just delete those items? Because writing down that stuff helps me not to think about it the whole day if I don't want to. The IDEAS list grows and grows, but that's okay. I don't feel obliged to implement any of these ideas. Whenever I recall an…

I had to laugh out loud because I have the exact same files (IDEAS and TODO, both uppercase) sitting in each of my projects as well as my homedir. On a more serious note, I can relate to a lot of the points the article makes about accumulating idea debt. I'm not sure yet whether it is holding me back, since I now have this huge list of things I might want to do, or whether it's giving me the opportunity to make a note of something and move on with daily business for the time being.
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