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Idea Debt

jessicaabel.com

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Re: Idea Debt

#101

Post by Fillipoman »

xhrpost wrote: post #97
kilroy123 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too have done this for years! I'm still not a damn entrepreneur and make no money aside from my day job. I think I finally realized what I have to do to get off this vicious cycle. Build a habit of working everyday on one project. It's cool to get excited about a new project, but unless I change my daily routine to fit in time to work on said project, nothing will ever get created. Successful companies and projects…

You're on your way! Consider looking up Stanford Professor Tina Seelig, she's the only researcher I know of that remotely talks about this. Check out some of her talks and blog posts.

This talk covers the concept of doing "deep work" very well in my opinion

Re: Idea Debt

#102

Post by CM30 »

I know this feeling, and it's what's held up most of my own projects. Heck, most of my one off articles too, I must have hundreds or thousands of drafts on my WordPress blog, most of which never end up going anywhere.

So why is this the case? Well, a few reasons really. One is because I have an awkward tendency to never, ever be happy with something simple. Ever. So the idea ends up getting more and more complicated, and I end up giving up after realising that even a team of about 200 people with a multi billion dollar budget couldn't successfully pull it off in a reasonable timeframe. Add a touch of perfectionism, and well, you can probably guess how many of my actual projects have even been started.

Most of the rest usually end halfway through after the fun part is over.

But maybe I'll finally try and get some stuff done this year. Like, not starting anything new until the things I was planning to work on/have already been working on are completion.

Re: Idea Debt

#103

Post by caseysoftware »

graeme wrote: post #95
caseysoftware wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not yet but we're looking to spread the model. Drop me an email and I'm happy to chat details. :)

Montreal plans? I'd love to help set it up here.

Email me. :)

I'll be in Montreal in a few weeks for Confoo and would love to chat over a beer or coffee.

Re: Idea Debt

#104

Post by beat »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #83
beat wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's debt in that we pay interest on it. Resources that could be spent on the here and now instead go to maintaining the idea that's not getting paid off.

But as jerf said, it doesn't have to be that way. It's just an idea file, not debt, unless you pay interest on it . If it saps your emotional, mental, or physical energy, then it's debt. And that may depend on your personality, not just on having "that kind of thing" laying around.

Oh, sure. I have a zillion ideas. Most, I ignore. Some, I pay interest. This article prompted me to finally stop paying interest on The Tragedy of Obi-Wan Kenobi - admitting I'll never get around to writing and producing it. It'd be lots of fun - a retelling of Star Wars as a revenge story, with Obi-Wan Kenobi as the ruthless villain (nothing actually changes except perspective), done as a comedy musical that also explores my personal history and the relationship of art, artist, and audience (with questions of ownership addressed).

Great idea. Not gonna do it. So I should stop doing any work on it.

Re: Idea Debt

#105

Post by chipsy »

junto wrote: post #75
xhrpost wrote: post #52

This, this is probably the biggest and yet least recognized obstruction for wannapreneurs. I know because I've been there myself for years and have only recently realized what I was doing. I would get really excited about an idea, start working on it, only work on the interesting parts (not on what actually had to come next) and then let it fizzle away as the next wave of emotion came with another idea. I would justi…

I don't know if this is just me, but I used to be full of ideas, half finished projects and several projects that I talked myself out of. Since having children, I no longer have ideas, and rarely work on anything than paid contract work. Has anyone else experienced this? I feel void of ideas.

A lot of the excitement in a project comes from learning: "can I do it," "what will happen," etc.

After a certain point in your life, you grow convinced that you've seen it all before, and that has a way of draining you of excitement. Children are a common tipping point because they also make you less selfish. Nobody is asking you to make those projects, so it has to come from within, and if you act only for others, you never get around to it, because there's always another household crisis looming in the distance.

The only way to pull through is to turn it into a habit, instead of relying on your whims alone.

Re: Idea Debt

#107

Post by junto »

chipsy wrote: post #105
junto wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if this is just me, but I used to be full of ideas, half finished projects and several projects that I talked myself out of. Since having children, I no longer have ideas, and rarely work on anything than paid contract work. Has anyone else experienced this? I feel void of ideas.

A lot of the excitement in a project comes from learning: "can I do it," "what will happen," etc. After a certain point in your life, you grow convinced that you've seen it all before, and that has a way of draining you of excitement. Children are a common tipping point because they also make you less selfish . Nobody is asking you to make those projects, so it has to come from within, and if you act only for others,…

That's an interesting take on it. I'd never perceived that, but you're right (in my case anyway). I have two children under 6 so there is very little 'pause time' until they are in bed asleep, and by that point I'm shattered.

Re: Idea Debt

#108

Post by crimsonalucard » 

      ....................................................
      ||                                                 |
      ||                                                 |
      ||                                                 |
 Idea | |                                                |
 Debt | \                                                |
      |  \                                               |
      |   \                                              |
      |    \                                             |
      |     `.                                           |
      |      `b                                          |
      |        \                                         |
      |         `.                                       |
      |           ' _                                    |
      |              "o                                  |
      |                `..                               |
      |                   `-.                            |
      |                      `-.._                       |
      |                           `--..                  |
      |                                `'"---............|
      |                                                  |
      '`''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
                     Technical Debt
The less you plan and think about an idea, the more technical debt you will accumulate.

Re: Idea Debt

#109

Post by ludicast »

caseysoftware wrote: post #81

This is one of the reasons we put together "Finish Up Weekend" - http://fuweekend.com/ It's a hackathon weekend when you're not allowed to start anything new. You are only allowed to bring things to finish. It's not strictly coding, we've had lawyers, screenwriters, artists, authors, and sewing projects completed. The positive peer pressure is great. When you finish something, you get to ring a bell so we can celebra…

I love this idea. Do it in nyc sometime, please.

Re: Idea Debt

#110

Post by bitJericho »

ktRolster wrote: post #90
bitJericho wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called crowdsourcing and I haven't seen it really work because ideas are a dime a dozen. Create. Don't think about it.

As a programmer, I have skills to build basically anything, but I don't have any ideas for what to build. If someone gave me an idea that would really capture my imagination, I would really appreciate it. ("Yet Another Ad Network" doesn't capture my imagination)

I could give you all my ideas but you'd say they're impossible and even if you liked them you'd never complete them anyway.

To be creative, you have to just create. Just find something small and work on that if you need a place to start.

One of my favorite projects was a (not illegal) archival site building off a private p2p tracker php app and writing a custom software that would automatically download and virus scan any uploaded torrents, and then approve the listing with the virus scan results.

If anything fishy had ever popped up, the plan was to remove it later. My partner and I were really the only ones who uploaded anything tho :P

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