Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Idea Debt

jessicaabel.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 139 posts

Re: Idea Debt

#111

Post by ThomPete »

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.

I have never had as many ideas as after I had kids (and got married)

Children alone brings in a lot of first hand experience and perspectives which have manifested in lots of ideas around products, services etc. both for kids and their parents.

But also bigger areas.

But I think it boils down to priorities.

Re: Idea Debt

#112

Post by tustlem »

Tosh108 wrote: post #24
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?

I've written out an idea I had that helped me. Perhaps it might help you too - http://flyinthecoop.com/deciding-your-best-entrepreneurial-p...

Re: Idea Debt

#113

Post by intellegacy »

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)

Why would someone give you their good ideas for free? This is what happens when engineers repeat the falsehood that "ideas are worthless". Well, engineering without an idea is also worthless.

Re: Idea Debt

#114

Post by vog »

markokrajnc wrote: post #48
heipei wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 not…

Similar here... I had one large (master) TODO file and one large IDEAS file and I would move tasks from TODO file on my daily TODO list. The IDEAS file grown to more then 50 pages and I rarely read it... :-) Nowdays I moved to paper so NSA can not read my ideas and tasks anymore. For TODOs I use one paper sheet per project/subject and carry all these 10-12 sheets in a folder. Then I move the tasks on my daily TODO li…

> For IDEAS: I draw/sketch/write them on paper and store them in archive folder (just in case I need it)

I don't think that paper is a good medium for that. Often I'm not sure if I had written about this or a similar idea yet, so full text search is very handy here. Also, I'm sometimes changing ideas, which is also not so good on paper (unless you use pencil & rubber instead of a pen).

Re: Idea Debt

#115

Post by danieltillett »

augustl wrote: post #44
rorykoehler wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it amazing how many of the ideas from my vault exist in some form or other in the real world now.

I love the phrase "if you're the only one with an idea, it's probably a bad idea" :)

This could be shortened to "if you have an idea then it is probably a bad idea" since most ideas are bad.

Re: Idea Debt

#116

Post by AndrewUnmuted »

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.

This is a great strategy when you're working with the unknowns of creativity and artfulness. When you're trying to make a technology product, I argue, the situational context is so different that no such logic can really apply.

Additionally, it is important to keep in mind how many bad ideas become well-funded enterprises. Sometimes an idea is carried out just as an opportunity to arrive at a better idea.

Re: Idea Debt

#117

Post by b_emery »

marknutter wrote: post #77
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.

I have experienced exactly this, but it was in combination with also switching from freelance to full-time employment. I used to have a new idea every day back when I was freelancing and didn't have kids. Now I'm lucky if I think of one every couple of months. I actually think this is due to having less time to just explore the internet, read about interesting things, try out other products, etc. I spent a large amou…

This jibes with my experience. You need a wide variety of inputs in order to connect the dots and come up with something unique. Time spent taking care of kids (for example) decreased my inputs, resulting in fewer outputs. Until I discovered audio books at least.

Re: Idea Debt

#118

Post by ianamartin »

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…

Another vote for NYC. I've got 10 ideas that I just can't finish. Would love to spend a weekend on 1 of them, just for the sake of learning how to finish.

Re: Idea Debt

#119

Post by seivan »

xhrpost wrote: post #98
seivan wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you say, you got a dopamine kick out of it and suddenly lost interest after? Can't help to wonder how oddly the pattern is to something else. Though I still think it stems from the inability to make a decision. That's what I would say is the core. The dopamine kick as just medicine so you won't feel like shit all the time. Some amateur science here.

Suddenly? No, it was more when it came to part of the project that was no longer interesting or was out of my comfort zone. I was dropped an entire app design simply because I didn't want to talk to potential customers :(. I'm learning though.

Actually suddenly is wrong, it sorta revelation that you dropped it sneaks up on you, but it does happen instantly. At least here.

Re: Idea Debt

#120

Post by ktRolster »

intellegacy wrote: post #113
ktRolster wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Why would someone give you their good ideas for free? This is what happens when engineers repeat the falsehood that "ideas are worthless". Well, engineering without an idea is also worthless.

> Why would someone give you their good ideas for free? That is exactly what a comment above suggested
Post reply on HN