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

The Value of Ideas

dilbert.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 106 posts

Re: The Value of Ideas

#31

Post by jamesseda »

philk wrote: post #8

This is a fantastic post by Scott. I think the great idea fallacy continues because it appeals to people's fantasy of becoming successful without much work. Anyone can imagine themselves having a great idea and then being successful. It's a lot harder (and less pleasant) to imagine taking an unremarkable idea and spending years of hard work to make it succeed.

I think part of it is due to academia. In computer science classes a lot of questions have a "best" answer. In the real world customers don't buy software because the architecture started with the "best" ideas. They buy software because it fits their need. The best idea could contribute a superior customer experience but it is peripheral to what it takes to be successful.

Re: The Value of Ideas

#33

Post by Retric »

philk wrote: post #8

This is a fantastic post by Scott. I think the great idea fallacy continues because it appeals to people's fantasy of becoming successful without much work. Anyone can imagine themselves having a great idea and then being successful. It's a lot harder (and less pleasant) to imagine taking an unremarkable idea and spending years of hard work to make it succeed.

One of my faverate series was actually generated based on the idea you can make an interesting story from the worst idea.

B & G: The bet was actually centered around writing craft discussions being held on the then-new Del Rey Online Writers’ Workshop, I believe. The issue at hand was central story concepts. One side of the argument claimed that a good enough central premise would make a great book, even if you were a lousy writer. The other side contended that the central concept was far less important than the execution of the story, and that the most overused central concept in the world could have life breathed into by a skilled writer.

It raged back and forth in an ALL CAPITAL LETTERS FLAMEWAR between a bunch of unpublished writers, and finally some guy dared me to put my money where my mouth was, by letting him give me a cheesy central story concept, which I would then use in an original novel.

Me being an arrogant kid, I wrote him back saying, “Why don’t you give me TWO terrible ideas for a story, and I’ll use them BOTH.”

The core ideas he gave me were Lost Roman Legion and Pokémon… Thus was Alera formed. http://www.fantasyliterature.com/author-interviews/jim-butch...

Re: The Value of Ideas

#34

Post by [deleted] »

ccc3 wrote: post #23

This post is just plain wrong. Obviously it's tempting to get caught up in ideas and ignore execution, but saying ideas are flat-out worthless is simply being ignorant of history. A few examples: - Creating an assembly line to mass produce cars in the early 1900s was a good idea. It clearly wouldn't have gone anywhere without execution, but if Henry Ford had instead decided to execute flawlessly on a hand-painted roc…

[deleted]

Re: The Value of Ideas

#35

Post by jasonlotito »

ccc3 wrote: post #23

This post is just plain wrong. Obviously it's tempting to get caught up in ideas and ignore execution, but saying ideas are flat-out worthless is simply being ignorant of history. A few examples: - Creating an assembly line to mass produce cars in the early 1900s was a good idea. It clearly wouldn't have gone anywhere without execution, but if Henry Ford had instead decided to execute flawlessly on a hand-painted roc…

None of your examples detracts from what he is saying. Your suggestion comes down to level of success. Your examples only work if Henry Ford would be considered a failure if painted rocks didn't lead to as much success as cars did, despite the evidence that rocks, painted and unpainted, are still a market.

Re: The Value of Ideas

#36

Post by jamesseda »

ccc3 wrote: post #23

This post is just plain wrong. Obviously it's tempting to get caught up in ideas and ignore execution, but saying ideas are flat-out worthless is simply being ignorant of history. A few examples: - Creating an assembly line to mass produce cars in the early 1900s was a good idea. It clearly wouldn't have gone anywhere without execution, but if Henry Ford had instead decided to execute flawlessly on a hand-painted roc…

He isn't saying ALL ideas have equal potential for success. He is saying the value of most ideas is $0.00. To use your example, part of Henry Ford's success was the $5 work day. He was not the first person to think that increased pay would decrease turnover. He also did not invent the assembly line. The intrinsic value those ideas is nothing, but using the ideas he created value.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_line#History

Re: The Value of Ideas

#37

Post by jdlegg »

mynameishere wrote: post #28

Here's the world's worst opinion on movie making: here's the world's worst idea for a movie: Titanic. Can anybody name even a single, solitary reason--even one --why the story of the Titanic could be considered anything other than a fantastic idea for a movie? The only thing I can come up with is "It's been done (successfully) too many times already", but that actually disproves the general assertion. I mean--it's up…

Show business, being primarily driven by the profit motive, tends to focus on ideas to which an audience can relate and enjoy. The story of the RMS Titanic, being one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history, is generally antagonistic toward these ends because most (not all) people don't like thinking about the possibility of dying on an ocean-liner and do not enjoy watching it happen to others.

It should be clear how these two are in opposition. For this reason alone, conventional thinking would call a movie about the Titanic a "bad idea."

The movie worked, though, and made a billion dollars because the director executed it in such a way that it actually wasn't about a sinking ship and people drowning, it was about something else. And this other thing (call it the human spirit or what-have-you), overcomes the tragedy of the situation to make it something the movie-going audience could relate to and enjoy.

From a more technical perspective, the Titanic story could be considered a "bad idea" because, on the surface, the plot should hold no surprises to anyone: boat sets sail, boat hits iceberg, boat sinks, passengers are drowned.

The remarkable thing about the Titanic film is that EVERYONE knows how it's going to end, even before they sit down to watch it. This, according to conventional wisdom, would be a bad idea as far as show business is concerned. Who wants to see a movie like that? Yet audiences returned to theaters multiple times. It is a credit to Cameron's direction that the film could overcome such a large, inherent obstacle in the Titanic storyline.

Re: The Value of Ideas

#39

Post by subbu »

m0th87 wrote: post #4

Seems like an over-simplification to me. An idea without execution is worthless. But execution without an idea is pretty worthless too. Even if I mastered execution, I couldn't sell a product that costs you $100 and punched you in the face every time you used it, because it's a shitty idea.

Only if master executors were dumbos. As someone pointed out above, good executors fix mediocre ideas.

Re: The Value of Ideas

#40

Post by lukev »

Some ideas are easier to execute than others. It is certainly possible to create an award-winning movie about two gay cowboys, but I bet there are far fewer writers/directors who could pull it off than those who could produce yet another successful romantic comedy.

So if your one goal is to make a successful movie, your chances of success are probably better if you choose to do a romantic comedy rather than a movie about two gay cowboys. Unless, of course, you are confident in your ability to make an amazing gay cowboy movie, in which case you should do it.

In other words, execution is everything, but that doesn't mean you should ignore ideas when deciding what to do.

Post reply on HN