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How to Know If an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

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Re: How to Know If an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

#21

Post by CalChris »

Garrett Lisi has a moonshot of an idea, a grand unified field theory using the E8 Lie Group. He works on it and it is still alive. Of it he says:

I consider this to be a developing theory that is worth my time to work on, as a long shot.

Worth my time. I think this sums up everything and I take it to heart. First and only, it has to be worth your time. Before anything else this is your deal. It has nothing to do with MVPs or investment or customers. This has to do with you, whether succeeding or failing (and chances are high that you will fail), whether it is worth your time.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Exceptionally_Simple_Theory...

I also like Bezos' regret minimization, whether you would regret not attempting this.

Re: How to Know If an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

#23

Post by austincheney »

rajacombinator wrote: post #14
austincheney wrote: post #3

If I had to ask other people then none of my ideas would have been worth pursuing. That is the problem with novelty. If an idea is truly original and fresh nobody else will see the value in it until the work is done and the value is immediately available.

This is really not true. If the idea is so novel that people can’t understand and want it when you pitch it to them, building it is not going to help. You still have to pitch it to them. I’ll add: if you think it’s true, it probably just means you’re bad at pitching.

> This is really not true. If the idea is so novel that people can’t understand and want it when you pitch it to them, building it is not going to help.

In my experience that isn't true at all. I have often found that new ideas are often met with a lack of care but sometimes contempt or even disgust. People being emotionally threatened by new ideas is actually a thing and there is nothing you can do about it except fast forward to the future when those people have gotten past their inner conservatism.

It is so incredibly rare that something screamingly original is met with a positive reaction, likely because there is no positive frame of reference on which to build enthusiasm. The only time I have any luck in this area is when I pitch my original ideas to people who are extreme experts around in that area such that the idea isn't a creative stretch for them.

Even when I build the new thing the positive reactions are, at first, exceedingly rare. A new idea doesn't become popular until it is endorsed by popular people or by early adopters who enjoy experimenting with wild unknowns. People generally need to be told something new is good before they can reach that conclusion themselves, but when it does happen it happens like a flood.

Based upon these experiences I don't dick around with pitches. Unless you really REALLY need a favor from somebody you are just wasting your time, time that could be better spent just building the new thing.

Re: How to Know If an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

#26

Post by DigitalJack »

yalogin wrote: post #10
stevenj wrote: post #5

If your goal is to build a company, I think you should focus on the following: 1. Find a problem that you (or someone you know very well) have. 2. Look at the existing solutions to the problem and evaluate not only if you can build a better solution, but also how quickly people will switch to something better if they came across it today (i.e. How fed up are people with current offerings? How easy will it be for them…

What if the idea you have is for a real need/issue you face but its trivial for an established player to build in as a feature?

Email them and hope they build it. Solves your problem and saves you the effort.

Re: How to Know If an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

#27

Post by brucephillips »

austincheney wrote: post #23
rajacombinator wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really not true. If the idea is so novel that people can’t understand and want it when you pitch it to them, building it is not going to help. You still have to pitch it to them. I’ll add: if you think it’s true, it probably just means you’re bad at pitching.

> This is really not true. If the idea is so novel that people can’t understand and want it when you pitch it to them, building it is not going to help. In my experience that isn't true at all. I have often found that new ideas are often met with a lack of care but sometimes contempt or even disgust. People being emotionally threatened by new ideas is actually a thing and there is nothing you can do about it except f…

The answer is to gather feedback from early adopters, not avoid users entirely.

Re: How to Know If an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

#28

Post by srikz »

yalogin wrote: post #10
stevenj wrote: post #5

If your goal is to build a company, I think you should focus on the following: 1. Find a problem that you (or someone you know very well) have. 2. Look at the existing solutions to the problem and evaluate not only if you can build a better solution, but also how quickly people will switch to something better if they came across it today (i.e. How fed up are people with current offerings? How easy will it be for them…

What if the idea you have is for a real need/issue you face but its trivial for an established player to build in as a feature?

How aligned is it with the BigCo’s biz model? There are several examples of a product from a small startup being far more popular than BigCo’s simply because it’s too small a pie for them and therefore the execution is lacking.

I used to be worried earlier about ‘what if google does it’ for every idea of mine. I don’t think anyone needs to worry unless their idea is a feature enhancement for ads or search (taking google as an example).

Re: How to Know If an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

#29

Post by fuball63 »

danieltillett wrote: post #6

I have had success using this checklist [0]. 0. https://www.tillett.info/2016/01/27/a-good-idea-checklist/ Yes it is mine :)

This is a really good list. I like it better than the article because it brings marketing and finance into the equation.

I've been starting to wonder if my side projects are viable businesses or just hobbies. This list suggests that while they are technologically and financially viable, it will likely fail to generate real paying users.

Re: How to Know If an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

#30

Post by gitgud »

DigitalJack wrote: post #26
yalogin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the idea you have is for a real need/issue you face but its trivial for an established player to build in as a feature?

Email them and hope they build it. Solves your problem and saves you the effort.

But then what do I do with all the time and money I saved by not building it? ;)
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