I don't agree with the author. Sometimes good ideas solve problems people didn't know they had.
How to brainstorm great business ideas
21–30 of 88 posts
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#22I don't agree with the author. Sometimes good ideas solve problems people didn't know they had.
And sometimes ideas for "problems people don't know they have" are not good. I would guess this is more common.
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think I've ever heard people say that ideas are entirely worthless. Good ideas have enormous potential value. The argument is that, in general, unlocking this potential requires great execution. You can't (in general) make a good idea successful without it. You can, on the other hand, take bad or boring or tired ideas and make them successful with great execution. So, great execution (in general) matters more…
I've had bad experiences trying to share ideas with people online.
Sorry to hear that. I know how it feels -- anytime I share anything online (my blog posts, my open source projects, etc.), I get beaten up by a vocal subset of readers. Sometimes they're well meaning, and sometimes they're just jerks (and sometimes both.)
I've learned over the decades that any feedback is good feedback, and it helps to stay optimistic, and keep trying anyway.
Good luck to you!
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think I've ever heard people say that ideas are entirely worthless. Good ideas have enormous potential value. The argument is that, in general, unlocking this potential requires great execution. You can't (in general) make a good idea successful without it. You can, on the other hand, take bad or boring or tired ideas and make them successful with great execution. So, great execution (in general) matters more…
I've had bad experiences trying to share ideas with people online.
That's not unique to sharing ideas, unfortunately. Lots of people actually share their implementations, and also get beaten over the head with a stick...
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#25I am a serial idea writer and I have to agree with the author. Ideas are inherently valuable, maybe not financially, but they're valuable to have and valuable to society to share. It makes me angry that people actually believe ideas are inherently worthless. Or that without any code or implementation they're worthless. It's a meme that needs to die. It's like having your cake and eating it too. Here's a free idea for…
Conversations don't shut down because ideas are worthless. When discussing or evaluating ideas, especially bussiness idea that involve social aspect, the main challenge is to select right assumptions and projections. Modeling future social behaviour is extremely hard and error prone. So it's not that ideas are worthless, but discussions about ideas and possible realizations are worthless until you start working on them.
> Ideas are the precursors of RFCs and ISOs I disagree. Practice and experience are precursor of RFCs and ISOs.
The great example is HTML, HTTP protocol or even OAuth2. All the related RFC are there to standardize and unify existing and document evolution. They all started with ideas, but the actual adopted standards are results of working groups, that had a lot of experience. And the deficiencies of HTTP1.1 shows it very well, as authors of the original ideas could not potentially know where it would lead eventually.
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#26Good article but execution matters. Execution is like sperm. There are plenty of eggs (i.e., ideas), never a shortage. But unless an egg is properly fertilized it's going no where.
Futhermore, Team A can faulter at the execution of Idea X, but later Team B can pick up Idea X and do it right. For example, the ipod. The idea of an mp3 player wasn't new.
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#27I am a serial idea writer and I have to agree with the author. Ideas are inherently valuable, maybe not financially, but they're valuable to have and valuable to society to share. It makes me angry that people actually believe ideas are inherently worthless. Or that without any code or implementation they're worthless. It's a meme that needs to die. It's like having your cake and eating it too. Here's a free idea for…
Conversations don't shut down because ideas are worthless. When discussing or evaluating ideas, especially bussiness idea that involve social aspect, the main challenge is to select right assumptions and projections. Modeling future social behaviour is extremely hard and error prone. So it's not that ideas are worthless, but discussions about ideas and possible realizations are worthless until you start working on th…
Thank you for your comment.
> but the actual adopted standards are results of working groups, that had a lot of experience
Talking about ideas (and applying experience) is some thing we should be doing.
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#28Points 2 and 3 are almost identical for every single business on Indie Hackers.
Subscription model. Internet delivery, with email and social media marketing.
After that, you're back to the square 1 of "now I need an idea". The post had some good points, but for the IH audience I'm not sure it would change much about how they analyse business ideas.
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#29How do we ensure the upvotes on HN ? I posted this 3 days ago
Re: How to brainstorm great business ideas
#30From the article :
"It's been said that ideas don't matter, execution does. I wholeheartedly disagree. You need both to succeed, but you can only get so good at execution. A great idea gives you much more leverage."
I think it underestimates execution. A great execution makes the dumbest ideas succeed. Reminds me of 'potatoparcel.com'. The business is solely focused on mailing potatoes, which sounds ridiculous, but it found its place.