How to get new ideas • Hacker News Board

Re: How to get new ideas

#31

Post by papito » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:21 PM UTC

When I was in my 20s, I could code for days on straight. I had so much energy and the perception of the bottomless capital of time. Now that I am forty, the cost-benefit analysis is getting tougher.

Can I have my big break and retire early? Sure, but the chances of that happening are not that great. Many serial entrepreneurs fail multiple times with nothing to show for it.

All I think about now is - when I am on my deathbed, and I look back at my life, will I regret not living it, or that I didn't spend enough time writing code in front of my computer on an off-chance that my idea works out?

Re: How to get new ideas

#32

Post by cableshaft » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:21 PM UTC

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #24

My problem isn't a lack of ideas. It's having the bandwidth to do them all. What I really need is the ability to clone myself.

Yep. Or somehow focus more, that would help knock a few more ideas out as well.

My backlog of games/puzzles/stories I'd eventually like to get out there might be >100 at this point.

Focusing mostly on a bit more of an ambitious game right now, and it's probably still 6 months before I get it into Steam early access (coding in my spare time and energy, which is sparse lately), so everything else is just waiting at this point.

But sometimes I get an idea that I need to at least get some playable prototype with index cards, pen, paper, and tokens, at least. Just had another concept pop into my head a couple days ago for a roll-and-write I should at least make a board and write up some rules for before I forget.

Waiting for the day when something like ChatGPT can code up a basic but working game based on my description of its mechanisms. Even if it can only handle abstract games on a sqauare or hex grid, that'd still be useful for me.

Re: How to get new ideas

#33

Post by affgrff2 » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:22 PM UTC

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #24

My problem isn't a lack of ideas. It's having the bandwidth to do them all. What I really need is the ability to clone myself.

Collect a list of problems. Then roll a dice. Work on the matching problem and let the other yous in the multiverse work on the others.

Re: How to get new ideas

#34

Post by affgrff2 » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:23 PM UTC

dr_dshiv wrote: post #30

exevp wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So cloning yourself is the actual idea you should pursue? ;)

It’s called hiring?

'leveraging your talent by means of labor'

Re: How to get new ideas

#35

Post by TaupeRanger » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:25 PM UTC

papito wrote: post #31

When I was in my 20s, I could code for days on straight. I had so much energy and the perception of the bottomless capital of time. Now that I am forty, the cost-benefit analysis is getting tougher. Can I have my big break and retire early? Sure, but the chances of that happening are not that great. Many serial entrepreneurs fail multiple times with nothing to show for it. All I think about now is - when I am on my d…

Sounds like burnout. The reason you can spend days on end coding is because you're excited about the thing you're working on. If you're coding something that you don't find exciting or that is just a pipe dream, you'll have thoughts about your deathbed. That's pretty natural.

Re: How to get new ideas

#36

Post by exevp » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:25 PM UTC

dr_dshiv wrote: post #30

exevp wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So cloning yourself is the actual idea you should pursue? ;)

It’s called hiring?

Psssst, if you put it this way it won't attract VC $$$

Re: How to get new ideas

#37

Post by smallerfish » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:26 PM UTC

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #24

My problem isn't a lack of ideas. It's having the bandwidth to do them all. What I really need is the ability to clone myself.

The issue is having a full time job, leaving little time where I have creative energy to work on side projects. Strongly considering trying to find a part time consulting gig once my current is played out.

Re: How to get new ideas

#38

Post by sarkhan » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:27 PM UTC

TaupeRanger wrote: post #35

papito wrote: post #31

When I was in my 20s, I could code for days on straight. I had so much energy and the perception of the bottomless capital of time. Now that I am forty, the cost-benefit analysis is getting tougher. Can I have my big break and retire early? Sure, but the chances of that happening are not that great. Many serial entrepreneurs fail multiple times with nothing to show for it. All I think about now is - when I am on my d…

Sounds like burnout. The reason you can spend days on end coding is because you're excited about the thing you're working on. If you're coding something that you don't find exciting or that is just a pipe dream, you'll have thoughts about your deathbed. That's pretty natural.

Burnout from doing same thing over and over.

Re: How to get new ideas

#39

Post by jvanderbot » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:28 PM UTC

cableshaft wrote: post #32

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #24

My problem isn't a lack of ideas. It's having the bandwidth to do them all. What I really need is the ability to clone myself.

Yep. Or somehow focus more, that would help knock a few more ideas out as well. My backlog of games/puzzles/stories I'd eventually like to get out there might be >100 at this point. Focusing mostly on a bit more of an ambitious game right now, and it's probably still 6 months before I get it into Steam early access (coding in my spare time and energy, which is sparse lately), so everything else is just waiting at thi…

After I hit midlife I decided that I just didn't have enough time to do them all, and started pruning aggressively. I now keep three projects alive and bounce between them as interest directs. It takes discipline. But it also exercises my focus which was never a strength.

Re: How to get new ideas

#40

Post by 3dsnano » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 2:29 PM UTC

i think new ideas come from being naive and possessing the "no-mind" or a childlike sense of wonder. the older i get, the less plastic my brain is and the more depression and other issues start to seep in, get in the way, overcomplicate shit.

to be completely free, uninhibited, released from guilt and predjudice. to just think, play, laugh, fart, and yawn. boring days spent looking out the window wondering how crows fart, or what makes zebras sassy.

the only limit is our own adult psychosis. we are prisoners of our own minds, locked and shackled by constructs of our own design. too focused on the failures of the past and anxieties of the present to take a moment and b-r-e-a-t-h-e. like who fucking cares about businesses and startups and shit. saas my ass. when you actually stop trying, give up, and stop caring, and truly let go (like in the movie frozen) you can actually go in and through and back out the other side.

just learn to get out the way of yourself. that's what im working on, but it's really hard. you think you're supposed to be there and generate brilliance 24/7 but it's not possible.

go outside and find a patch of earth where things are growing. get really close to the ground and start looking at it real hard. there's honestly so much stuff there, it's wild. like who knew? wow thats nuts. acorns, rocks and shit. touch the dirt and rub it on your face. mushrooms are literally everywhere. the water in my body was once in a bowl of rice that your great grandma ate at becky's 27th birthday party.

just give up just give up stop caring be free