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

How to get new ideas

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 222 posts

Re: How to get new ideas

#121

Post by sargstuff »

somethingreen wrote: post #115
3dsnano wrote: post #40

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…

Name 3 things you own or use that were invented (even at conceptual level) by a child.

[1] has more researched 10 list.

https://inventionland.com/blog/ten-kid-inventors-that-change...

Re: How to get new ideas

#122

Post by sargstuff »

Existenceblinks wrote: post #87
3dsnano wrote: post #40

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…

I'm locked in my own personality trap. I don't understand why people buy shit and my toxic also think they are dumb sheep of some made up social values. And I can't change myself to get out of my trap. I always think what I'm going to sell to people has to be really good .. but I just realize it's about a lot of bullshit going on on marketing and sales and network effect vs pure functionality.

long as it's legal/legitimate, does it really matter if can make enough $$$ to earn a living?

nerf was last minute class project.

Re: How to get new ideas

#123

Post by acuozzo »

somethingreen wrote: post #115
3dsnano wrote: post #40

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…

Name 3 things you own or use that were invented (even at conceptual level) by a child.

If you're willing to accept innovations in place of inventions and if you're willing to consider the central message of OP's post i.e. needing a childlike sense of wonder, then...

1. "Mum, when I grow up I am going to invent a telephone with no wires that's also a flashlight, a compass, a map, a jukebox, a movie theater, and even an ENTIRE computer!"

2. "Dad, when I grow up I am going to invent a table saw that will JUST KNOW when it touches your finger and it will disappear so fast that you'll only get a little cut next time!"

3. "Sis, when I grow up I am going to figure out some way to make it possible for even six year olds like you to have their own TV channel and put whatever you want on it! You can show everyone your toys and dresses. We can call it Roxanne-TV!"

Re: How to get new ideas

#124

Post by olalonde »

I think that's why a lot of innovation comes from "outsiders" rather than industry veterans. You are more likely to notice the anomalies with fresh eyes and stop noticing them through time.

Re: How to get new ideas

#125

Post by sargstuff »

steele wrote: post #120

1) have capital 2) bet capital on people with ideas 3) exploit their labor 4) declare yourself their muse

wonder if that's what einstein was thinking when came up with e = m (c squared).

1) aka two see m is to b without [need for financial] backing.

2) sed e/two/to/ | tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'

sed e/m/money/ | tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'

sed e/b/be/ | tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'

3) crap -- type face doesnt do this justice --- gotta go re-invent tex for ycombinator

4) ha ha ACME; errr.. sed e/ol/al/

sed g/ol$/lol/

sed g/al$/ai/

sed g/capit/car(cdr(ulate)) /

^Gli movie ref[1]

^G ed ^D

[1] : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigli

Re: How to get new ideas

#126

Post by cjwebb »

bob1029 wrote: post #93
gizmo wrote: post #42

Most things are strange, missing, broken for mundane reasons that you can't do much about. The space of new ideas is huge, but almost all new ideas are bad. One strategy I really like is to think of technologies you couldn't build 5 years ago but are just barely possible today. That's where yesterday's bad ideas become today's good ideas. For example, laptops and phones produced 20 years of incremental improvements i…

> One strategy I really like is to think of technologies you couldn't build 5 years ago but are just barely possible today. Streaming gaming is something I am still laser-focused on. Our networks are only getting faster. I feel there is a gigantic opportunity here that is being passed up by efforts like Stadia. To do this thing correctly, the game engine itself needs to be developed with these concerns in mind. Expec…

What kinds of things do you think has to change with game engines?

Sharding would have to happen to handle geographic distance between people, wouldn't it?

I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

Re: How to get new ideas

#127

Post by jimkleiber »

guptaneil wrote: post #70
hristov wrote: post #65

HN should have a [chat GPT] tag for stuff generated by chat GPT. So that I can ignore it. I do not mind reading what paul graham said about how to get new ideas. I do not care what chat GPT said. What chat GPT said may or may not be a good summary of paul grahams thoughts, it may be wrong in an important aspect, etc. If Paul Graham wants to say something, he should say it directly and not hide behind a chat gpt layer…

This is PG saying something... he linked to a chatGPT generated response and said he didn't like the response so he wrote his own.

The thing is, I have to trust that PG wrote the words saying he wrote his own response. What stops ChatGPT from saying those same words?

I'm wondering what ways/technologies we'll create to tell if someone actually generates text themselves. Right now, I can feel a rising desire to avoid text-based communication with people, almost a fear of getting catfished by text.

Re: How to get new ideas

#128

Post by appleaday1 »

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…

I am interested in that? Maybe we can use ChatGPT or related tech to change Dungeon Crawler games or related procedural generated games? I think DCSS would benefit from this, imagine designing entire levels so that they fit your character well. A common frustration between people that play Felid, draconians or Octopodes according to the dungeon crawl subreddit is that, a lot of armor that generate that they can't use. I think if we had better code or algorithms that targetted even something as basic as item generation based on class or race you play will make games more immersive for people that pick them. It's always weird when I play DCSS, and I am playing a human brigand or something and I see Centaur warding or armor that I can't wear. Some of the best games I have had are where the character that I play, gets items or environments or vaults that help my character progress, this means the correct spells, items, stat increases, enemies and so on.

Re: How to get new ideas

#129

Post by sargstuff »

gizmo wrote: post #58
valgor wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very true. Ideas are pretty cheap to come by. Implementing, building, teasing them out into a practical scenario is hard.

I don't think it's easy at all. Try to come up with an original plot for a hollywood big budget time travel movie. Take the plot of Edge of Tomorrow. I could never come up with that. Ideas are easy when it's just "Grand theft auto in space", but actual originality? Extremely difficult.

novelty or origial application of combination of ideas?

working fax machine was a 1800's idea.[1]

[1] : https://www.damninteresting.com/curio/the-fax-machines-of-th...

Re: How to get new ideas

#130

Post by sargstuff »

corobo wrote: post #86
gizmo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's easy at all. Try to come up with an original plot for a hollywood big budget time travel movie. Take the plot of Edge of Tomorrow. I could never come up with that. Ideas are easy when it's just "Grand theft auto in space", but actual originality? Extremely difficult.

On the other hand I ditch a handful of film/TV ideas each week. Many because they'd be crap of course, but the rest because there's no way in this lifetime I'll have the resources to bother thinking about them, never mind have the time to actually write them out. Gotta do regular people work till I die. So glad I was dragged out of the universal energy just to pay rent for 60 years haha. Fuck I wish I could afford to…

> ... arty farty...

so, take appropriate precautionary measures and stop flushing crap down drain ?

Post reply on HN