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

Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

blog.assetmap.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 82 posts

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#21

Post by livejake »

tgflynn wrote: post #2

I tend to be someone who would emphasize the importance of execution relative to the importance of ideas, however I certainly don't believe that ideas don't matter. Ideas have value to the extent that they are coupled with excellent execution. One without the other is worthless but combined they have value. Because of this interaction simplistic statements such as "ideas are valuable" or "ideas are worthless" are bot…

I would say the value of an idea is inversely related to the difficulty to execute the idea. The idea for the million dollar homepage was extremely valuable because the execution of the idea wasn't too technically difficult. There are plenty of freelancers who could implement that idea. Same with the idea for ChatRoulette and Groupon. If an idea is really difficult to implement, such as a better Google, then the idea is much less valuable than execution.

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#22

Post by j_baker »

stretchwithme wrote: post #18

Any idea that is simple enough to pop into your head and is simple enough for people to understand in a sound bite is simple enough to have occurred to thousands of people. Most truly world-changing ideas are a bit more difficult to arrive at, communicate and/or implement. These are not so worthless. Of course, these usually are combinations of many ideas and take real work to figure out.

> Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.

-Einstein

If there's one thing working in software development has taught me, it's that simple != easy. Simple ideas are usually the best because you can build so many other ideas on top of them.

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#23

Post by matwood »

phlux wrote: post #5
kls wrote: post #3

I really do love the idea guy, they rail and rail "hey I am worth something" but the fact remains they are worth very little. Lets say for example I decided to start a company, I have a good group of guys that can do anything and we have capital. We don't need an idea to form a company, we could start a fabrication shop or a coin laundry and potentially profit just as much as venturing off and building a new and nove…

I think the answer is in the middle - however, I ask you; Are you a coder? Where is your billion dollar application then? If one is so capable of building something, why haven't you built XYZ and sold it for many millions already? If developers are so much more valuable than ideas - why isnt every single developer building something amazing? Why is there so much crappy software, so many crappy businesses? -- I bet yo…

Are you a coder? Where is your billion dollar application then? If one is so capable of building something, why haven't you built XYZ and sold it for many millions already?

The reasons already given - any execution HARD. Executing correctly is even harder. Executing correctly and better than the next guy is even harder still.

To further your example - you are saying the architect who makes the drawings are worthless and its the contractor who pounds the nail that is the real builder.

Not at all, in fact the architect is part of the execution chain. The just idea part would be the thousands of people that may drive past a river each day and think 'wow, a bridge would be great here.' The architect takes that idea and executes.

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#24

Post by nlwhittemore »

nlwhittemore wrote: post #16
davidw wrote: post #7

Someone have a cached copy? It's not loading for me. I agree completely with the statement, but would like to see his reasoning.

Website went down..trying to figure it out now. In the meantime, here's a copy - http://nlw.posterous.com/temporary-ending-the-ideas-are-wort...

main site back up

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#25

Post by steadicat »

livejake wrote: post #21
tgflynn wrote: post #2

I tend to be someone who would emphasize the importance of execution relative to the importance of ideas, however I certainly don't believe that ideas don't matter. Ideas have value to the extent that they are coupled with excellent execution. One without the other is worthless but combined they have value. Because of this interaction simplistic statements such as "ideas are valuable" or "ideas are worthless" are bot…

I would say the value of an idea is inversely related to the difficulty to execute the idea. The idea for the million dollar homepage was extremely valuable because the execution of the idea wasn't too technically difficult. There are plenty of freelancers who could implement that idea. Same with the idea for ChatRoulette and Groupon. If an idea is really difficult to implement, such as a better Google, then the idea…

It seems to me that the ideas that you call valuable (ChatRoulette, Million Dollar Homepage), are recipes for shooting stars: they become popular overnight but have little staying power. By contrast, dumb me-too ideas (Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Zappos), when executed well, can create lasting businesses. Does anyone have counterexamples?

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#26

Post by geoffw8 »

Execution requires 2 or more ingredients.

If your a fantastic ideas guy, and an incredible evangelist - you will win.

If your a fantastic designer, and incredible sales guy - you will win.

The execution is the final baked cake, once all ingredients have gone in.

So in order to be a great execution'ist, I'm afraid you can't just be a good coder, you have to also be a ideas guy/designer/evangelist/sales guy/marketing guru/etc.

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#27

Post by tzs »

nikz wrote: post #4

It's very interesting to note the backgrounds of the various people involved in this debate. http://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanielwhittemore would lead me to believe Nathaniel is not a "code"/execution person (I could be wrong, obviously). Whereas the people on the other side of the debate seem to be largely execution guys - coders or self-styled "product" guys (YCombinator, Eric Ries). It's almost a tautology - the e…

> It's almost a tautology - the execution guys say the execution is most important, the idea guys think it's all about the idea.

Isn't that opposite of what you'd expect? I'd expect in general for people to think their part is the easy part, and the other part is the hard part. After all, presumably that's why the execution guys can't come up with the ideas, and the idea guys can't come up with the execution. If the other part were easy they'd do it themselves.

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#28

Post by livejake »

steadicat wrote: post #25
livejake wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say the value of an idea is inversely related to the difficulty to execute the idea. The idea for the million dollar homepage was extremely valuable because the execution of the idea wasn't too technically difficult. There are plenty of freelancers who could implement that idea. Same with the idea for ChatRoulette and Groupon. If an idea is really difficult to implement, such as a better Google, then the idea…

It seems to me that the ideas that you call valuable (ChatRoulette, Million Dollar Homepage), are recipes for shooting stars: they become popular overnight but have little staying power. By contrast, dumb me-too ideas (Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Zappos), when executed well, can create lasting businesses. Does anyone have counterexamples?

The Million Dollar Homepage may be a shooting star, but it is certainly valuable idea. You can make a decent living if you come up with an idea like it every year.

I would argue that Chatroulette has staying power. It's not as popular as it was during the media hoopla, but they still get 250k users day. That's not Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr, but that's enough to get by.

I would also look at Groupon, Woot, and HARO. Simple ideas that have created sustainable businesses.

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#29

Post by Mz »

j_baker wrote: post #22
stretchwithme wrote: post #18

Any idea that is simple enough to pop into your head and is simple enough for people to understand in a sound bite is simple enough to have occurred to thousands of people. Most truly world-changing ideas are a bit more difficult to arrive at, communicate and/or implement. These are not so worthless. Of course, these usually are combinations of many ideas and take real work to figure out.

> Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. -Einstein If there's one thing working in software development has taught me, it's that simple != easy. Simple ideas are usually the best because you can build so many other ideas on top of them.

Words fail me in trying to explain how painfully difficult it is to try to explain "simple" concepts to folks who think some specific problem is hard and, therefore, has to be really complex/involve huge hurdles/etc. Not that it's really as simple as it seems to me, because that elegant solution ...well, never mind. (Prepares to regret even bothering to try to comment on it.)

Anyway, thanks for noting this.

Re: Let’s End the Myth that Ideas Are Worthless

#30

Post by phlux »

jeromec wrote: post #10
phlux wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the answer is in the middle - however, I ask you; Are you a coder? Where is your billion dollar application then? If one is so capable of building something, why haven't you built XYZ and sold it for many millions already? If developers are so much more valuable than ideas - why isnt every single developer building something amazing? Why is there so much crappy software, so many crappy businesses? -- I bet yo…

If one is so capable of building something, why haven't you built XYZ and sold it for many millions already? Because simply building something doesn't equal success. Other factors are involved, such as potential need for capital, marketing etc. I would not say ideas are worth zero -- at least not without qualifying/explaining that statement. [1] I believe it's more accurate to say ideas are worth very little -- usual…

I agree, my whole point is that the Idea cannot be separated from execution, and execution cannot be separated from idea. They both can be objectively measured - but they are linked.
Post reply on HN