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Idea Debt

jessicaabel.com

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Re: Idea Debt

#61

Post by Bjartr »

One of the most damaging pieces of information I ever applied to my life was the idea that not finishing thigh things was bad or undesirable. You know why? Because the result of internalising that wasn't that I finished more things, but rather that I started fewer. I no longer got even the learning I previously did from the start of a project and the research involved etc.

To this day I am still struggling to return to where I constantly started projects all over the place only to leave them unfinished. It was so, so much better that way.

Re: Idea Debt

#62

Post by hipsterrific »

nsb1 wrote: post #41

Thinking of this as 'debt' doesn't seem quite right to me. It's not like someone's going to come and break your kneecaps some day if you don't act on these ideas. You don't owe these ideas to anyone, and you don't have to 'pay them back'. Calling this debt is like calling the hours while we sleep and are not being paid 'income debt', or calling our front lawn 'food debt' because we haven't planted a garden there. How…

It's debt for the same reason that when you keep borrowing money, things just pile up and you feel overwhelmed. While no one will repo my car for not following through on an idea, it also means that the things in my "want to do" list grows and it becomes apparent that I'm stressing myself over what to do, which to do, when to do, etc. It's the same as taking on too much monetary debt; you feel overwhelmed and your limited resource starts to spread thinner and thinner. Same with idea debt; your time (resource) is spread thinner and thinner.

Re: Idea Debt

#63

Post by kazagistar »

xiaoma wrote: post #27

This is pretty stark contrast to James Altucher's "idea machine" concept. That's where you push yourself to come up with 10 ideas daily in order to build your "idea muscle" concept. Some days he'd come up with 10 ideas for one specific person or business. It seems a bit odd, but the guy did make millions repeatedly (after squandering 100% of his wealth, repeatedly).

I think they can be reconciled.

Idea debt is over-valuing existing ideas. You just have a few dozen plans that you keep going over and not acting on.

Coming up with a bunch of ideas would make that harder. You would have thousands and thousands if you kept them, so you just discard them while still improving the skill of having good ideas for when it counts.

Re: Idea Debt

#64

Post by pjmorris »

I've got a 'Current Task' text file, in which I write down everything I need or want to do that I'd expect I'd forget otherwise, prioritized by how soon and/or how urgently the thing needs to be done (Thank you, David Allen [0]). For example, the top of the file right now is my agenda for a meeting that's about to happen. Once the meeting's done, the agenda will go in a logbook file, and any action items will take the agenda's place.

I have colossal idea debt, as measured by the size of the CurrentTask file. Scrolling past the most urgent items, I've got everything in there from ~ 'change that code' to 'Read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'' to a list of writing prompts that have moldered there for years.

The nice thing, though, is that the file forms an external inventory of my plans, intents, and ideas. Putting them in there lets me focus on what needs to be done now, while removing the fear of forgetting later. I'll periodically purge, moving the things that no longer matter into the logbook.

[0]'Getting Things Done', David Allen

Re: Idea Debt

#65

Post by qznc »

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11374746

Self-regulation of goal setting: turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals.

Oettingen G1, Pak H, Schnetter K.

Abstract: Fantasy realization theory states that when people contrast their fantasies about a desired future with reflections on present reality, a necessity to act is induced that leads to the activation and use of relevant expectations. Strong goal commitment arises in light of favorable expectations, and weak goal commitment arises in light of unfavorable expectations. To the contrary, when people only fantasize about a desired future or only reflect on present reality, expectancy-independent moderate goal commitment emerges. Four experiments pertaining to various life domains supported these hypotheses. Strength of goal commitment was assessed in cognitive (e.g., making plans), affective (e.g., felt attachment), and behavioral terms (e.g., effort expenditure, quality of performance). Implications for theories on goal setting and goal striving are discussed.

too academic, didnt read: To act, also think about now instead of only dreaming what could be.

Re: Idea Debt

#66

Post by xiaoma »

kazagistar wrote: post #63
xiaoma wrote: post #27

This is pretty stark contrast to James Altucher's "idea machine" concept. That's where you push yourself to come up with 10 ideas daily in order to build your "idea muscle" concept. Some days he'd come up with 10 ideas for one specific person or business. It seems a bit odd, but the guy did make millions repeatedly (after squandering 100% of his wealth, repeatedly).

I think they can be reconciled. Idea debt is over-valuing existing ideas. You just have a few dozen plans that you keep going over and not acting on. Coming up with a bunch of ideas would make that harder. You would have thousands and thousands if you kept them, so you just discard them while still improving the skill of having good ideas for when it counts.

I like this line of thought. If you are an idea machine, you're actually a lot less likely to be tied to any one idea and ride it down to the bitter end. Instead, you'd realize that most ideas aren't that great and it would take a higher and higher bar to impress yourself.

Maybe the dangerous thing is when ideas are in a state where maybe they're plans but you're uncertain and instead of executing on them or deciding not to you just let them accumulate and sap your attention.

Re: Idea Debt

#67

Post by beat »

vkjv wrote: post #49
vog wrote: post #4

This is why I moved a huge portion of my TODO list into an IDEAS list. This is an outliner document (Org-mode) that contains notes on lots of different ideas. So why didn't I just delete those items? Because writing down that stuff helps me not to think about it the whole day if I don't want to. The IDEAS list grows and grows, but that's okay. I don't feel obliged to implement any of these ideas. Whenever I recall an…

I also use the `IDEA` tag in addition to `TODO` and `FIXME`. My definitions: * IDEA: This is neat and could be helpful, but is probably okay if it never gets done. * TODO: Not doing this has some measurable ill effect. Maybe maintainability or constraining scale. * FIXME: This is a temporary work-around while finishing a feature. It should never be shipped.

Within our startup, there's a separate Slack channel called "Crazy ideas" and a separate column in Trello for things that are ideas rather than plans.

Re: Idea Debt

#68

Post by beat »

nsb1 wrote: post #41

Thinking of this as 'debt' doesn't seem quite right to me. It's not like someone's going to come and break your kneecaps some day if you don't act on these ideas. You don't owe these ideas to anyone, and you don't have to 'pay them back'. Calling this debt is like calling the hours while we sleep and are not being paid 'income debt', or calling our front lawn 'food debt' because we haven't planted a garden there. How…

It's debt in that we pay interest on it. Resources that could be spent on the here and now instead go to maintaining the idea that's not getting paid off.

Re: Idea Debt

#69

Post by such_a_casual »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sHCQWjTrJ8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tatami_Galaxy

http://www.lambdassociates.org/blog/bipolar.htm

For those of you who suffer from this, don't worry! It works out in the end, and it's just part of growing up. Reading random blog posts isn't going to solve your problem with motivation. Smoke a joint and cut yourself some slack.

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