Stop Dreaming. Start Building. | Hacker News Reader

Stop Dreaming. Start Building.

twincommas.com

13 pointslogjam8 comments

You know, I don't believe that people really do have all that many great ideas. If they did, wouldn't there be some aggregator for great-ideas-seeking-implementors? A sort of idea lost-and-found? I mean, I know of the Halfbakery[1], but it's mostly for "teehee, wouldn't it be silly if" ideas, instead of serious "if anyone does this it will change the world" ideas. At least as far as I can tell, idea demand still outweighs idea supply.

Or maybe the "everyone will steal it so I will tell no one" mentality is far more pervasive than it seems, perhaps even ingrained into the human psyche in general.

[1](http://www.halfbakery.com/)

actually, I've been told by friends that theres a mailing list used for that sort of thing by certain (relatively) subsets of the MIT undergrad community.

they also have a really cool mailing list called "reuse" that everyone on campus there subscribes to, thats sort of a craigslist of awesome deals on furniture as well as old lab equipment, gadgets and tech

I suspect the problem is that most people want to keep the option open of implementing their idea at some point in the future, even if they probably realize they never will. Giving ideas away, knowing that others will come along, seems to be in line with believing the pie isn't finite, and I think most people are convinced the pie is finite.

"idea demand still outweighs idea supply"

Really? I've met a lot more people with ideas that they don't try to implement than hard workers without ideas.

But do those people really have the ideas they claim to have, or do they only have vague, unformulated notions, whimsies of grandiose vision without supporting thought? Anyone can say "I'll write a book," but very few people can tell you the plot in any great detail, let alone the motifs or themes they'd try to work in. People just think they've given things more thought than they really have, or really ever will.

To put it another way, when I say "idea supply," I am only referring to the ideas hardy enough to survive the communication process.

very straight to the point blog post, but i do like the quote:

"I promise not to keep ideas in my head, unfulfilled and full of promise - not to let these vague outlines of future actions give me false confidence and security in the abstract. Instead I will execute them quickly and faithfully so that I am again on the brink of the unknown, hoping that these ideas were not the last that would ever come to me from God knows where."

"Stop talking, start building" is also true. I can't believe how many times I've gone out in the bay area and all people talk about is servers, scalability and monetization.

Nobody cares! Build it and prove it, to yourself and others.

Good article

"Shut up and hack", as the motto says.

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