Comment by JangoSteve | Hacker News Reader

Comment by JangoSteve | Hacker News Reader

Here is my typical routine:

  1. DON'T write it down*
  2. Write it down
  3. Look for existing services
  4a. If any exist from step 3, start using them.
      -If satisfied => keep using it and get on with life.
  4b. If no services exist, or I am dissatisfied with existing services, 
      => share idea with friends and colleagues.
  5a. If ( feedback is overwhelmingly positive OR I need it right now ) 
      AND ( I have time ) => start developing.
  5b. Otherwise, add it to the long list of things I'd like to make some day.

* I don't write it down for the first few days, because it's a simple way for me to filter out all the fleeting uninspiring ideas that probably wouldn't have taken off. If I forget about them, then I must not have been that inspired by it; and if I wasn't inspired by it, then there is no way I could have inspired others with it or created any passion for it.

It's hard for me to otherwise filter out these uninspiring ideas, because when I first have them, I'm inherently biased. I tend to be in love with the idea that I thought of something novel, and it's difficult to distinguish between that excitement and excitement for the idea itself.

1. DON'T write it down

2. Think about it for weeks and months and years.

3. Tell my various entrepreneurial friends about it and bask in the glow of their compliments.

4. Congratulate myself on being smart.

5. Dream about making so much money I could punch a cop and get away with it.

6. Dream about how great my life is going to be when I'm harpooning great white sharks from a helicopter that can turn into a boat.

7. Curse the idiots who came out with a product months or even years after my idea except it's executed all wrong and I woulda done it so much better.

8. Curse the same idiots who are now making so much money they can punch a cop and get away with it plus have that boat-helicopter thing.

9. A few weeks later I come up with a great idea. See step 1.

My list is pretty similar to this one, with a couple of differences:

1) I tend to write down everything first. I realize that it could be a risk of creating something that doesn't take off, but for me it's a bigger risk to lose the idea entirely. For me, if I don't write it down, I could definitely forget about it, even if it was a brilliant idea. There could also be a danger of not evaluating the idea correctly when it first appears, so you reject it too easily, and since you didn't write it down, decide not to come back to it right away.

5) If you have budget, but no time to develop it yourself, there's another option: pay someone else to program it for you.

Disclaimer - I run a company that does it (link in profile). But it's also something I do myself and and would do if I didn't run one (for some, but not all projects)

I do pretty much the same thing. My difference is that, if I really like the idea after a few days and it's big/complex enough, I let it sit in my mind for a couple months and think on it when I feel inspired. Usually this has two end results: either I've fleshed it out a lot more, or I've dropped it for one reason or another.

Just on not writing it down: it tends to concretize it, while mind-stuff is more fluid. I've found that if I capture an idea before it's formed, the essence can escape.

i tend to have quite a bit of items stuck at pt 5b. i know it's something that could help someone other there. either i'm not motivated to build it, or it just make it feel like work to do it. i guess i could share my list some day, these day having ideas is the easy part, doing the work is the key.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com