Ask HN: Are Ideas Worth Nothing? Is execution worth everything? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are Ideas Worth Nothing? Is execution worth everything?

I just had a robust discussion in which someone asserted that "ideas are worth zero".

I strongly disagree with this. Seems to me a killer idea is worth a great deal.

facebook was an absolutely killer idea, which is why Zuckerberg lifted it from the Winklevoss twins.

The person that I was discussing with referred me to https://sive.rs/multiply which I had a look at and the way I read it, Sivers was clearly stating that ideas have value, and that some ideas are worth more than others.

Of course an idea is worth nothing if not executed upon, but that does not mean the idea is worthless.

What do you think - are ideas worth nothing? Is execution everything?

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Ideas are necessary for execution but regarding their worth I'm pretty firmly convinced there is nothing new or unique under the sun. Wasn't Friendster already launched while Zuck was coding Thefacebook in his dorm room?

Fleshing ideas out and executing is where the value is.

I was about to link to the sive.rs post, but OP already beat me to it :) It's a really good framework for those who haven't seen it before.

[1] https://sive.rs/multiply

Ideas can be quite useful on their own! Good ideas can make better ideas. And mental models are usually useful without execution.

But I think "Brilliant Ideas" can be dangerous without execution. I think Brilliant Ideas without execution can trick you into thinking you're much smarter than you actually are.

[2] https://taylor.town/brilliant-app-idea

'Worth' is the problem. It means different things to different people.

We judge on acts done, not things thought. Thought expressed is a kind of doing. But more concrete actions from ideas to expression usually is the arbiter here.

Writing or recording helps. This changes thought in one person's mind into thoughts in many. If they act beneficently that's an instance of thought having high worth, measured as concrete actions and outcome.

Even just making people feel better about themselves is a kind of action. A surprisingly good one.

Ideas and execution aren’t the only elements. There is also circumstance. If you attend an elite university and have lots of friends there you are better positioned to start something like Facebook. This isn’t a gripe but an observation that Idea and Execution are not the only factors in success.

I just had a robust discussion

Truly robust discussions sometimes lead to published papers. Your discussions are ones struck up and quickly forgotten by fifth graders.

Try getting someone to pay you for your idea. If it works, it was worth something. (Or you're a patent troll)

Wasn't it Bulgakow who said that "you can't sell an idea but you can sell a manuscript"?

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