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Comment by mshake2 | Hacker News Reader

>And one of the things that I trained myself to do a few decades ago is pulling ideas out and pursuing them in a way where I’m excited about them, knowing that most of them don’t pan out in the end. Much earlier in my career, when I’d have a really bright idea that didn’t work out, I was crushed afterwards. But eventually I got to the point where I’m really good at just shoveling ideas through my processing and shooting them down, almost making it a game to say, ‘How quickly can I bust my own idea, rather than protecting it as a pet idea?’

Cool life lesson there

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'Kill Your Darlings' is one of the most fundamental skills in anything creative. It is a hurdle that, once taken, allows you to ascend above a plateau of mediocrity.

Well, he's not taking risks anymore by doing this. He has already proven himself, he's rich, and he's paid incredible amounts to do whatever he likes.

The lesson to be learned is that it’s less risky, not more, to understand that some ideas don’t work out and to have ways to identify failures quickly.

I get and like that interpretation.

I wonder if, societally, it's true though, or if statistically the more reliable way to "succeed" in life, is getting good at selling and defending ideas, even the bad ones.

That only works if you lack a conscience. I think you were right to quote the word succeed!

For most people that lean heavily towards this (we all somewhat do, we all have our pride from time to time) it's probably not a very conscious decision. Framed slightly differently it can easily be made a virtue, for example "be headstrong" or "stand up for what you believe in".

It hard to spot, while/when you are doing it.

Not all advice applies all the time.

I think what you're talking about here "stand up for what you believe in" is maybe a position you should take with others.

While "kill your darlings" is a devil's advocate position you should take with yourself when you don't have someone giving you constructive criticism.

Yeah if your families income etc depends on it yeah its hard to take that many risks. Not everybody has enough wealth to prosper from the passive income such wealth could create.

I don't think it's something he "trained himself to do."

He's always taken risks. He went to juvie for breaking and entering (with thermite) as a kid. He's a college dropout. The pattern from early in his life has been to do whatever he wanted without any kind of risk analysis, not following "common sense."

>common sense

Also called the showstopper for true innovation ;)

I feel that, I’m often doing a thing thinking “this is wrong it won’t work for xyz” but continue because I want it to work, only to give in to what I knew a day+ ago but refused to acknowledge. It would definitely be more efficient to listen to.. myself, and kill things early.

I guess the hardest bit is finding the line between stubbornly pushing dead idea forward vs "wouldn't it be cool if <...your idea...>, neah, that won't work" and you never even try.

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