"If you don't want to run out of ideas, the best thing to do is not to execute." | Hacker News Reader

"If you don't want to run out of ideas, the best thing to do is not to execute."

zefrank.com

120 points_pius24 comments

Hilarious and true. As a writer I see this on a daily basis. Ninety-eight percent of ideas are turds. This means you have to execute a hundred before you get a gem or two. The moment I have a story idea, no matter how half-baked, I commit it to words immediately. It's almost impossible to tell if an idea will make a good story without trying to write the story.

Ah I miss Ze's "the show." A lot of great videos from a man who never seems to run out of great ideas and topics. I'd highly recommend hitting on "popular shows" and going down the list. He thinks a lot about creativity and creating communities. Some interviews he gives are also very insightful.

If you run out of ideas, the best thing to do is to steal ideas from others and try to execute them better. :)

Its a strange observation that really has nothing to do with the topic but it disturbs me in a weird way that he's edited his videos so that you never see him blink.

Is it just me or is this disturbing to others as well? Its a good gimmick if it does. It sure got my attention.

Michael Caine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddUbsWnEVXM

Powerful stuff.

Yeah for sure. I've noticed this technique before in some great comedians - for example Andy Kaufman and Will Ferrell. In fact - that was what really got me about Kaufman's bits - the utter lack of blinking. I love how it makes the character seem possessed by some personality outside their own self.

I also think that when we are in conversation with other people, we innately calculate when to blink based on when they blink. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5925932/Huma...

So of course when that character doesn't blink it genuinely f*cks with out sense of balance in our communication - In the case of comedy, it's hilarious. Maybe in the case of a physical confrontation, it would be threatening instead..

When he blinks, his left nostril dilates, and that bothers him, so he cuts the videos so it doesn't happen. He describes it in this video: http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/051006.html

So true. The bane of every creative thinker is the crack of the precious idea. To keep my thinking loose, I keep a blog where I purge all my ideas both great and stupid in order to get them out of my head. The more ideas I get out onto the blog, the more new ones I have.

If working on real projects is exercise for your creative mind, then think of a 'sketch' blog as stretching; it makes your mind limber so you don't get stuck in a brain rut.

Check out my blog to see what I mean - Let my stupid ideas serve as entertainment and inspiration that you have better ones you're still hesitating to share for one reason or another. Let my good ideas serve as brain fodder that you can steal and improve upon.

http://www.thinksketchdesign.com/ "Because Today’s Great Ideas start with Yesterday’s Foolish Thinking"

Nice, I've been doing the same for the past few years on my blog (http://astartupaday.com) as well. Definitely a good way to get some creative ideas flowing and to get the bad ones out of your head as quickly as possible.

:D, terrible how true this is. Is it fear of flushing a potentially bad sounding idea that we keep all our absurd thoughts around so long? Never heard this gent before, thanks _pius.

No problem. :)

I was reminded of this today when I saw the IntentBox folks launch today on an idea in direct competition with one I'd been sitting on for a while.

Anyway, I love Ze's message here.

I think that sounds like so many people on here. I wonder how many are sitting on extremely viable ideas. I know I am sitting on 2 that could be enormously successful, I suspect fear has a lot to do with the hesitation to execute.

I loved it... we are currently working on a ind of idea storage systemsolving exactly that problem. (And I'm only writing this comment as a a kind of bookmark)

But the bummer is most ideas kinda suck when you do em. :-(

Ah, classic zefrank...

LOL. This is exactly what I needed to hear in plain simple english. Thanks!;)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=942308

I think it's the general texture of the "LOL", smiley emoticon, and exclamation more than the gratitude. A comment that doesn't add much, and looks like it was made quickly often produces bad results here.

Maybe it's because people are scared of losing the fantastic signal:noise ratio that's a hallmark of Hacker News and is very hard to find in internet discussion. The parent comment looked like more general internet discussion, but if he'd written, "This is exactly what I needed to hear in plain English: I keep meaning to code up this simple timezone app but I've been scared to execute it. Wow, that was valuable" - well, that probably would've been quite high in the positives.

Oh, my:) You know, I appreciate your help for pointing and explaining me the down-votes. There is one thing I want to say though: If this Karma thing is important for you guys, just do what you think is best. As for me, I don't care if my Karma here is like -xxx or +xxx, alright? I registered here for more important purpose, like getting to know good people and read good news I missed in my Google Reader. I don't troll here, so if I feel like saying a thank you to one of you, I will do so. As I said before, do what you think is best. Cheers!;)

It's not about Karma and points, it's about the quality of the site as defined by the current users. You weren't downvoted for trolling, but for the style of your comment. LOLspeak and emoticons are standard elsewhere, but not here.

Generally, your 'thanks' will be better appreciated here if you use the best standard English that you know. You aren't being punished, rather your comment was being moved lower on the page to make room for better ones. You can choose to ignore the feedback this rearrangement provides, but your stay here may be more enjoyable if you pay some attention to the local customs.

I'm not certain, but I think that once a particular user's karma falls below a certain threshold, all of their future comments and submissions get auto-killed.

Definitely a good point, but now that song's going to be stuck in my head...lol.

You'll never run out of brain crack if you never execute your ideas.

I went to your link 3 times before I finally decided I wanted to watch a video (I like reading better).

Totally awesome, thanks dude!

Here is to failing and iterating again.

Where the fk do ideas come from lalala

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