
"I've got an idea for an app" - chriseidhof
http://chriseidhof.tumblr.com/post/9873846899/ive-got-an-idea-for-an-app
======
CJefferson
10 years or so ago, when I was a game programmer, I used to have the same
"I've got an idea for a game" problems.

Most ideas were useless, some were poorly thought out "Like X but Y", for
example "Like Command and Conquer but set in space"; others were far too
difficult to construct.

Then, I was told an idea for a great puzzle game. I decided the idea was so
great I made the originator of the idea my wife ;)

~~~
shasta
Is she comfortable with the fact that it was primarily an IP acquisition?

~~~
boyter
I don't normally up-vote amusing comments but I really could not resist for
this one. The most amusing comment I have read on hacker news so far and the
only to really make me smile today. Thank you!

~~~
shasta
Thanks... I don't submit many longer posts since I've limited myself to
checking news sites from my phone (for productivity reasons). So this one-
liner generated about six months of Karma for me :)

------
gyardley
So let's say I take the author's advice, 'always listen to ideas', and unlike
the author, get told an awesome idea by a friend-of-a-friend with zero ability
to execute.

Great, now what?

Do I really set up a working relationship with this person, who's likely dead
weight and valueless now that the idea's been revealed? Do I give him the
ownership he thinks he deserves, which is a 50-50 split if I'm lucky? Do I
just build it myself?

I prefer to avoid such ethical quandaries, which is why I stick to my own
ideas.

~~~
dangero
Exactly. The other day I was hanging out with some relatives from out of town
and my uncle dropped that famous line, "I have an idea for an app." I had been
functioning under the same notion that I should always listen to people's
ideas, so I listened.

He then says, "I'll tell you, but if you build it I want 50%." I said, "Fine."
In my mind I'm thinking, "No way I'm building this." Then he says, "OK, my
idea is a contact management application for the iPhone. They have them for
the PC, but they don't have them for the iPhone." That's it. That's his whole
idea.

That's when I realized I should stop listening to people's ideas about apps
because he just basically told me that I can't build any contact management
apps without giving him half the profits. If I listen to too many people's
ideas, I won't be able to build something without being sued because someone
else "gave me the idea".

~~~
tricolon
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you should worry about one-time,
private, un-recorded verbal agreements.

~~~
Turing_Machine
That might be true in the legal sense, but presumably he wants to maintain a
good relationship with his uncle. :-)

------
silverbax88
I've found that the fastest way to get people to stop telling you their ideas
(that they want you to build), is start telling them exactly how THEY could
accomplish it.

Them: "I've got this awesome idea for software that tracks traffic jams!"

Me: "Sure, you just need to link up existing maps and satellite imagery from
Google to traffic cameras...."

Them: "Uh..."

Me: "Of course, you have to be able to monetize the massive amount of data
you'll be moving around, so you need to consider how people will be accessing
this? Would it be through a GPS device, or is it a smartphone app, or is this
just for commercial (TV stations, police, DOT) applications?"

Them: "Uh...I also had an idea for this other thing..."

~~~
dpcan
This could work :) I usually say, let's search the app store for your idea ...
Just to see what comes up.

12 pages of the same idea later...

Moving on to other conversations.

~~~
perssontm
Thats a great suggestion, I usually listens for some time and ask a few from
my point of view meaningful questions. I usually finish off by asking them to
send me an email and summarize their thoughts and to explain it in more
detail.

Most of the times, the email never lands in my inbox, but when it finally
does, theres usually something to it.

------
chrislomax
I know this is not directly related but being a web developer I generally get
something similar. I get the old "Oh we should meet up sometime, my brother is
looking for a website". And they think they are doing me a favour when they
offer me £100 to do them a site.

To quote one, "I'll bung you £100 to do it".

Thanks, I get paid that a day.

~~~
kaffeinecoma
And as a bonus, you get to be on the hook for maintaining that site until the
owner gets bored with it, making whatever changes they want (for free).

~~~
skcin7
Yup, this has happened to me several times back in high school, when all the
shitty bands used to approach me asking to make a website. At first I was like
"yeah, cool!" and then they automatically expected me to update it
consistently and do things like handle merchandise sales. LOL. Yeah right.
Then they get mad at me for not maintaining it. I'm like "I made the thing,
you update it".

That was my lesson. I don't make websites anymore for people without charging
thousands of dollars and an hourly fee for any future work.

~~~
chrislomax
I think every programmer in some respects goes through that, that's how we
make mistakes and learn from them.

I wouldn't be surprised if most developers actually did their first project
for nothing at all, I think we all under value our skills to start with and it
takes time to realise how much our skills are worth.

That's what I find funny when you put a "real" bill into do a site and you see
the owners face, if their initial reaction is, "how much??!", I know it's time
to go quoting for a different project.

------
RobertHubert
I've been developing for a while, apps specifically for about 2 years and this
is my take on things: Yes, I get many many people saying hey, I have this
great idea... or hey, my friend wants to make an app... But here is where I
think I may differ from others, I am these people too, everyday I wake up with
ideas, I write them down and tell them to myself later, I test my own ideas on
myself because I can, I know the industry and I know how to research ideas and
more often than not, they are not worth my time. But that does not mean I stop
thinking... So why shut out all the other ideas that people, sometimes
strangers even, are just throwing at you all the time for free? These could be
sources for great inspiration (probably not) but it only takes 1 good idea to
make you realize that hey, these are people out in the world with different
views, different problems, and different solutions. Its like having 100 brains
waking up in the morning going hey write this down I think it could be a good
idea.

All that aside, here is what I do every time someone pitches an idea (no
matter who they are and what the idea might be):

1) Listen

2) Think about it (is this unique, good, stupid, wait... don't I already have
this app?)

3) Ask them some key questions, (how will it make money? How much time do you
have every day to work on this? How much money can you spend on this project?
Have you done any research on the idea? What other apps are there like this
one?)

4) Pull out the iPhone and do a quick search for obvious app titles matching
their idea and show them the results then ask, what about all these? Have you
tested all of these?

5) Give them a 30 second lesson on using the internet and the app store to
research their ideas. (nicely)

6) Give them my contact info if they don't already have it - even if the idea
sucked (remember 90% of your ideas suck too) and why miss an opportunity to
network.

7) If the idea sparks an interest, Say hey, Id like to see a layout of that
sometime. Or if its really great set up a time for a call.

8) If it blows, don't worry, they will probably have forgotten about it a week
later.

9) Congratulate yourself on not being an ass and realize that you helped
someone, yourself, and the rest of the developers out there. They will be
better prepared the next time they begin the "I have a great idea..." speech.

This only takes 5 mins and you really never know what you might hear. Ideas
are great because they make us think, they test us, they inspire us, and
sometimes they can make us rich if can figure out how to use them well.

~~~
cbs
_This only takes 5 mins and you really never know what you might hear. Ideas
are great because they make us think, they test us, they inspire us, and
sometimes they can make us rich if can figure out how to use them well._

I have to say I love your attitude towards ideas. I often have ideas for
projects outside my wheelhouse (mostly personal projects) and talk to EEs and
MEs about building stuff. It would suck if all my friends were archetypal hn-
programmer-that-hates-idea-guys, I'd probably even drop them as friends. I'm
so out of my depth on some things that I share it just to find out if its a
completely stupid idea.

Then again, I like building things for the sake of building them, and know
people that do too.

------
meskyanichi
I always get this tiring feeling when someone comes up to me to talk about an
idea. Especially if it's one of these "fast talking" kind of people. Most of
them involve some kind of "social X". Even more saddening is how the people
that have these "ideas", have no clue how to market it, where profit comes
from, and so forth.

I believe that the only time I've heard of a decent or good idea was from
fellow programmers or designers, rather than "business men" or founders of
small companies and claim they know it all. Then after they explain their
idea, they expect you to invest 90% of your time on the product, promise you a
certain ownership percentage (usually ~10%?), rather than paying a good salary
up-front; so if it flops they didn't lose any of their time or had to invest
any amount of cash. I believe something similar to this happened to some dude
who then open-sourced the project. I forgot what project that was, it happened
recently.

You can of course listen to anyone's idea, but as the article stated, the
chance that it's not another dumb or over-done idea is usually very slim.

~~~
ido

         Especially if it's one of these "fast talking" 
         kind of people. Most of them involve some 
         kind of "social X".
    

Remember when it used to be "eCommerce X"?

~~~
meskyanichi
Ha, and what'll be next..? Well, I guess I'm also quite thankful in a way that
noobs like that don't actually get good idea's in the first place, although it
can be quite annoying.

~~~
frankiewarren
"Local X"

~~~
SimHacker
"Casual (se)X"

------
craigmc
The rule that "ideas are nothing, execution is everything" fails to properly
acknowledge the class of ideas that come from genuine domain experts. In this
situation (and presuming the idea does not require an absurd level of
technical specialism _and_ they can bring distribution to the party) then it
can even end up being reversed.

------
michael_dorfman
I get the same kind of thing, but not aimed at iPhone apps-- rather, start-up
ideas.

My approach is to first ask people who their customers will be, and how they
plan on selling to them-- and then, if they get past that, I'll hear what the
idea is.

------
wallflower
The best answer I give is an honest one. "I'm too busy with contracts, and I
have a number of my own ideas that I'd love to be working on.[1]"

This answer brings up the commonly echoed sentiment among my mobile developer
cohort of the tradeoff between client contracts and your own product work. One
is easier, one pays off long term.

[1] This does not necessarily mean for profit. See
[http://rawsyntax.com/post/5982784556/importance-of-side-
proj...](http://rawsyntax.com/post/5982784556/importance-of-side-projects)

------
rexreed
This is the same philosophy I take with regards to meetings. I'd gladly take a
coffee, lunch, or other meeting with anyone who is interested because you
never know what may come out of it. Sure, sometimes I'm busy, but there's
always time for lunch and coffee. Take meetings, have conversations, let 1,000
flowers bloom or whatever the relevant expression is. But I also state in
advance that our conversation is not subject to any non-disclosure agreement,
and I explain that we are both free to do with the information whatever we
like. If they're not comfortable with that, I explain that the purpose of the
meetings is to see what mutual value we can bring each other. That's enough to
screen the random meetings.

------
megablast
I got an email the other day, from a young kid wanting me to sign a NDA, so I
could quote him on his idea. I suggested he look at programming himself, and
he did not take it well. I did explain to him that signing an NDA would be a
disservice to me, if I was working on a similar idea, but he did not see the
problem with that.

------
reso
"I've got an idea for an app" is the new "Will you read my screenplay?"

------
chubs
That was a hilarious twist in the end. I'm just like you except for the last
paragraph... maybe i'll start listening to people's ideas again :)

------
prpon
In the circle that I move around, everyone wants an ecommerce store for their
business that can generate sales even when they are sleeping.

I tell them I am busy with my own stuff but I take time to meet and listen to
them. After the meeting, I do research, put together a plan with the breakdown
of costs for outsourcing development, marketing and the estimated revenue.

That's when I stop hearing from them. They get either too busy or they realize
that it's not as easy as they think. I am yet to find someone who followed up
on the plan.

Isn't life always like that? Many with plans but very few who act on them.

------
nhangen
I don't have a problem hearing from people with ideas, what I have a problem
with is 9 out of 10 people fail to execute and as a result, waste my time. It
seems that to many, having a business, or an app idea, is as far as it gets.
As an entrepreneur, that bugs the hell out of me.

~~~
ThomPete
Well since 9 out of 10 companies fail then what's the big deal?

You think it's a bigger problem for you than it is for those who fail?

I don't understand your point.

~~~
stanmancan
He's not referring to the fact that they try and fail, it's that they fail to
TRY. I have the same problem as well. People are always excited and impatient
to set up a meeting to talk about an "app/website idea" they're really serious
about. I'll take the time to put them in my schedule, go meet them somewhere
and listen to them talk for an hour or two, and thats as far as it ever gets.
Everybody wants to talk about their idea, and most seem to think I should be
willing to work for some equity.

My last experience with this is fairly typical. A restaurant manager I worked
with a couple years ago had "a brilliant idea". He was emailing and calling me
constantly, refused to talk over the phone and was doing anything he could to
get me into a meeting A.S.A.P. since he 'really wanted to get rolling on
this'. I heard him out and quoted him $4,000. Never heard from him again. I
tried calling once, left a voice mail, and attempted to follow up on two
occasions via e-mail and nothing.

And _that's_ what he's talking about. People that waste our time in meetings
and don't ever follow through.

~~~
nhangen
This is exactly it. In fact, I was just talking with my partner last week
about the fact that almost every time we get a potential client or lead that
wants to meet or talk on the phone first, it almost always never turns into
real work. On the contrary, our best clients rarely, if ever, request meetings
or phone/face time.

His idea was that to these "idea people," the meeting is a replacement for
work. I'm not sure what I think, aside from the fact that I'm tired of wasting
my time.

~~~
prawn
Maybe more than a replacement for work, it's a feeling that they've "done
something" about the idea.

------
omarish
A lot of this comes down to a) non-technical types pursuing their ideas with
an unconstrained mental framework and b) non-linearity of good ideas.

a) Unconstrained mental frameworks: "I want a location-based photo-sharing app
that comes with angry birds integration" It can't be that hard. There has to
be some plugin on github that solves that problem for you already, since it's
a great idea."

Since this idea is guaranteed to produce a billion dollars, any developer
would have to be irrational to turn down even a 10% equity offer.

b) Non-linearity of good ideas - I'm finding that it's often fewer features
and fewer things that make compelling business ideas / user experiences. See
Dan Ariley's TED talk [1]. It's intriguing how a negative feature delta (less
is more!) often results in something more compelling.

Understanding if something is a good idea is a problem more akin to finding
the optimal way of loading an aircraft, where the problem has to be tested,
exposed, and simulated; not a simple forecast model where the answer is
binary. People will never know whether they're sitting on a great idea until
they test their strategy and see how it turns out.

On a side-note, a friend and I have a small service that attempts to solve
this problem. It's called Casual Contracting [2] and tries to frame this
problem in a positive light for both devs and idea people.

[1]
[http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_o...](http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html)

[2] <http://casualcontracting.com>

------
detay
Great point, and if I may say ideas are almost worthless. They're floating all
over, they're everywhere. Bad ones, good ones, done ones... I believe what
makes it worth is the execution, the effort of making an app running and
selling.

I believe `Angry Birds` is a good example of it. It's success did not come
from the idea at all. A simple game with a good execution and good marketing
made it so popular.

Agreeing with the article; I just want to add that hearing people's ideas also
put you into an awkward position. They give you responsibility of either not
doing that application without that person's consent or sharing a revenue.

You usually don't need neither, because as a developer you're already putting
more mental work on how to come up with better apps than some friend's mother
of yours.

And hearing people like they invented the wheel all the time really is boring.

------
revorad
_a social network for sharing pictures of coffee_

Isn't that Instagram? So yeah, always listen to ideas :-)

~~~
yakto
No, that'd be <http://artinmycoffee.com/>

There are few niches still unexplored. :)

------
cbs
Acting condescending towards people who don't understand my field for not
understanding my field could be counter productive? Yeah, this is a no-
brainier.

The anti-"idea guy" attitude was all ego, no logic. I can't say I'm surprised
that it took off as well as it did, it felt good and matched the reality that
most ideas suck so it was easy to adopt. I'm not surprised, but a disappointed
that more people didn't recognize it for what it was. Oh well, being the only
guy hearing the good ideas was fun while it lasted.

------
stevenp
The way I've learned to deal with this is that I listen enthusiastically, and
then I ask the person with the idea to come back with sketches or something
more concrete. That has, so far, eliminated 100% of the ideas outright. When
someone really serious comes to me with a concrete idea, I'll know it, and
then we'll talk for real. Asking the person with the idea to do a little work
to make it real is a great way to determine how serious they really are.

------
muyuu
This is actually quite old already. It used to be "I have an idea for a
website."

~~~
SimHacker
I have an idea for an ARPANET mailing list about cats! (1980)

I have an idea for a USENET newgroup about cats! (1985)

I have an idea for an IRC channel about cats! (1989)

I have an idea for an FTP site about cats pictures! (1990)

I have an idea for a Gopher site about cat pictures! (1992)

I have an idea for web page about cat pictures and stories! (1995)

I have an idea for Java applet about cat animations! (1995)

I have an idea for a Yahoo category about cat fans! (1996)

I have an idea for a blog designed especially for publishing personal opinions
about cats! (1998)

I have an idea for an e-Commerce cat food distribution network! (1999)

I have an idea for a virtual online currency for cats! (2000)

I have an idea for a web scripting language for building feline sites! (2001)

I have an idea for a Flash game about cats! (2002)

I have an idea for a Content Management System for managing cats! (2002)

I have an idea for a Object Relational Manager for storing information about
cats! (2003)

I have an idea for a social network for cats! (2004)

I have an idea about a movie sharing site for cat videos! (2005)

I have an idea for an iPhone app for taking pictures of cats! (2007)

I have an idea for a iPad app for cats to use! (2010)

...How far we've come in 30 years...

------
5hoom
Ah, this is amusingly true.

I suppose the ubiquitous nature of smart phones gives the common person more
exposure to software than ever before, therefore compelling some to pitch half
baked app ideas ('how about an app like Facebook, but in 3D!').

You never know though, there might be some buried gold in some suggestions.
You just need your stupid-crap filter set on high :)

~~~
officemonkey
Even dumb ideas can have a germ of greatness, or send you down a path to
greatness.

~~~
praptak
There's a technique for getting out of the state when you're out of ideas
(writer's block & the like.) Generate a few purposefully silly or outlandish
ideas and work from that.

------
tommorris
I was talking to a guy on the train once who was telling me he'd love to build
an iPhone app (context: iPad early adopter, someone else was cooing over it or
whatever). He was under the illusion that it was about as simple as creating a
spreadsheet.

I broke the bad news to him that creating an iPhone app was rather more
complicated than that and required you to understand quite a difficult
programming language (Objective-C) and a non-trivial framework (Cocoa, UIKit)
and make a financial investment in a Mac and an Apple developer account. I
kind of feel bad about it afterwards because it might be a good idea.

I just don't think it's healthy when people think that writing software is
easy or doesn't require skill and expertise... because they might get scammed
in the same way as if they go around believing that investing in the stock
market is guaranteed PROFIT!1!

------
greggman
The problem is you have an idea for a drink picture sharing app. Some guy
tells you he's got an idea. you listen. He says "I want to make a coffee
picture sharing app". You say, "lame idea". 2 months later you ship your
"drink picture sharing app". You get sued. (hmm, sounds kind of like FB)

That's why companies don't listen to ideas.

This is especially true in games. Some guy comes and says "I've got an idea
for game. It's going to have dragons in it". After that if you have any game
that has dragons in it odds or not so low that the guy will consider suing
you.

Of course you can sign NDAs and other agreements but that's not so "nice" and
not a guarantee you still won't get sued.

Of course I hope for the best in your experiences. I'm just pointing out it's
not just that devs think other ideas aren't worth listening to. There are
other valid reason not to listen.

------
dumbtwats
Im so surprised that this is getting so much attention. The only time you
should listen if its something along these lines, obviously squeezed into one
sentence so you dont get the opportunity to cut him off "I have this great
idea (microsecond pause), im so confident that it work, (microsecond pause),
that ive ['released US$50k equity loan from home','borrow $35k from
brother','prepared to invest my liquid savings of 42k into it']."

If it takes the turn of you do the development/impl and ill do the "sales,
marketing, requirements, design, gathering investors, watering the plants" get
him/her to quantify the success they had in each area and why they no capital
to make a financial investment themselves (hint: most do via house equity but
wouldnt dream of touching it - too risk (i.e. make your own mind up.)

------
mtrn
Nice cliffhanger.

------
vpdn
I tend to listen to people's app ideas when their ideas revolve around their
life or area of expertise.

For the rest of us, it's easier to start as a competitor in a big market than
to envision a latent need and build a product around it. If the app idea has
not been implemented before, there's a high chance the founder is having the
"invented here" hallucination. I'd try to find a place where the need is
obvious and try to build the best product in that category instead of coming
up with an ingenious new idea. I believe ideas are overrated (but vision
matters).

Steve Jobs take: "I want [Apple] to be much better, I don't care of being
different." (Youtube: <http://goo.gl/YPQJt>)

------
igorgue
I like being tell "I've got an idea"... I feel flattered; Thing is, these
people tell that to everyone of their friends, but only you! The computer
nerd, is able to give them real criticism.

Last time a girl saw me coding, and she told me: Are you programming? (I just
nod) I find that amazing, I mean, you could do my job (marketing) and you
understand it, I can't understand what you do, it's like magic.

She apparently wants to build a fashion website, I asked two questions and she
had no answer, I told her to get back to me when she gets a better idea of
what she wants to build.

Currently my cofounders are not technical, but they have the best ideas! And
do the things I don't want to do :-).

------
peteretep
I have an experience just like this. I was telling my (now) cofounder in
glorious detail why his list of ideas sucked or required way too much work,
and then one of them ... well actually, that one was pretty cool. Now we've
built it!

------
bignoggins
Chris, is your friend contributing anything else besides the idea? ie capital,
programming, design, business contacts? If not then I hope you aren't
considering a 50/50 split because that would be quite unfair to you.

~~~
chriseidhof
He's doing pretty much everything (design, hardware, investments, marketing,
packaging, and running the company). The app is brilliant and very simple.

~~~
bignoggins
hardware? this isn't looking like it's just an app =)

~~~
chriseidhof
Wish I could tell more!

------
celalo
There is no value in ideas. It is always about hardworking with intelligent
sense. Ideas are like seeds. You can grow a Giant Sequoia out of it. But if
you don't know how you can not even grow a bean bud.

~~~
onemoreact
There are still a tiny fraction of vary good ideas that are worth something.
Pagerank is a classic example where the idea was clearly worth something the
problem is even great ideas tend to be worth less than 5% of the company after
a year or so.

The hard part is sticking to your guns and actually telling your 'friend' that
sounds like a good idea. You can pay me X/hour to build and market it or I can
build it and hand over 5% of the profits it's up to you.

------
huhtenberg
> _... print some small cards with "No, I won’t listen to your app idea"_

> _Dear Sir, Thank you for your proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. The first
> error is on page _____._

This is said to be Hilbert or Landau. He had this printed on the cards and he
would have an undergraduate to fill in the blank and mail it back to an author
whenever a new proof of Fermat's Theorem was received :)

------
brevityness
I think this Cornell study fits in quite nicely with how you felt when people
approached you with their idea for an app:
[http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug11/ILRCreativityBias....](http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug11/ILRCreativityBias.html)

------
frankiewarren
Just out of curiosity, what would you advise these people who have ideas, but
aren't technically proficient, to do? Is there a correct way to approach
someone? Should they prepare something before talking to you to show they are
serious (maybe a short write up, or a sketch)?

~~~
damoncali
Yes. The number one, guaranteed way to get a developer's attention is to go
and sell your idea. Literally. Sell the would-be product to someone and get a
contract. Sure, that contract will be full of outs for the buyer, but it's
still a contract.

Getting to this point is a lot of work. It means you will have thought things
through. It means you will have talked to your customers. It means you
_probably_ have mocked something up. You have probably invested a small amount
of cash.

But mostly it means _someone will pay for it_ which elevates your idea from
"nope - waste of time unless you give me $20k" to "ok, we may have something
here".

If you want to pay market rates (cash), I'd say show up with a mockup. If you
want to convince a developer to join you for equity, show up with a sale.

~~~
ctdonath
Quite.

Some years back, a guy named Bill and his buddy contacted a company making kit
computers and said "we have a BASIC interpreter we'd like to sell you". The
company said "a dozen others have said the same thing; we'll pay whoever
delivers one." A few weeks later, Bill & pal delivered.

And thus Microsoft shipped its first product.

------
chaostheory
I like saying a variant of what the author says: “I probably won’t have time
to build it, but I can help you learn how to implement it yourself.”

Sadly so far no one has taken up my offer. I can't help but feel that it's
never I can't do it, but it's more like I can't be bothered with it.

------
swlkr
I'm not really bothered by the "I've got an idea for an app" lines so much as
I'm bothered by the fact that web apps are seen as websites. So when someone
says "I've got an idea for a website" to me they think I'm just going to write
some html and call it a day.

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IAnsari
There are few people that can give you an idea to make you fall off your
chair, and it's worth listening to 10,000 bad ideas to find someone with one
good idea that can be executed, without actually causing you to execute
yourself in the process.

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run4yourlives
I was cringing until I got to the end to find that his advice was bang on.

The fable of the Lion and the Mouse is something I need to constantly remind
myself (and others) of.

~~~
chriseidhof
That's exactly what I hoped to achieve, thanks for the kind words.

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robjohnson
Good advice indeed. The process of analyzing ideas itself is implicitly
difficult so, at the very least, it's nice to have an opportunity to hone that
skill.

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lukeredpath
"I've got an idea for an app", almost inevitably followed by..."I don't have
any funding but I can offer a great equity deal".

~~~
jen_h
Or, "It's sure to make millions of dollars, but the idea is so revolutionary
and so top secret that I can't tell you anything about it until you agree to
do all the work." Oy.

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hess
I've been on the flip side of the fence. I've had some ideas I was quite keen
on, but then got them destroyed by experts in the field. When an expert like
Chris tells you that you have a good idea, then you know you're onto
something.

P.S. Chris, if you still want to make those business cards, here's a link to
50 free business cards -
<http://efbuys.com/publishers/efactor/daily_deals/30088>

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pygorex
I always listen to new ideas - even if I think the idea sucks initially, it's
great to get my own creative juices flowing.

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dumbtwats
Im inclined to believe that the original opinion of this article that ideas
are worthwhile and execution is important (agreed!) has NEVER been an opinion
of yours, rather someone has tried to talk sense into you before you embark on
slave labor executing this idea from an idea man, perhaps in exchange for 50%
of nothing. Too fishy.. But hey it solves that little conflict that's going on
in your head now..

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jshort
What is the best alternative to those who think they have a good idea for an
app?

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napierzaza
Most often peoples ideas pretty much require a server and a much more
complicated pricing scheme than they think. When that's the case I explain
that much, but you probably always loose when you do.

One of the most awkward moments was when I actually met with a friend and his
friend about making an app. I only realized halfway through that they didn't
have an idea, just a wish to make an app. A few hours of awkwardly groping for
some tenuous b2b projects and we parted company.

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gfrison
yet another useless post

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larelli
Chris: Y U no tell the idea?

~~~
chriseidhof
I would, but the guy asked me not to, and I respect that. I'm very open about
my own ideas though ;).

~~~
swah
So you're going to develop it? Or him?

~~~
chriseidhof
Oh, I forgot to mention that. Yes, we're working on the roadmap now. It's
going to be awesome!

~~~
dumbtwats
Let guess 50% share of the company for executing this brain dead idea.

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bhamnav
At a risk of sounding horrible (I'm not), did you finish writing the article?
I mean, if you don't listen to all ideas that people have to offer you, then
you're bound to dismiss a good idea at some point.

~~~
wingerlang
Maybe you did not finish reading it?

".. That’s when I decided: always listen to ideas .."

