

1,000 (bad) ideas - jgrahamc
http://blog.jgc.org/2010/10/1000-bad-ideas.html

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abp
I think having ideas is actually linked to writing them down.

If you write an idea down and think about it, you show your brain interest in
ideas so you will get more ideas over time.

I think it's an essential habit, to write and think about your ideas, when you
want to be more creative and have many ideas.

Then the value in actually realizing all your ideas, is much less than picking
the good ones and realize them.

~~~
melissamiranda
Ideas sparking ideas is the whole premise behind IDEO style brain storming.
You get a handful of people to start thinking of ideas for whatever problem
you want to solve and one idea always inspires more. Crazy ideas are
encouraged since they might also lead to good, tangible ones.

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praptak
Brake lights that show intensity: check. I have read of at least 2 proof-of-
concept implementations - one is two red bars plus a white bar (white bar
should be instantly recognizable as "reverse") another goes circle->triangle
(warning) -> large hexagon (stop!)

Update: I believe that some Mercedes models actually have brake lights that
flash during strong braking. Google "adaptive brake lights" for more info.

~~~
wazoox
Many recent european cars automatically flash warnings when braking strongly.

~~~
kleiba
I'd be astonished if blinking braking lights were allowed in a country like
Germany. I once read that a truck driver was fined in Germany because he had a
small illuminated Christmas tree in his cockpit, by which he was breaking the
specific part of their traffic laws that regulates vehicle lights. That must
truly have felt like the most wonderful time of the year for that poor guy.

~~~
wazoox
In Europe braking lights and turning lights are distinct and of different
color (red vs orange). Many cars now flash the warnings (both turning lights
together) when strongly braking, following a common usage among european
motorists.

~~~
davidw
Yeah, at least here in Italy it's pretty common that if you have to slow down
suddenly because the road is blocked (due to a traffic jam or whatever), you
turn on the emergency blinking lights so the people behind you will be aware
of the need to slow down and stop.

~~~
mikepurvis
I do this (Ontario, Canada), but I don't know if I've ever actually seen it
done by anyone else. Our 400-series highways tend to have very good forward
visibility, though—there isn't really such thing as a jam just over the crest
of a hill.

~~~
3pt14159
I do this in Ontario too, someone saved my life by doing this as I was
entering the fog from around a corner and didn't have time to adjust my speed.

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jacquesm
The starter-less engine.

If the ECU knows the position of the crank (because of the encoder on the
crank these days) it also knows which piston is past top-dead-point.

Inject some fuel in to the air already present in the cylinder, spark and go!

No starter motor required.

Regarding the ideas, I think the way you are organized and how you have this
set up is at least as impressive as the fact that you've had 1000 (not so bad)
ideas. My way of 'filing' an idea is usually to register a domain name in the
hope that when the time to fish for a new project comes around that I still
remember what it was about.

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tcarnell
Great post - but I kinda disagree that an idea can be bad.

A system that pauses music when you remove headphones would solve a problem,
thus it's a good idea - it's just a small issue of the implementation.

Probably most of those 1000 ideas are not bad, but might be difficult or
infeasible to implement.

RE: headphones - there could be many possible solutions to this - I think
Casio makes a watch that activates the backlight when you raise you rist to
look at the time - same technology.

~~~
frobozz
It may solve a problem, but it creates a new one. Before listening to my mp3
player on a train, I leave the buds out of my ears and hold them in front of
me, to gauge volume so as to not annoy my fellow passengers.

This practice is rendered impossible by this proposed technology.

That said, as an idea, it isn't bad. However, I contend that the statement
that ideas can't be bad, is wrong. The idea of eliminating all Jews, gays and
Gypsies to fix Germany's economic problems strikes me as a pretty bad idea.

~~~
wlievens
> This practice is rendered impossible by this proposed technology.

Put a fifteen second delay on it. Problem solved.

I have that habit too, actually, in the workplace for instance.

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waxman
I like _not_ writing my ideas down, because it acts as a simple filter.

If an idea is actually compelling, then it will stay with me even if I don't
write it down (and I'll continue to think about it, expand upon it, tinker
with it, etc.). If I don't remember it, then it probably wasn't that
interesting to begin with.

~~~
yef
A "bad", or perhaps more accurately "marginal" or "nifty but unprofitable" can
still help the creative process leading to "good" ideas. The marginal one may
end up as a feature of the killer app you build later, or the unprofitable one
may see some future profit potential as other factors change.

I track all mine, good or bad, and when I'm feeling uninspired or burned out
on what I'm working on, I like to go back and at least have a laugh at all the
old ideas.

------
Prisen
_In-ear headphones that automatically pause music when removed._

Sony Ericsson has already implemented this!
<http://www.sonyericsson.com/putyourearsincontrol/>

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lkozma
Here's a nice public list of ideas from one person:
<http://iotd.patrickandrews.com/>

Here's another one: <http://stealchoofsideas.blogspot.com/>

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madebylaw
I regularly record my ideas like this. Most have never been implemented, but I
find the exercise of writing them down and thinking them through helpful and
rewarding in itself.

If anyone is interested, the site is free and hosted here:
<http://idealogue.heroku.com>

Source here: <http://github.com/robinator/ideas>

~~~
eagleal
You may want to know that input isn't filtered:
<http://idealogue.heroku.com/ideas/54>

Look page source Line 70 to 94.

~~~
madebylaw
Thanks, I'll check it out.

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hendler
Like the post a lot. Don't think they are "bad" ideas. Worse ideas are
successful every day.

Not exciting to say, but ideas are a small part of success. Or said another
way, to implement one idea, you need 1000 good ideas.

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user24
There are companies out there making money selling paper and water. Having a
great idea helps, but just creating _something_ is the hardest part.

~~~
dchs
Selling it is more important than creating it.

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8ren
How do you make it so neat? As soon as I write an idea, I start to iterate
(generalizing, specifizing, implementing, MVP, MVImplementation, niches, copy,
trying to find the essence of the idea, and how to express it). I'm not saying
my way is better, since it's very difficult-impossible to later read as a
reference. The only useful result is in my mind.

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anigbrowl
_Does anyone else generate ideas like this? And if so, what percentage turn
out to be good?_

Yes, though regrettably without your level of discipline and patience, so
reviewing my old notebooks makes me feel scatterbrained. One thing I'm going
to steal from you is the practice of numbering concepts: quantifying them is a
great way to mitigate over- _and_ under-confidence.

Of course, a lot of 'bad' ideas only seem so because it's not obvious _at the
time_ how the cost of implementation would justify the benefit. For example, I
like your idea of pausing the music when the headphones are off. Downside: the
requirement for sensors in the headphones, signal infrastructure going back to
the sound source, and so on. Possible workaround: ability to measure micro-
variations in power consumption consistent with worn/unworn pressure
differentials.

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dvk
For a couple of years, my lab managers would rely on my idea rate in setting
quarterly goals for number of invention disclosures filed. Yes, we did MBO and
OKR even in research labs.

Fortunately, I was able to keep my filing to disclosure ratio quite high
(21/36) (even if it was never tracked officially). Agree that just because the
company decides to file a patent does not automatically make it a good idea.

Eventually I got back to coding and went away from ideas. The gulf between
ideas and implementation is not just time, its also mindset. I am learning how
to balance the two.

------
jonpaul
I'm still wondering if this idea is good:
<http://techneur.com/post/635311152/announcing-mindspread> Call it 'Pay-It-
Forward for Books'

It's essentially a webapp where you give someone a book with the promise that
when they are done reading it, they will then give it someone else, and so on
and so forth. You could then visualize your 'impact' upon the world by seeing
how many books you've spread and where they've gone.

Any input?

~~~
TheSOB88
Similar idea: <http://www.bookmooch.com/>

You're supposed to trade books, you use points to order books, get points by
sending them, etc.

~~~
jonpaul
Thanks for pointing this out. There is one major difference, Mindspread is
suppose to be completely altruistic.

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melissamiranda
Actually, every one of hose ideas is a good one since they all speak to an
underlying problem- that taking off your headphones means you miss your song,
or that sudden braking leads to crashes. These ideas are only a quick proposed
solution to the problem, but as anyone who has ever done a startup knows, it
takes a long time to refine your product. So don't label these ideas as bad- I
bet most of the problems they intended to solve still exist today.

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nandemo
> _In-ear headphones that automatically pause music when removed. The details
> mention using either a proximity detector to discover when the headphones
> are in the ear, or a strain gauge to detect the pressure of the ear canal._

The general idea is good but the implementation is odd. It should be enough to
do like the ipod/iphone, that pauses the music if you _unplug_ the earphones.
I don't know if it's a original idea by Apple, but I love it.

~~~
bruceboughton
If you're going to talk to someone, the natural action would be to pull the
buds out of your ear, rather than pull the lead out. This is why John's idea
is different to (and probably better than) Apple's implementation (which is
great).

It would even work for giving someone else the buds to hear a song you're
listening to. Pauses while you hand them over.

~~~
miguelpais
Yeah, but I can't think of two similar actions where it would be difficult to
define the expected behavior: sometimes you just take one bud out momentarily
to be able to listen to something external and you don't really want the music
to stop. The other one is common in teens, when they share one bud with a
friend to listen to some track together and the music should be stopped while
that bud is not put.

~~~
bruceboughton
Both are solved by only pausing when both buds are removed (which is the most
polite thing to do anyway).

------
jfarmer
The Sony MH907 ear plugs

<http://www.sonyericsson.com/putyourearsincontrol/>

I don't think they ever shipped, though.

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borismus
The number of ideas one has is a moot point really. More important is ability
to discern quality. Most important is to bring the good ones to fruition!

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WingForward
This is a good place to post and critique these sorts of ideas:
<http://www.halfbakery.com/>

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b_emery
I agree with the theme in a lot of these comments: It's a good idea if you
have a plan of attack. I've had lots of ideas (eg battery powered heated
wetsuit! damn, it's been done) and am now working on one where I have the
unique combination of training, opportunity, luck, etc.

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Tarski
What does the HN community think of having a public ideas website? Sort of
like ASK HN: Rate my startup. Users can post their ideas from inception and
receive creative input, reassurance that someone would buy that, or no-way
don't waste your time building that.

~~~
anigbrowl
I've seen a few sites like that over the years but they die fairly quickly.
This is not to say it's a waste of time, but to point out some basic problems
such a site needs to overcome.

One problem is that a general forum is not attractive to specialists (who
might have to invest time just to explain why something would be useful in the
first place), with the result that suggestions trend towards a blend of
trivial and naive. Another is the nagging sense that the more well-specified
an idea is, the more likely it is to be be exploited for private gain, and
since one can't patent or copyright an idea _per se_ , and building a
prototype plus filing an application for a patent is quite expensive, there's
not much economic incentive to develop ideas to that point, even if the goal
is to make the patent public domain (so as not to allow private monopolies).

~~~
jrussino
"one can't patent... an idea per se"

Actually, this is precisely what patents are for. You don't need to implement
an invention in order to obtain a patent, you just need to describe it in
sufficient detail "as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it
pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use [the
invention]" [1]

[1] <http://www.bitlaw.com/source/35usc/index.html>

~~~
anigbrowl
This is true, though the patent office can require a model (s.114 via the same
link), so in practice you'd probably want that on hand. I was just trying to
distinguish between the 'cool' basic idea that's not patentable and the
expensive detailed recipe that is.

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pilom
Adaptive brake lights:
<http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~ece549/spring10/team7/index.html>

Currently licensed by Bosch and integrated into at least one test vehicle.

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milkshakes
i write my ideas down, but mostly to get them _out_ of my head. or, more
accurately, _less in_ my head. i am often 'distracted' / overwhelmed by them.
putting them on paper (well, textedit to be precise) makes it easier for me to
let go of them.

