

Ask HN: How do formalize / capture your ideas? - yourabi

This happens all the time -- you have an idea (for site) that you've been toying around with in your head for a while.<p>Do you want to formalize it -- capture it somehow in some documentation format that will allow other non-technical people to read and understand it?<p>What do you do? What do you use?
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nostrademons
Code.

I've found it's generally a lost cause to tell people about your ideas and
expect them to understand it. They'll try to fit it into their existing
conceptual framework, which is probably not what you had in mind.

You've got to _show_ them, so that they've got a new conceptual framework to
anchor their ideas to...

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qhoxie
Simplified use cases. Present it as an animation or the like. When done
properly this communicates a purpose quite well.

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rw
Build it and they will comprehend.

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gaika
Wrong. Case in the point is my startup. We've build it and it works nicely.
Most people still do not get it, probably because they do not have time and
motivation to understand it.

If your idea is too complex to explain using words the odds are high that the
implementation will not fare any better.

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entelarust
the best way to show non-technical people a new concept is by building a base
prototype

