

Ideas Aren't Worthless - bozho
http://techblog.bozho.net/?p=1317

======
dkersten
In every context I've heard or said myself that ideas are worthless, it has
always been about money.

You build the product for some equity and I bring the idea - no, ideas are
worthless.

I'll sell the idea - no, ideas are worthless.

I can't tell you what I'm building without an NDA because you'll steal my idea
- no, ideas are worthless.

The context of "ideas are worthless" has never, in my experience, been that of
personal projects, learning projects or other things you do for fun. In these
cases ideas obviously aren't worthless.

~~~
lewispollard
Yes, the context I've heard this phrase the most is in Craigslist posts, for
example, where someone's had the idea for the 'next facebook' and wants a
developer to build it for him. It's not so much that the idea itself is
worthless (though it very well might be) - it's just that in terms of value,
the person who has the idea is probably going to contribute nothing to the
implementation of the idea, which is the part that takes solid hard work,
planning and maintenance.

It's not so much that the idea is worthless - it's that a person whose only
role in the implementation is to come up with the idea in the first place is
worthless to the process of implementation.

~~~
danieltillett
This is generally true, but the implementer(s) may think that the idea
originator will have more good ideas in the future - they may decide to cut
the idea originator in just to get access to their future ideas.

~~~
dkersten
The future ideas are just as worthless than the first.

------
etanazir
Ideas are like children. People love their own; and relatively few others.

~~~
kristopolous
did you just come up with that? it's a pretty brilliant turn of the word.

~~~
etanazir
Apparently; after googling; it seems I plagiarized this.

~~~
angersock
Way to steal someone else's child. You monster.

------
ctdonath
_I can have a dozen ideas per day._

And that's why they're close enough to worthless to not bother qualifying the
descriptor. They're easy to make, and if you don't do anything with any of
them (which amounts to darned near 100% of all of them) they're worthless.
Think of all the otherwise useful stuff you throw out because one piece is
missing: an idea without execution is destined to the mental trash bin.

~~~
bozho
Some ideas are worthless. Not all of them, and the hard task is to
distinguish. And an idea is not simply "hey' let's have this". An idea
includes specifics :)

------
patrickmay
“That's why it's always worth having a few philosophers around the place. One
minute it's all Is Truth Beauty and Is Beauty Truth, and Does A Falling Tree
in the Forest Make A Sound if There's No one There to Hear It, and then just
when you think they're going to start dribbling one of 'em says, Incidentally,
putting a thirty-foot parabolic reflector on a high place to shoot the rays of
the sun at an enemy's ships would be a very interesting demonstration of
optical principles.”

\-- The many and varied advantages of philosophy

(Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

------
gruntmaster9000
Ideas are valueless, not worthless. Obligatory link to Derek Sivers’ ideas
being multipliers: [http://sivers.org/multiply](http://sivers.org/multiply)

------
mox1
It's not that ideas are worthless, more like ideas are like assholes, everyone
has one. Ideas are cheap, execution, implementation and "finish" is hard.

------
rjf90
I think founders are inspired by the challenge of creating a company. The
whole "I could make this but it's not interesting enough" is an excuse I used
for a long long time. There are things I would never do (such as social media)
because they don't interest me in the least bit. But, the fact is, you will
probably pivot. And if you do, you may be working on something that is no
longer interesting to you.

But, building a company is interesting to me. Creating culture, cultivating
talent, contributing to GDP and changing an industry are the motivational
factors behind me creating a company. And it's extremely challenging. Anybody
can create interesting technology; turning it into an self sustaining business
is the hard part.

Just my two cents. I agree that ideas are not worthless. Some are plain bad.
I've always wanted to ask a VC, "If ideas are so worthless, and the focus is
on the founders, why do you have them pitch their company to judge them?
Wouldn't another interview process be better."

------
DjangoReinhardt
Slightly OT, but I ran the text your blog post through the TextAnalysis API
demo (another link on HN's front-page today) and got a very interesting
summary. In fact, I think it captures the soul of your post in the last
two/three lines:

> An idea will bring you nowhere – you need implementation, focus, a good
> team, the right environment, luck, etc. > And I won’t argue with that –
> obviously, an idea doesn’t bring you anywhere by itself. > But that’s the
> perspective of the businessman. > And that’s all great. > Except that it’s
> not technology.

DISCLAIMER: Not affiliated with AYLIEN, TextAnalysis or the OP of this post.
Just a random commenter, that's all.

------
meerita
I think one of the main objectives of anyone is to achieve freedom. I think
hackers do this, they do stuff to first achieve the freedom to pursuit other
achievements. I dont care the money, I just want enough money to seriously do
all the things I want.

~~~
adventured
I've never understood this.

You want money, you want what it offers, but you don't care about money. That
strikes me as an inherent contradiction in terms. Money represents your time,
labor, etc.; it's merely a vessel holding value you've generated. I assume you
do care about those things. If you work for 80 hours to generate $8,000 -
those dollars you get represent your time and labor. Would you then say you
don't care about your life / time / labor?

I'm also guessing that the response to supposedly not care about money, is
because the love of money as an end in itself is viewed as being evil. Money
is properly merely a tool for exchange however. Who doesn't regard their own
time to possess a high value?

~~~
meerita
I believe money becomes important when you need it to survive. When you have
all the money you need to survive, it becomes irrelevant since it doesn't
represent the problem. Most millionaires I've meet don't care about the money,
they mostly care about the projects they're involved into. They know they have
money, they know they will get more money. I want to have that feeling: to not
worry about the money at all till the last day of my life and worry about the
things I want to do. Most of us will do this while working: someone hires you
to code, to paint, but isn't the same, imho.

------
wellpast
"The ultimate point is not to have a startup, to get acquired, to make money.
The ultimate point is to make something cool, something different, something
technologically innovative."

The point to make money is no more selfless and noble than the point of making
something technologically cool.

I think the only selfless goal is to find and solve a problem that needs a
solution.

------
memossy
Simple ideas are worth little.

Ideas that are well-researched, catching a good technological or sociological
wave, consider possible pitfalls and optimal implementation plans that are
presented in a professional manner can be worth a considerable amount
monetarily.

------
danieltillett
Great ideas are the ideas that aren't worthless.

~~~
wellboy
Hm, can you name one idea, where the idea was so strong that the execution
didn't really matter?

~~~
danieltillett
Yep :)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematical_Theory_of_Commun...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematical_Theory_of_Communication)

~~~
wellboy
Mhmmm, but you can't really call that an idea anymore. Then you could also
count Einstein's theory of relativity as an idea, since with these two the
execution is basically proving things mathematically, no?

An idea as it is debated here is more like a paragraph describing the idea.

~~~
danieltillett
These are certainly great ideas that have value outside of any implimentation.
A simpler pure idea of great value would be something like the Kelly Criterion
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion)

------
TheBiv
I mean, it's good to have write ups that speak to the broader point that an
idea by itself can have inherent value and then it ceases to have value if you
don't execute on it.

Maybe thinking about ideas like a limited time coupon is probably the best way
to summarize the idea vs execution debate, in my mind.

------
h4m
"Ideas are worthless" is obviously false -- investors will _occasionally_
invest on an idea alone, so there is clearly some value to them. "MOST ideas
are worthless", however, is very much true. "GOOD ideas are priceless".

~~~
gallerytungsten
An investor who invests in "an idea alone" is actually investing in the person
(or team). They believe that the person with the idea is capable of
implementing it. Implementation is where the value lies.

------
falicon
It's the combination of idea + you that creates the value for a given
idea...and that value is always relative to how valuable the 'you' in that
equation really is (and keep in mind that value is always relative)

------
pekk
Ideas can be useful to those who have the ability to execute them.

Ideas guys are not useful because they do not have that ability.

~~~
alexqgb
Meaning "Ideas are worthless" is a (semi) polite way of saying " _You_ are
worthless".

~~~
npsimons
Maybe a more tactful (and effective) response: "if your idea is so good, why
aren't _you_ implementing it?"

~~~
alexqgb
The obvious answer is "Because I can't." Unfortunately, this admission of
incompetence carries a nasty subtext which is "because the task in question is
beneath me."

That's why you hear people saying "It's 'just' a matter of execution", which
simultaneously elevates the person with the idea while diminishing the person
bringing it to life (which frequently requires fairly major departures from
the initial concept).

God I hate that word, "just". 9 out of 10 times the person using it is an
irredeemable asshole.

~~~
npsimons
_Unfortunately, this admission of incompetence carries a nasty subtext which
is "because the task in question is beneath me."_

Funny how their idea is _so_ valuable and would make _so_ much money if
implemented, but it's still "beneath" them. If it ain't worth them "lowering
themselves to that level", it ain't worth my time to consider implementing it,
much less signing something like an NDA or agreement where I do most of the
work and they keep most of the profits.

------
sharemywin
anyone who says ideas are worthless has never tried to execute on a bad idea.

------
devanti
ideas are like a tool. it's only useful if you know what to do with it

------
robomartin
This keeps coming back to HN every n months. At this point i would expect
every HN reader to fully understand that ideas are, at best, a potential
starting point from which opportunities might be discovered. The vast majority
of ideas anyone generates do not align with real opportunities and, therefore,
would be foolish to pursue. An idea backed up by a tangible and real
opportunity could very well be like finding a diamond in dirt. The value is in
opportunities.

I'd rather someone come to me with an opportunity than an idea. You can throw
money at an opportunity and have it multiply. Not so with ideas.

Now, to be fair, sometimes it is really hard to recognize and even quantify
the opportunity. Examples abound. Facebook, eBay and Pinterest come to mind.

------
wellboy
There is some truth to it, because there are a thousand ways to implement the
idea you had, however only five of these ways will make the idea take off.

That's why an idea without knowing exactly how to get 10,000 users without any
funding isn't worth much.

