
Ideas are Cheap - ph0rque
http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2015/8/29/ideas-are-cheap.html
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NhanH
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10141469](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10141469)

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dmitrig01
Very interesting concept, and I agree completely. One thing I've noticed in
myself – and I'm curious if others have noticed this as well – is that the
"million-dollar idea", as he puts it, never really turns out to be quite as
good as I had imagined. Especially once it's been stored away for some time,
under the pretense that I don't have the ability to explore it, it seems to be
dramatically worse than what I had it made out to be.

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mrqwerty
I have maybe 30 really good ideas in a note book I keep at home. All of them
could make me money, maybe lots of money. But like all the other wage slaves
out there, I do not have the time to make them happen.

Ideas are cheap, they are easy. The hard part is being born into wealth.

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joslin01
There's opportunities for everyone who works hard toward achieving their
vision. Many times, not being born into wealth ends up being a greater driver
than being born into it. In my personal experience, all those ones you
probably envy that are working on their "dreams" are also working 2-4 hours a
day at most because their wealth has given them too much comfort. Many will
spend a lot of the day just talking and delude themselves that it's work, but
really, it's just laziness.

The idea that you (and presumably others) are incapable of working on your own
ideas because you're not wealthy is ludicrous, and nothing more than an excuse
to validate inaction. If you want something, go get it.

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crdoconnor
How many star CEOs from the inner cities or trailer parks do you know?

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volaski
You are yourself and you can do whatever you want. The stats are just stats.
Just because no one has seen a black swan before, does not mean black swan
doesn't exist. It is foolish to think that it is impossible to achieve
something and give up even without trying just because of the stats.

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crdoconnor
It's shit like this that made Steinbeck call America a nation of temporary
embarrassed millionaires.

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volaski
What does "America" have anything to do with this? You could complain all day
long about how bad of a situation you are in, or you could do something about
it, and that's a fact.

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crdoconnor
Boundless optimism and "the power of positive thinking" are uniquely American.

It's generally assumed that positive thinking is how you get ahead (another
American belief), but that doesn't seem to be the case:
[http://www.newyorker.com/currency-tag/the-powerlessness-
of-p...](http://www.newyorker.com/currency-tag/the-powerlessness-of-positive-
thinking)

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volaski
How is something as common as "positive thinking" unique to American? I don't
understand how you picked up that idea. It's like saying "being courteous to
elders" is uniquely Chinese.

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unabst
Ideas are cheap but they heavily determine the outcome also.

#1. Ideas are seeds. They grow into the trees that then give us fruit, and it
takes work to get to the fruit that is so valuable. Yet, without the seeds we
would have nothing. So if you're into trees and want fruit, you still cannot
avoid the idea problem. And you cannot avoid the fact that the value of your
fruit will be proportional to the value of the original idea. So if you're
about to put a day, a week, or a year into an idea, it better be a damn good
idea.

#2. Ideas require more ideas. People seek that one amazing idea and think
they're done. Hell no. We may start with one idea, but day after day new
challenges will arise as we work on that idea. And the only way to solve those
challenges is with great ideas. We can look at an iPhone and say, "touch, ya
of course", but the designers and engineers know that there were countless
ideas that made the original concept work. If something about an idea is not
working, chances are another idea can fix it.

#3. Ideas only come from the mind. So in the end, the fruit that lends itself
to the idea lends itself to the person or persons that came up with them --
the source of instructions for all the right work. This makes the constant
thinker an invaluable part of the entire process. And thank goodness there is
that constant thinker in all of us, as well as that constant worker that gets
those instructions done.

“We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”

― Noam Chomsky

IMHO those with the greatest ideas have already proven to be our heros.
Everyone works, ideas are what generate work, and working on ideas is work
also. There is no choice between the seed (ideas), the nurturing (execution),
and the soil (environment). They are all mission critical, and depend on one
another. And there really is no swapping of seeds, no rewinding the clock, and
no replacing the soil. Granted we ever get that far, if the product or service
does suck, the company must rot. We are free to thank the people, the
opportunity, the journey, and all we learnt from it, but in the end the ideas
are only there to be damned. Ideas: Cheap but crucial. Always bring as many as
you can.

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ThomPete
The problem of course is that you have to "run the program" so to speak in
order to figure out which ideas are actually going to stick and in turn which
one you should then go with.

Its not much different than being presented with a thousand logos and then
having to decide which one you are going to choose.

In other words producing a thousand ideas isn't going to help you unless you
try them all out. If you could; most likely what you would find, is that your
most stupid ideas are going to be the biggest winners.

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Kalium
I tend to tell "idea guys" \- and it's almost always guys - that ideas are
worth their weight in gold. For precisely this reason.

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tasmay
Agreed. The best way to generate more ideas is to implement the ones you
already have, so you can know what works and what doesn't. Fail early and
quickly and then get up and get going onto some other idea!

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chm
This link was posted 4 days ago and made the front page.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10141469](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10141469)

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escape_goat
If anyone is experiencing any deja-vu, this was also posted about four days
ago (by the author, I believe).

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source99
This seems like it's all about the fear of failure.

