
The Value of Ideas - getp
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/05/the-value-of-ideas/
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Prrometheus
Reading this message reminds me to be humble because I was an "idea guy" up
until a few years ago. I even had a Great Big Idea that I wouldn't tell
anybody about. My hacker friend wouldn't go in on a business with me and he
wasn't tempted to build my site for $500, so I decided to learn how to build
websites myself. Boy was I shocked and frustrated by just how much there is to
learn. I started the process 2005 by learning where websites lived (I
discovered servers) and have progressed from there.

Unfortunately the pressures of making a living slowed me down for a few years,
but today I feel like I have a good perspective on what I know and what I need
to know to build what I want to. People have started to "steal" my Big Idea in
the intervening years, but that's okay because I've come up with new ones. I'm
actually pleased that the process was so hard because I have learned so much
and it has led me to attend graduate school in Computer Science this fall.

Anyways, this message is very personal to me. I have learned to admire those
who are good implementers and to strive to be one myself.

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muerdeme
Pavlina's site feels like one big informercial. Is there a term yet for blogs
like that?

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mde
You guys are being kind of tough on his blog. I really only see one ad (though
the motion is distracting).

I just spent some time reading through some of his other articles. The guy has
some great ideas: freeing mental RAM, read a book a week, putting ideas into
action, action days, making goals visible, etc. I just subscribed and am
hopeful that his future posts will be as insightful as what I've just been
reading.

~~~
menloparkbum
he had some good stuff a long time ago but then it became hard to read when he
started talking about psychic journeys into the unknown.

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GavinB
If good ideas are so worthless and easy to come up with, why are so many
startups running around with really bad ideas?

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SwellJoe
I've been surprised to note that a large number of people I've met with bad
ideas are following them because they lack the ambition or the ability to
execute on their better ideas. So they go after a market that's too small to
be worth addressing, because they can see how to get there, without realizing
that _no one_ knows exactly how to approach the huge markets. The only
difference is that they're willing to try.

Of course, I've also met people who actually are going after big ideas that
are bad because they are too big for a startup. Things that change the shape
of the world...it takes a whole market to do that. So, maybe I'm just making
up generalizations just like everybody else.

But the point about "Which would you rather build, your own ideas or someone
elses?" is the most important. Every time a "business" or "ideas" or "product"
guy starts talking about his awesome idea, and he just needs someone to
implement it, he's showing himself to be so self-involved as to be intolerable
to work with for most hackers--every hacker he talks to has his own "good"
ideas, but the "idea" guy thinks he's got a monopoly.

That's all the article is saying, and I've been around startups long enough to
know that it's generally true.

