
Ideas are Cheap - jamis
http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2015/8/29/ideas-are-cheap.html
======
nostrademons
When I was younger, I used to marvel at all the people who said they wished
they could do a startup but couldn't come up with any ideas. I can usually sit
down and write up a half-dozen ideas in an hour. They're not worth being
possessive about, simply because there are so many of them.

Having spent the better part of a year thinking up ideas and testing them in
front of users, I'll revise that opinion. Ideas are cheap. _Good_ ideas are
incredibly valuable. It's really easy to sit down and think up ideas that seem
like they'd be both plausible and useful. It's much harder to find ideas that
1) can be implemented by a small team with virtually no resources 2) excite
other people enough to overcome their "activation energy" and get them to try
it out 3) would be useful enough in everyday life to keep them using it and 4)
aren't already being done by dozens of other people. The filter isn't "1% of
ideas that you dream up are actually good ones", it's more like "1% of ideas
that you dream up _and think are actually good ones_ actually are good ones."

~~~
danieltillett
Really good idea are rare. Bad ideas are common and sometimes because of luck
and hard work bad ideas succeed. This causes people to discount the importance
of truly good ideas.

The idea is one of the most important components to success - a good idea
won’t guarantee success, but it makes it much more likely.

~~~
wpietri
Maybe. I think the "good idea leads to riches" story is much more often
constructed in retrospect because people like tidy narratives.

I also think that the whole notion of "good idea" is misleading, in that a lot
of people think that good ideas come out of the blue and then you just run
with them. The companies I find interesting don't start with one good idea;
they iterate toward success and have hundreds of ideas along the way,
winnowing the good from the bad.

Ernest Hemingway wrote, "The first draft of anything is shit." Artist friends
say, "To make good art, you first have to make a lot of bad art." Ira Glass
said, "It is only by going through a volume of work that [...] your work will
be as good as your ambitions." I think this is true for all creative work.

~~~
danieltillett
I agree with this. Good ideas almost never come all at once and often need to
be worked on over a long time period. In the end though what matters is not
how long, or how much effort it took, but how good the idea is.

~~~
wpietri
In that case, I don't think we're really talking about the idea. What we're
talking about is that the idea has been validated through a lot of hard work.
Ideas are still cheap; what's valuable is knowledge.

~~~
danieltillett
I consider an idea everything pre-execution. I have had the odd goodish idea
in a flash of brilliance, but the truely good ideas all took a lot of thinking
and improvement over time. For example, the idea I am working on right now as
my next venture I had 15 years ago, but I could not think of any way to
monetarize it. Three months ago I finally worked out a way of doing this and
have since been spending around 20% of my time filling knowledge gaps and
planning what I need to do to begin execution. Right now I have nothing but an
idea, but it is a well thought out and considered idea that I think has a
reasonable chance of success.

------
codexon
This pithy expression is overused and I would argue, unhelpful.

Ideas are cheap, but ideas that will make you rich are rare. And the ones that
no one else is already working on are even rarer.

I remember reading another one of these blog posts with 1000 startup ideas and
they were either ludicrously niche ideas with 0 market value like carpets for
dogs, or in the realm of PhD research like making cellphone batteries last
longer.

Ideas are not equal.

~~~
swombat
On the other hand, most of the best ideas seem like ludicrous ideas at first,
so discarding an idea just because it seems ludicrous when glanced at may not
be the smartest thing to do.

Getting into the habit of validating ideas is a good thing, but there's also
something to be said for sticking with an idea that has a few serious issues
and pivoting it until it actually makes sense (e.g. AirBNB).

~~~
kristopolous
If the idea of "A capitalist version of couchsurfing.com" was pitched to me,
I'd think internally "a silly idea I don't want to be involved in. What absurd
ideas these buffoons come up with. I hate the valley."

The most financially successful ideas to me, quite literally sound like they
were produced in a 5-minute writing assignment given to a 3rd grader.

I remember talking with the snapchat people a couple years ago when it was
just starting up. I thought "another clowncar with some half-baked idea that I
could have generated with a perl script". The founders are billionaires now.

Having dumb ideas seem to be more communicable and easier to comprehend.
Status updates but only 140 characters! Video uploads but only 6 seconds! mms
and sms chat, but not archived! Please - these are the hottest ideas? Really?

Let's make an email service that limits you to sending 1 email a day or a
voicemail service that limits you to 10 second recordings. A shower nozzle
that turns off after 5 gallons. A restaurant that kicks you out after 800
calories. Is this where we are now?

~~~
billforsternz
> A restaurant that kicks you out after 800 calories.

That strikes me as being a rather brilliant idea actually. I wouldn't be at
all surprised if someone made a ton of money from that one.

~~~
kristopolous
[http://www.skynnykitchen.com/](http://www.skynnykitchen.com/) is the
execution I know of in this space. There's actually a lot of movement in the
gimmicky restaurant space (there's successful franchises that are ONLY
cupcakes, ONLY grilled cheese or ONLY milkshakes - it's totally absurd). LA's
restaurant culture could have been written by Dr Seuss.

~~~
collyw
I am curious how the hipster cereal bar in London is doing after the novelty
has worn off.

------
gkoberger
This is a pretty common bit of advice, and I agree 100%.

That being said, coming up with _your_ idea is hard. I could come up with a
dozen ideas that could be huge businesses; finding that one idea that _I_ can
make a huge business is where it gets hard. I could come up with the idea for
AirBnb or Zenefits easily, but never in a million years could I personally
have made it.

Founder-Market Fit is a hugely underrated correlation.

~~~
danieltillett
If you can’t execute on the idea then it is not a good idea. A good idea is
more than just an idea that in an ideal world would work, it is one that will
work within the constraints you face.

~~~
gkoberger
Sure, but that misses my point. It's not that I just don't have the skills to
make AirBnb or Zenefits; I just don't have the passion or understanding. While
the AirBnb founders spent 1000 days with no traction and powered through; I
would have given up after 100.

My point was, the idea and the founder need the right chemistry.

~~~
danieltillett
An idea that you don’t have the passion or understanding for is not one that
fits within your constraints and so is not a good idea. As you rightly point
out an idea has to fit the founder or else it is not a good idea.

------
volaski
"Ideas are cheap" is a misleading expression. The full expression is "Ideas
are cheap without execution". But same goes for "Execution is cheap without a
good idea". I'm annoyed at people preaching this expression out of context as
if they know what they're talking about. From my experience, those who
actually get stuff done appreciate BOTH execution AND ideas. Great ideas are
very hard to come by, and the winners fully appreciate it and make sure they
execute them when they see one. On the other hand, the losers always circle
jerk about how ideas are worth nothing (while not actually doing anything
themselves which is ironic). It's probably because they don't value the ideas
that they never have enough motivation to execute on them.

------
ElHacker
Having the habit of writing down your ideas everyday sounds like a good
exercise to improve your redaction skills. I don't see much more value other
than that. Yes, ideas are cheap, getting them to actually produce value is
not. On the other hand I would argue that the best piece of advice in this
blog post is the development of discipline itself.

Developing discipline is difficult and expensive. At the beginning is a hard
process. You need to get used to come everyday, sit down and do whatever you
are supposed to do. The first few days/weeks you might want to set an special
time for your activity. This time slot must be immovable and sacred. As the
days go by you will develop a certain dependency on your routine, I call that
effect momentum. Once you get a bit of momentum everything becomes easier and
very enjoyable.

I'm on the process of developing discipline myself. I come everyday for 1 to 2
hours after my day job, sit down, grab an English etymology book to improve my
vocabulary, and do the exercises very methodically. I do this because English
is not my first language. The days I don't do my work I notice that something
is missing, I even feel guilty for not pushing myself to do my daily routine.
Using excuses makes my guilt even worse. That's why I do my best to not fail
my routine.

When applied, discipline is a powerful tool to fully develop any of your
ideas. And that's where the real value is.

------
Dwolb
I know it's really common to say that ideas are cheap, but I feel as though
this line is too reductionist. I feel as though there are different levels of
ideas. Yes, it's really easy to just say whatever ideas are on the top of your
mind - and those ideas are cheap.

But true insight - bringing new, relevant data or new analysis to a problem
and sound logic - framing your idea within the context of an organization or
industry in a manner that can be executed by a business, is maybe a few steps
above a random idea.

~~~
wpietri
Sure, but your latter paragraph describes ideas + work. The idea is cheap;
what's valuable is the proof.

Startups are a great example of this. Nobody at all buys ideas. Nobody.
Startup ideas are, in market valuation, worthless. But go out and validate the
idea, prove that they're money to be made, and you'll start to see investment.
Actually generate results and somebody like Google or Facebook might want to
buy you. But if you show up with unproven ideas and try to sell them, you'll
discover that they have security guards to keep you out.

------
chralieboy
Ideas may be cheap, but that doesn't mean that good ones are not valuable.
Execution against a bad idea is my largest frustration with SV.

Consider Color[1]. Raised $41m for a genuinely terribly idea. Social
networking with random people in your vicinity just isn't a good idea. All of
the time and effort spent solving that "problem" was a waste of brilliant
people's limited life.

On the other hand, the AirBnB team has executed tremendously well. Their idea
is also excellent. To say that ideas are cheap is to discount the vision of a
company. It's to repeat the tired maxim that hard-work is all it takes to be
successful. But no matter how hard you work towards putting Tinder on the
Blockchain, it is still a terrible idea.

Start with a vision of how you the world will be different, then apply
execution towards that.

[1] [http://mashable.com/2012/10/17/color-shuts-
down/](http://mashable.com/2012/10/17/color-shuts-down/)

~~~
volaski
I actually think Color was a great idea compared to thousands of "Uber for X"
ideas launching everyday nowadays. At least they tried to do something novel.
In my book Color was a good idea executed badly. That said, idea is something
that cannot be judged objectively. You saying Color is a bad idea is not
different from people saying Twitter was a bad idea when it first launched.
The only difference is one succeeded and the other didn't. Oh and I think
"Tinder on Blockchain" is a good idea.

~~~
rokhayakebe
_I actually think Color was a great idea_

Me as well. Proximity is a sparkle for relationships. Look at the workplace. I
have seen this time and time again, people who sit close to each other develop
closer relationships. In small towns, the people you live close to are your
primary friends, and if they aren't the people you used to live close to
(before they or you moved) are your closed friends.

~~~
olejorgenb
Mediumish association: [http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/08/19/urban-
tribe/](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/08/19/urban-tribe/)

------
crimsonalucard
Ideas aren't just cheap. They are free and in many instances completely
worthless.

What isn't cheap is transforming an idea into reality.

~~~
jamis
Absolutely. Which is all the more reason why holding those ideas close is
silly. Get some practice making those ideas real, and learn how to execute on
something well.

------
akgordon
Discipline is a (very underrated) virtue.

In my personal experience, discipline is the differentiating factor that
dramatically increases chances of carrying an idea through to completion. I
liked this take on the 'ideas person'(TL;DR - be a 'follow through' person)
[https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/the-idea-
pe...](https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/the-idea-
person-e08e36f9024d)

~~~
afarrell
Among what community is it underrated? It seems to be very highly valued.
Maybe it is still under-valued even given that, but I'd be surprised.

------
Animats
Blog posts, however, are cheap.

~~~
kelukelugames
Agree. I'm surprised that this needs to be said on HN.

------
lostcolony
This reminds me of an observation I had when a family member, who had never
talked about such things with me before, finally said he had an idea for a
novel, and detailed it to me. He had never said anything about it before, he
never said anything about it afterwards, and as far as I know, never worked on
it.

Everyone has ideas for such in their heads, I think. Making up stories is a
decidedly human activity. But what makes an author is not merely having an
idea, but putting in the work to sit down, hammer out that idea, and refine it
until it's good enough to sell. Even in the face of crippling self doubt, the
knowledge people may not be interested, it may not find a publisher, etc,
they're the ones who manage to get it done and get it out there.

I'd imagine correlations could be drawn to business ideas, but I don't know
that business ideas are as universal as stories.

------
jeremynixon
Reminds me of James Altucher: [http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2014/05/the-
ultimate-guide-for-...](http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2014/05/the-ultimate-
guide-for-becoming-an-idea-machine/)

------
jonesb6
Coming up with an idea, thoroughly validating it, and executing it well is
hard. The value of each individual step is completely relative to the
situation and should not be generalized to get blog readers..

I found the title inappropriate for the actual content of the post. That said
the content itself resonated with me, particularly the part about trying to
write every day, which is something I've done in the past.

I just hate hearing the same unqualified line over and over..

------
Xunxi
The fact that the hive-mind plays along with this doesn't mean one should go
off parroting their potential moneymakers to people who could expediently
execute it before they do.

Some ideas are your potential trade secrets. Simple design patterns was enough
differential for Apple to sue Samsung in April 2011, alleging it had “copied”
the designs of the iPhone and iPad.

Whatever it is think twice before you you round parroting it.

~~~
robsim1
Well said.

I often wonder how a new product has many competitors within weeks of launch.
Can't just be that everybody thought of it at once.

The hive mind will explain this away as coincidence but could there be
something more sinister going on.

Investors are cavalier about this "trust us with your idea" rhetoric but the
truth is that you, as the pig in the bacon & egg breakfast, have no recourse.

They may have liked your idea but not the team. They may have underperforming
companies in need of a pivot.

The fact that cap tables get passed around from so called confidential
meetings should scream play your cards close to your chest.

What else are they sharing?

Principles often crumble under self interest.

------
LiweiZ
The lesson I learned is any idea is just the entrance of a
chain/tree/network/set of ideas. Given the number of all the ideas hidden
behind the entrance one, just think about the possibility of getting most of
them right, it's easy to have the notion that entrance ideas are cheap. To be
clearer, a team need lots of ideas in execution phase as well.

------
sockywok
[https://sivers.org/multiply](https://sivers.org/multiply)

------
robsim1
It's like saying metals are cheap. What level of discernment has the idea been
subjected to? Can it be built quickly, cheaply and have wide ranging emotional
hooks?

Many people don't do ideation properly.

People who say ideas are worthless just don't have good ideas.

Declarative blanket statements are worthless.

~~~
Plough_Jogger
> "Declarative blanket statements are worthless", he declared, in reference to
> all blanket statements.

~~~
robsim1
:) the irony was deliberate.

------
abrbhat
Given the fact that it is extremely easy to conjure ideas out of thin air, the
better way would be to look for executable solutions to valuable problems.

------
trhway
Patents in wholesale seems to be going for 0.5-1M/piece. Is it cheap or not is
a matter of personal perspective.

------
ryanSrich
I'd argue that ideas are only valuable if you're the one who can execute on
them.

------
anton_tarasenko
The idea of using second-price auctions in ads sales gave Google tens of
billions of dollars. Though Google didn't invent it.

Many expensive ideas are embodied in patents and code.

Cheap ideas exist, but not all ideas are cheap.

