
Ideas are Worthless, Execution is Priceless - d_c
http://www.bauerfive.com/?p=56
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xcv
Ideas are not worthless, ideas are the foundation of everything. The problem
with this post, and indeed of many of the Hacker News acolytes, is the
mistaken belief that "worth" is only measured in dollars. This is a narrow-
hearted and ignorant attitude certain to end in misery. Can you say "GFC"?
Ideas without good execution are NOT worthless. Execution without a good idea
is a distraction from life, and unfortunately many in the "startup" game are
terminally distracted, resulting in an endless stream of tech-based companies
that trot out unimaginative versions of a half-baked idea vaguely related to
"web community" or "crowd sourcing", but measured only in terms of "worth" as
it relates to (imaginary) money. These execution-without-idea projects are
completely unconcerned with the real meaning of "worth", ie, that which
contributes meaningfully to the growth of love and compassion.

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seiwyn
I disagree with the title. Not all ideas are good ideas, so having an idea
that is worth executing is certianly not worthless.

Obviously, if you dont execute it then it becomes worthless.

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prs
The headline makes me revisit <http://sivers.org/multiply>.

Execution is in (almost) all cases the hard part of the equation.

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kenjackson
If ideas had more intrinsic value, there'd probably be a market for ideas. But
really there is none. Almost no one is willing to pay you for an idea.

The closest we come to such a market is the patent market. But again here, it
is virtually never the case that a company buys another company to actually
implement its ideas. When was the last time you heard that a patent troll was
bought in order to create a product? Never (or rarely).

~~~
andrewljohnson
I disagree. I don't consider "ideas" to be elevator pitches about projects. I
consider "ideas" to be fundamental insights about markets or software or
technology, and there is a huge market for this, whether that's consulting or
a product business or a hybrid.

Just because people don't get paid to glibly shoot their mouthes off
(usually), doesn't mean there is no meaningful market for ideas.

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kenjackson
People I know in consulting don't get paid for their ideas. They get paid for
their results and their experience in tackling certain types of problems.

Fundamentally, the ideas don't stand on their own. Their backed by a name
institution that delivers results on the ideas.

Ideas are nice, but they're a dime a dozen.

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equark
This statement is becoming incredibly cliche. Ideas are not sufficient but
they are necessary. There are many well executed but fundamentally worthless
products. I find most startups mentioned on hacker news well executed but I
often just can't get excited by them because the underlying idea is so
uninteresting and trivial. It's actually a sad waste of talent.

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norswap
A nice take on the subject :
<http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_value_of_ideas/>

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InclinedPlane
Ideas are plenty valuable, some of them very much so (e.g. "germs cause
disease"). But ideas _without_ good execution are worthless. And teams who
execute well tend to avoid being shackled to bad ideas, they'll transform them
to good ideas along the way.

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GBKS
The egg is worthless, the chicken is priceless.

You need both. One is the beginnging of the road, the other is the end. Many
things happen in between. Let's not see the world so black and white please.

