

Your idea sucks now go do it anyway - vitomd
http://blog.asmartbear.com/your-idea-sucks-now-go-do-it-anyway.html

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6ren
It's better to act than not act, because action brings knowledge: imagine
shooting a target in the dark, and can only hear how close you were: _Ready.
Fire. Aim._ (and repeat). It's also literally what you do to find and then
correct for a mis-calibrated sight.

It's the notion that seeing reality helps _a lot_. Once you know what is
there, you can have ideas that can help. Whereas ideas that are not based on
reality are very unlikely to work.

minor e.g. I find that my problem solving works best once I've started trying
something. With each thing I try, I notice more: similarities, patterns, gaps
that could be filled, things that could be connected; and I have ideas about
how other things at hand could be used to do that. These are often obvious in
hindsight; but I didn't think of them at all beforehand.

Of course, one might not succeed anyway - the pop. stat. is 9/10 businesses
fail. But not discovering reality has even worse odds.

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dmk23
If you know your idea sucks this means you need to change it, revise it, pivot
or whatever you want to call it.

Every success that started with a lousy idea became a success because they
recognized their idea sucks and changed it, not kept perpetuating failure. It
is a very dangerous attitude to just dismiss legitimate feedback, hope
everything just magically fixes itself and lull yourself in the sense of
complacency that "it will just work out". Hope is not a strategy.

Of course it is inspirational to know that even if you start with a lousy idea
you could be able fix it. But don't assume the solution will just fall in your
lap and do the hard work pivoting your product and business.

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acgourley
While these stories are inspirational I wonder how many complete failures are
hidden behind survivor bias. I think a lean methodology would have served
those companies well without so much spent effort in their initial products.

So I guess I still agree you shouldn't sit pontificating on business ideas,
but you shouldn't just dive into building a complete something either. There
is a rich middle ground.

~~~
ctdonath
Reading the article I remembered...

For a while I was fascinated and amazed at projects pursuing absurd mega-
goals, attempts to get something off the ground so big it was nigh unto
stupid. A floating city configuring an independent libertarian utopia nation.
A billion-dollar indoor ski resort just outside Atlanta. A bridge from Spain
to Africa sporting a 5 mile suspended span. A world-class [fill in the blank,
how much ya got?] facility annex to a super-mall in "why would anyone move
there" Syracuse NY. And so on, one project after another with big flashing
"ain't gonna happen" signs over them.

Then I realized. It wasn't success of the project that was the goal, it was
keeping a small team of creatives employed in a perpetual state of promotion
and study-funding: find someone with deep enough pockets, and they'll shell
out a livable fee to be able to say "hey, look at this..." to other deep
pockets. No way that Atlanta ski resort would happen, but the idea was
exciting enough to elicit enough funding for studies to pay the bills (at
least until the vital-to-snow-making nearby lake almost dried up) for a few
people in modest offices. You can make a nice living promoting stupid ideas.

And if the stupid idea actually pans out, takes off, and succeeds, well, the
possibility of success is awesome enough to keep trying.

~~~
heyadayo
There is an impressive ski-resort in the mall downtown in Dubai, where it's
about 110 deg F (43 deg C) in the summer.

~~~
ctdonath
Dubai is about the only place that can support such crazy mega-projects (and
is now finding the hard way that mega-development requires mega-maintenance).

The Atlanta ski resort was planned to be 4 times bigger than the Dubai one,
and it hits 100 in the summer here too.

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sprobertson
This is what I finally decided two weeks ago about my "dumb app idea"
Trollaroid. I put a workable version on the Android market and had a few
people use it, and since then I've already had more good ideas from feedback
than I had for three months mulling it over. The fact that it's now out in the
public has also been a force towards me actually working on it.

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vitomd
I liked the article because if you wait a magical idea then you will get
stuck. I think that is better a mediocre idea well executed than a awesome
idea inside your head.

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phil
Cool, a screenshot from Game Never Ending! It had never occurred to me that
those might be out there. Turns out there's actually a museum:

<http://www.gnespy.com/museum/>

~~~
gyardley
Huh. It turns out Glitch, Butterfield's current company, is just Game
Neverending 2.0.

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missy
Better to get your bubble burst early when its only a pop, rather then later
when its a crash. From my experience people who dream too much or dont wanna
loose face cause they told everyone how great their idea is, are the ones that
crash and dont progress.

joke about your idea and test it, and you will suceed more likely could be the
message here

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ohboy
Completely agree with the article.

My idea... well it doesn't suck, but it was more work than what it needed to
be. After a few thousand customers I realized what needed to be done. Now it's
better but not quite where I want it to be, still need to pour more $$$ in to
get it there.

Problem is you need at least a few hundred customers before you start noticing
the cracks in your idea. If your idea sucks so bad that you can't get a few
hundred people to believe in you enough to give you $$$ then it probably is so
bad that you shouldn't do it.

(no, i haven't submitted to ycombinator yet, I'm waiting for a swift kick in
the ass)

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iamclovin
Reed Hastings articulated it pretty well recently - "Companies rarely die from
moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly."

[http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-
reflect...](http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-
reflections.html)

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lateralus
This is the single most important differentiator I've found between people
wishing and dreaming to start a business. I always encourage the get it done
mentality but people find reasons not to instead. More for me I guess...

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startupfounder
Stop thinking, start doing. Rule 1: Hustle. Rule 2: Pull the trigger and just
do it.

~~~
tertius
define: hustle (in this context).

~~~
jarek
Run ahead. Doesn't matter which direction you're pointing in when you start,
you'll still get some SEO juice at the end.

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BadassFractal
Also, just to be nitpicky, I think Facebook's photo repository is much larger
than Flickr's.

~~~
qq66
Article is from 2008.

