
Nobody Likes the “Idea Guy” - blackflame7000
https://www.riskology.co/idea-guy/
======
lkrubner
About "idea guys". During World War II, after the defeat at Dunkirk, Britain
formed a national government, headed by Winston Churchill. This was not a
Conservative government, but rather, was national, in that all parties were
invited to participate. A number of MPs suggested that, to increase
participation of small parties, Churchill should appoint a few "Ministers
Without Portfolio". He absolutely refused. He had previous experience with
this and thought it was a disaster. "Ministers Without Portfolio" became "idea
guys". In meetings, they made lots of suggestions, and they held up
conversations with their ideas, but they were not in charge of anything so
they never really had to take responsibility when things went wrong. Perhaps
worst of all, in Churchill's view, because such ministers had no real
responsibilities, they aggravated everyone else by asking questions about what
the ministers with real responsibilities were up to.

~~~
jfengel
I've never understood how those small parties persist. Either they're aligned
permanently with one of the two dominant parties, where they can be given
positions of trust and power, or they flop around (in which case nobody can
make long-term deals with them). They strike me as the "ideas guys" of
politics, carping about the way things are done without the risk of having to
actually implement their own goals.

~~~
lostlogin
The flip side of this is the toxicity of first-past-the-post. You get a choice
on once issue and have to take the rest that comes with it. It baffles me that
people accept this.

~~~
strken
To elaborate on this, in America today it's possible to waste your vote,
because you can't represent secondary political opinions, e.g. a vote for the
Starbucks CEO doesn't flow down to your second choice.

In some other systems, you can choose multiple options. This makes it possible
to represent an opinion like "Starbucks CEO, _then_ Democrats, _then_
Libertarians, _then_ Republicans", and so smaller parties can still get votes
without compromising the election of larger aligned parties.

~~~
wolco
Why not allow people to vote themselves on each issue? The purpose of a single
person representing an area is less desirable than ever. Direct democracy
would solve a lot and create different issues.

~~~
HappySweeney
This has been attempted, and generally leads to disaster. When a bill for
increased spending is introduced (for say, better roads, more schools, etc),
it receives widespread support from the voters, and easily passes. When
another bill which raises taxes (in order to pay for the previous purchases)
is introduced, it enjoys widespread condemnation, and is soundly defeated.
Bankruptcy ensues.

~~~
likeclockwork
Making mistakes is a crucial part of learning.

------
lbacaj
I used to be the idea guy no one likes. I always had these Grand ideas that I
would rattle off to friends and colleagues. We would go and white board them
out. We would eat lunch over them and discuss them, point by point by point.

In the end, nothing. Nothing would materialize, we would start some work then
realize how much effort these grand schemes were and get completely
discouraged.

Then I forced myself to stop rattling off these crazy ideas, instead just
whisper the big vision to myself and break it down to its smallest viable
parts for building (aka MVP) and go off try to build that. After trying about
3 different ones so far and failing to get any traction on those 3 I have the
pain of having spent my nights and weekends trying to make ideas work.

I no longer rattle off crazy ideas to people because I’ve come to understand
what it actually means to go off and build them.

As a little self promotion, my latest idea (I know right) is actually kind of
working but it took a ton of effort and I am afraid to even talk about the
grand vision but non the less have been chipping away at it on the weekends.

I built an app that lets you listen to any Article on the go so you can
maximize that dead time on your commute or when biking. The app is cross
platform and uses some beautiful sounding AI ML models to convert Text to
Audio.

You can try it here if you have the time, but just know it took a ton of
effort and discipline to go from Idea to App.

[https://articulu.com](https://articulu.com)

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
> ... I no longer rattle off crazy ideas to people because I’ve come to
> understand ...

From Baltasar Gracián, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom"[1]:

    
    
      Keep Matters for a Time in Suspense.
      Admiration at their novelty heightens the value
      of your achievements, It is both useless and
      insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you
      do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse
      expectation, especially when the importance of
      your position makes you the object of general
      attention. Mix a little mystery with everything,
      and the very mystery arouses veneration. And
      when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you
      do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary
      intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of holies
      of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never
      highly thought of; it only leaves room for
      criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly
      unfortunate. Besides you imitate the Divine way
      when you cause men to wonder and watch.
    

[1]
[https://archive.org/download/artworldlywisdo00jacogoog/artwo...](https://archive.org/download/artworldlywisdo00jacogoog/artworldlywisdo00jacogoog.pdf)

------
udev
By "Idea guy" the author actually means "Idea guy that has no skills, cannot
execute his idea, and does not want to take responsibility guy".

Yes we all hate _that_ guy.

But there are plenty of idea guys&girls who are busy executing ideas,
competent, have skills, and still might come up with a useful idea that would
help your project.

Should we hate these guys too?

~~~
jsbaby608
Another problem with an 'ideas guy' is that they are rarely involved in the
execution.

I attempted to start businesses with a few friends of this type when I was
younger.

The result was mostly the same: I would spend weeks/months working on the
product/idea, idea guy would either get bored because they are just sitting
there waiting for the launch and move onto something new or attempt to become
my defacto manager.

Some people like the idea of running a business and seem to think it only
involves telling other people what to do and waiting for results (as if that's
the hardest part).

The other concern is that what happens to this person in the next phase of the
business?

Many ideas people will realize they don't have the skills and will try to push
for ideas that aren't necessarily better, but that they can attach their name
to...causing havoc.

Ideas are easy. I have tons of good ideas and the skills to execute. Now, I
will only consider parterning with someone if they have money to invest or a
relevant business network+some other skill.

~~~
farahday
Excellent observations!

------
kabdib
Occasionally a resume crosses my inbox from someone claiming to be "the idea
guy". Sometimes it's that stark, "I'm an idea guy" or "People came to me for
ideas." Sometimes you have to read between the lines and work out that they
didn't actually /do/ anything. Sometimes you get entire product pitches (these
are usually hilarious -- bonus points if the pitch is for a product utterly
unrelated to your company's industry). Invariably these folks are ill-equipped
to actually execute and build a product, their sole skill set appears to be to
emit an Idea and then have some other poor schmuck implement it.

[Pop quiz: If an "idea" works out, guess who gets credit? If it fails, guess
who gets blamed?]

There are few things worse than an Idea Guy yelling "Charge!" from the rear. I
flush these resumes quickly.

------
kalev
Cached version of the page:

[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.riskology.co/idea-
guy/)

------
aerophilic
Something I always mentor those that ask about an idea: “Any good idea you
have, 100 other people have already had it. Any GREAT idea you have, 1000
people have already had it. The difference is how well you execute it.”

This is usually in the context of whether they should “share” their specific
idea. What I always recommend is spread it broadly, and try to get help
executing. Very few things these days can be done in isolation. What is most
important is to “get going”, get a team and prove you can deliver.

Edit: minor fix for grammar

~~~
amelius
> Something I always mentor those that ask about an idea: “Any good idea you
> have, 100 other people have already had it. Any GREAT idea you have, 1000
> people have already had it. The difference is how well you execute it.”

What does that say about patents, and the patent system?

~~~
PeterisP
Well, patents aren't really about ideas like an "idea guy" would provide - an
idea of "it'd be nice to have a thingy that does X" is unpatentable; but you
can get a patent for its execution, for actually finding a _particular
solution_ that implements that idea. And even then only that particular
solution is patented - if somebody else can take your idea and develop a
_better_ solution that achieves the same result more effectively with a
different method and apparatus, then the patent system allows them to capture
the value of that execution.

------
gregorymichael
I think of the out-of-shape guy in the recliner watching Monday Night
Football, beer in one hand, loudly proclaiming what play the "idiot coach"
should have run, or which receiver the quarterback should have thrown it to.
That spectator is an "idea guy." Doesn't mean he should be on the field.

~~~
circlefavshape
The comedian Dylan Moran had a great bit about sports-people, that went
something like "Are they happy? No! Who's happy? You! Sitting on your couch
with a beer, roaring advice at the best athletes in the world"

------
pier25
I used to be an "idea guy", I mean I'm still am constantly overflowing with
ideas, but over the years I've learned that the greatness and originality of
an idea is not so valuable. You can have great businesses with boring ideas.

There is a lot of survivor bias in original ideas. We see Apple, Facebook,
Twitter, etc, and for some reason tend to think those companies are successful
because of great ideas.

An idea is just a seed. Nutrients, water, climate, care, etc. All those
contribute to growing a full tree.

~~~
jjoonathan
One stark example is the iPhone. I saw a 1984 Steve Jobs interview about the
launch of the Mac where he was asked about the next big thing, and he
described mobile computing and the iPhone to a T. _23 years later_ , the
iPhone launched.

In between the two Apple fired Jobs, took a swing and a miss at the mobile
market, an entire generation of companies grew up to take a swing and a miss
at the mobile market, NeXT reverse acquired Apple, and _only then_ did the
vision come to fruition even though it had a guy of the caliber and resources
of Steve Jobs pushing the entire time, not to mention a dozen other companies
with competing similar visions and all their dependencies.

Execution is hard.

~~~
alasdair_
There is a famous apple Newton commercial that talks about all the things it
can do and will do.

Fifteen years later they reshot the same commercial and simply changed the
name to “ipad” - fantastic proof of foresight.

~~~
jandrese
Sometimes you have to just give the idea guy a pat on the head and wait for
the technology to catch up.

This is one reason I really hate the "do it on a computer" patents. Someone
writes down the same idea everybody has that isn't quite feasible yet with
today's technology and basically sits on it. Then when the technology matures
to the point where it's practical they start suing everybody who is actually
implementing it.

~~~
davnicwil
Wow, I wasn't aware of this future tech patent-sitting thing. It's awful to
think that this is possible. Does it really happen? Do you have any examples?

How far can you take this? Does a patent have to be based in something that is
vaguely implementable or can it literally just be a theoretical idea without
concrete, detailed implementation specifics?

I.e. could one patent things like the 'holodeck' idea today, and just wait
around 50 years for it to get made, then cash in, or would that just be too
ridiculous?

~~~
jandrese
Doing email on a phone[1] is the first example that comes to mind. Wasn't
really possible with AMPS but they patented it anyway.

The problem of course is that even after pulling all of the tricks to extend
the life of your patent (extensions during filing, submarine patents, etc...),
there is a hard time limit that you run into. If you're too ambitious the
patents expire before the technology catches up and you get nothing.

[1] [https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-
electronics/gadgets/the-s...](https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-
electronics/gadgets/the-story-behind-the-blackberry-case)

------
jfengel
Running a nonprofit, the expression that most gets my hackles up is "What you
ought to do is..." I'm not lacking for things to do. I'm lacking for hours in
the day to do them.

~~~
Zanni
Ha. Came here to say exactly this. In fact, I used to be an "idea guy" until I
started running an arts organization and was suddenly inundated with people
telling me what I "ought to do." Most of their ideas are terrible or out of
keeping with our mission, but even the brilliant ones, I don't have the time
and resources to execute them. My standard response now (to good ideas), is
"Sounds great. Can I put you in charge of that?"

------
jvagner
Ever worked for an "idea guy" CEO? New idea every day/week/weekend.

~~~
essayist
In the 1980's, the CTO I worked for (indirectly) met with me a couple of times
on the high priority project I was leading. The second time, as I left his
office, I saw the cover of an IT magazine, featuring the approach (maybe OO
programming?) the CTO had just pitched to me, out of the blue.

Terrifying.

~~~
cpursley
OOP is terrifying

------
chias
The article links to this, though it's buried so I figured I'd resurface it
here. How ideas affect value:

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

~~~
antisthenes
Looks funny in light of Lyft's upcoming IPO.

------
llampx
An idea guy is only good as a partner if he/she can take over the business
responsibilities of a new business. In addition to the idea, he would
generally be expected to bring execution skills for stuff like market entry,
business development and raising money, ideally by having done it before.

~~~
JohnFen
Yes. My longstanding business partner thinks of himself as an "idea guy", but
I don't think of him that way.

He does come up with most of the ideas we execute -- but he bases them on his
knowledge of the market and what would sell, and he takes care of all of the
non-technical aspects of execution: business, marketing, management, etc.

In other words, he puts as much effort into execution as I do, and that's why
I don't consider him an idea guy. He's much more valuable than that.

------
DonHopkins
I have a test I run before wasting time talking about ideas: have I spent at
least as much time trying to implement this idea as I've spent talking about
it? If not, and if the idea's any good, then it's time to shut the fuck up and
sit down and start coding. That gives me much more time to talk about ideas
I've already implemented.

I'm not saying you shouldn't talk or write about ideas, but that you should
try to strike a balance, like tacking a sailboat against the wind. You learn
some things from talking with other people and writing to organize your
thoughts, then you learn other things from shutting the fuck up, writing code,
and using what you built.

33 years ago I was lucky enough to come up with a good enough idea to shut the
fuck up and implement, which proved it was good enough to talk and write more
about, which led to many more rounds of implementation, changes, talking and
writing. Now I'm learning how to program Blender in Python, to do yet another
round, by learning from and building on top of other people's work!

[https://medium.com/@donhopkins/pie-menu-
timeline-21bec9b2162...](https://medium.com/@donhopkins/pie-menu-
timeline-21bec9b21620)

~~~
UncleEntity
Strangely enough, pie menus in blender was the first time I ever sat down and
took a (programming) idea to full completion. Before that all I really was
doing was hunt-and-peck at bugs and adding small functionality where it was
missing.

Had to learn me some vector math, fix bugs in the python openGL wrappers,
figure out how the openGL state machine actually works and then get it all put
together in a reasonable way. Turned out pretty well and other people took
that implementation and made it into a complex addon that eventually ended up
being widely used.

It might have changed in the years since I did any blender programming but I
had to do a lot of bug hunting and adding functionality to get python scripts
working -- which was fine since most of the stuff I worked on was specifically
to get the python API able to do whatever random thing I (or, more likely,
someone else) needed.

~~~
DonHopkins
Cool -- thank you for keeping the pie rolling!

I love the way the new Blender 2.80 interface (which is a whole new ball game)
integrates pie menu layout as a first class citizen, so you can nest any other
kinds of user interface stuff inside of pie menus, and everything just works.

Have you seen the astounding Pie Menu Editor extension? It's getting seriously
into HyperCard territory!

[https://blendermarket.com/products/pie-menu-
editor?ref=2](https://blendermarket.com/products/pie-menu-editor?ref=2)

It's SO much more than just just a pie menu editor: you can edit all kinds of
blender user interfaces widgets, linear menus, dialogs, panels, key bindings,
macros, modal operators and properties. You can make custom control panels and
put them into pie menus, as well as copying existing parts of the Blender user
interface into your own pie menus and panels! And of course you can script and
customize everything with Python.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY-
kU2IrTxk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY-kU2IrTxk)

It's really hard to convey everything it does, and the documentation and demos
are pretty sparse, but here is a playlist with lots of examples:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTAsqEyZnEs&index=1&list=PLs...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTAsqEyZnEs&index=1&list=PLsowJ3v5QWhE9db_GcPnSrTXWJrA5poWg)

Defining your own modal operators (interactive modes for live editing with
visual feedback, temporary key and mouse bindings, etc) is particularly mind
blowing! And those are great for invoking from pie menus, enabling a very
fluid live direct-manipulation editing style.

[https://archive.blender.org/wiki/index.php/User:Raa/Addons/P...](https://archive.blender.org/wiki/index.php/User:Raa/Addons/Pie_Menu_Editor/Editors/Modal_Operator/)

~~~
UncleEntity
> Cool -- thank you for keeping the pie rolling!

Chances are pretty high I found some of your code laying around on the
interwebs and used that to figure out how it all works so you probably deserve
most of the credit;) Matt Ebb did a C prototype way back when and gave me his
code but it was too complicated to help out with the python one I ended up
writing.

Honestly I haven't been keeping up with what blender is doing since I can't
even open the new version due to my videocard being too old. I'd be nice to
get back to blender hacking (have some ideas on compiling down the node trees
using partial evaluation) but can't see a new computer happening anytime in
the near future.

------
acconrad
If the idea guy isn't the developer they have to be the sales and marketing
person. So if they have great ideas and can sell them and get money in the
door then I'm happy to work with them.

~~~
JohnBooty
In my experience, it's often still kind of a nightmare to work with them.

1\. "Idea guy" comes up with ideas faster than any human being, or team of
human beings, could implement them.

2\. "Idea guy" gets frustrated because it takes team so long "just to add a
button or two" or whatever, and the relationship often sours. Of course, this
responsibility may fall on engineers as well, because they fail to realize
that communicating engineering issues to non-engineers is an essential part of
their job... or they're simply bad at it.

Coming up with ideas is _easy._

Understanding end-users and coming up with (non-incremental) ideas to
genuinely help them is difficult and is a fairly rare talent.

Coming up with such ideas _in harmony_ with the engineering+logistical aspects
of bringing those ideas to market is unicorn territory, and those people are
super valuable.

~~~
breckenedge
Well put.

10 years ago, I was the "idea guy" managing a team of non-developers. I grew
frustrated with the pace of bug fixes and (what I considered) small
improvements out of the development team. I got so frustrated that I started
developing my own applications for my team, which greatly increased their
productivity. Eventually that led to my career as a software developer. Years
later as a CIO, I am frequently asked by the idea guys, "Can't you just build
this one little thing?" and I get to be the guy who says "well that's probably
a 3-6 month project." Invariably the idea guy starts to think that you're
intentionally sandbagging him and sours the relationship. That and some other
things ended up driving my predecessor to burn out, which is how I became the
CIO.

------
ryanmcbride
Most of my contact with "Idea Guys" was when I would attend hackathons.
Without fail, about half the people there would be marketers or business
people that would have an idea, and offer to write up the business proposal
for the hackathon project, but offer nothing in the way of actually building
stuff. When I would work at hackathons I got pretty good at identifying these
people and ensuring that prizes went to the people who _actually_ did work
past the first 20 minutes of ideation.

~~~
Vinnl
Heh, my strategy for winning hackathons is the opposite: assign one or two
people to a flashy presentation, the rest just go have fun eating and drinking
and having some fun playing with a technology you've been eyeing. Prototypes
don't win the hackathons I've been to anyway, so might as well let the idea
guy do their thing and have some fun yourself.

~~~
ryanmcbride
In my experience that only works if the judges aren't engineers, which
granted, is more common than it should be.

When I worked a booth at a hackathon a few years ago, we had 5 Drones to give
out to the 5 best uses of our API. We had a few takers, but all but one made a
bullshit project using as many apis of other companies to hedge their bets and
increase the prizes they could get, and a lot actually didn't really use our
api (they made up data and said it came from ours). None of them had a
deployed application, or much more than slides.

One team not only focused solely on our API, but bought a domain and deployed
a working product. Using our actual data.

We ended up giving that team of 4 entry level engineers all 5 drones, because
they're the only ones that deserved them. Helps that all our judges were
engineers.

------
knolan
I’m reminded of this:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DkGMY63FF3Q](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DkGMY63FF3Q)

------
alecco
Many MBA programs are “Idea Guy” factories.

Luckily Mr Facebook scared them away from us evil programmers.

------
erik_landerholm
Ivory tower software architects are a great example of terrible idea
guys/gals.

~~~
maxxxxx
I have never seen an "architect" that didn't code anymore but still was
useful.

------
Konnstann
I work in a very multidisciplinary team, so all of us end up being "idea guys"
at one point or another. I think it is fine for people to throw out ideas that
they can't execute, as long as they don't have the power to demand their
implementation. Extra perspectives and ideas only hurt when the implementation
of them is forced, rather than considered and decided on by people doing the
implementing.

I think it is easy to discount people who throw out ideas but don't implement
them, and I get that the people talked about in the article are the extreme
end of the spectrum, but it also doesn't take much time to say "we've thought
of that and it doesn't work" or "what we have right now is working". The
benefits of getting an idea you wouldn't have thought of can outweigh the
minor inconveniences.

~~~
JohnFen
> I think it is fine for people to throw out ideas that they can't execute, as
> long as they don't have the power to demand their implementation.

It is -- that's called "brainstorming," and it's a valuable activity. But
that's different from being an "idea guy".

------
d-sc
‘Idea Guys(and gals)’ are fine if they have ‘ideas’ that translate into
successful business and have skills to execute them. We generally call these
people ‘serial entrepreneurs’.

The difficulty is that it’s not hard to identify that people would like flying
cars, it’s much harder to wield physics to make that practical.

~~~
tensor
A 'serial entrepreneur' executes, and does it multiple times. It's the
execution that matters. Everyone has ideas.

------
xutopia
I think if you enjoy this article you would enjoy Taleb's Skin in the Game
book.

------
grawprog
In my experience, people are only interested in your ideas when you present
them after already doing enough work to show it's possible or when you're
asked for them.

I'm lucky enough i've got enough autonomy at my job that if I do get any
'great ideas' to change things up or anything, I can usually do a bit of work
and at least see if it'll be feasible before I ever need to say anything.

------
wespiser_2018
There is a class of great accomplishments that have two features: a novel
idea, and cutting edge technical execution. Finding the marriage between the
best possible idea that can be executed with a constrained resources and time
is what attracted me to the start up "scene" after I left academia. There must
be room for good ideas, but its in the execution that makes them great.

------
slaymaker1907
I think the main problem is not having many ideas, many of which you never end
up fulfilling. The main issue is simply not actually doing anything at all.
When I start on a project, I like to keep a really open mind since the most
expensive kind of mistake is a failure of design and having keeping an open
mind can help avoid that.

------
apercu
I might like the idea guy (I can think of two) but I have a hard time taking
"idea guy" seriously professionally.

------
slaymaker1907
Website seems to be having issues, here is an archive link
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190301181528/https://www.risko...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190301181528/https://www.riskology.co/idea-
guy/)

------
mansilladev
In the context of a startup, a pure "idea guy" (someone who took part in
coming up with a business/product idea, but doesn't materially contribute to
the execution/iterations) is very much like a patent troll.

p.s. I didn't read the article.. it's 504ing.

------
klyrs
Good thing this article isn't about me... apparently idea gals are okay.
Seriously, though; it's 2019, are we still assuming that every human is a man?

I'm one of those people who has a serious profusion of ideas -- I don't have
enough time to follow up on all the good ones, because I tend to focus on
delivering projects I'm already working on. On the rare occasion that I'm
invited to meetings, I generally stay quiet and listen to my coworkers talk
through issues that they're having. Often, I'll perk up at some point and ask
a simple question that seems obvious "what if we... / why aren't we..." \--
but nobody was looking at the problem like I am, so my "obvious" solution
saves the day.

The real value of ideas people is that we don't get hung up on the details. We
find "out of the box" solutions to problems that can trip up linear thinkers,
and we're better at finding the nearest feasible pivot when that's necessary.
We rely on experts to fill in mundane details, and if we can't play ball when
they get stuck on the inevitable gaps in our ideas... then we've led our
experts down a rabbit hole.

Good ideas people will have a specialty that they can fall back on. Your team
only needs a few ideas a month, and you need something else to occupy your
time -- because no matter how valuable your solutions are, yesterday's problem
doesn't cost a dime once you've solved it. And the value of an idea is
ephemeral -- once it's in the air and people start working on it, they build
credit and it quickly becomes "theirs." Nobody else will/should see the
hundreds of similar-shaped ideas that you rejected along the way -- your
process isn't "work" to them. So apply yourself to a measurable quantity that
technical folks can understand, keep your brainstorms at 20%, and only discuss
the wild ideas with people who can meaningfully engage in creative processes.

~~~
JohnFen
> Good thing this article isn't about me... apparently idea gals are okay.

In my part of the US, "guy" is a gender-neutral term.

~~~
lalaithion
When you write on the internet, you have to be cognizant of the fact that your
words will reach a wider audience than the people in your state, and write
accordingly, or be criticized for it.

~~~
andrewflnr
When you read on the internet, you need to be aware that the meaning of "guys"
is the least of the cultural barriers to understanding you'll encounter, and
further that it's important to carefully pick your fights to avoid sparking
useless flame wars. Can we please just lean toward charitable interpretations
of our fellow humans' words, and debate substance instead?

------
Waterluvian
I used to do that. I eventually learned that having good ideas is not hard or
valuable. The hard, valuable part is how to design the implementation of a
good idea so that it can actually come into existence without breaking
everything.

------
iamdbtoo
I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I get this a lot simply because people know
I can code. A lot of idea guys now think they just need to tell their idea to
the right dev who will build it for them and make them rich.

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boznz
Ideas guys are only any use where there are "doer" guys and for every Steve
Jobs or Elon Musk there is always a team of enthusiastic engineers who have to
interpret all this shit and make it real.

~~~
brootstrap
Yeah. interpreting wtf your 'guy' is trying to convey is half the battle. We
dont do sprint planning. We listen to a madman rant for a couple hours about
shit and then try to come up with some semblance of a sprint plan lol.

After a while of that I stopped caring. Just work on what they tell you , who
cares if it's a sinking ship. After you try to right the ship for 5 years you
stop caring as much. As long as you still get that $$ twice a month :p

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nraynaud
I am an "idea guy", I still see my "inventions" on the PR pictures of a
company I stayed at for only 6 months. But I think the trick is that I know
how to get some stuff done.

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ErikAugust
To deal with the 504 Gateway Timeout:
[https://beta.trimread.com/articles/207](https://beta.trimread.com/articles/207)

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fc_barnes
What if you're supposed to come up with ideas, but not given the ability to
meet with developers to discuss them nor system access to pursue them on your
own?

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goodmachine
The idea that ideas don't matter is an item of faith on HN. It needs to be
taken round the back of the chemical sheds and shot.

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ggm
If you can cut a pilot version, but never ship quality code, are you (am I)
the idea guy?

~~~
kthejoker2
Hello, fellow product owner!

We truly understand the product _and the effort needed to get there_ but we're
inherently not detail oriented and once we've "solved the problem" with that
40% pilot/MVP we tend to get bored with the implementation details and we
certainly become "idea guys" if we don't at least keep piloting new features
and being honest with ourselves about the externalities our ideas create.

Anyway as long as you're being thoughtful about the relationship between your
idea, the actual code, and the actual user experience, you can avoid being
just an idea guy.

~~~
ggm
Hello fellow human! I think you have the right of it: the inability to cut
code for long-term dependency doesn't mean you can't play a role, it's just
that you have to be clear what the role _is_. I suspect what somebody else
would say in a specification, I find easier to explain by example.

So far, the real code warriors seem ok with this.

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beenBoutIT
Since when do Idea Guys give a shit about being liked?

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BentFranklin
Title is misleading. Was hoping for more dislike.

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excalibur
This could probably use a (2018) in the title.

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nraynaud
"504 Gateway Time-out"

This person had an idea about a blog but not the skills to keep it up?

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heyok
Getting a 504 -
[https://web.archive.org/web/20171016173743/https://www.risko...](https://web.archive.org/web/20171016173743/https://www.riskology.co/idea-
guy/)

~~~
HenryBemis
The good-old kiss of death from HN :)

------
BucketSort
It's always humbling how much effort it takes to implement things. People with
"great ideas" really are a dime a dozen. What's rarer is a person with the
ability and discipline to carry an idea from conception to completion. "Idea
Guys" are in the same space as dead beat dads. Go tend to your children and
grow them into something marvelous. Don't neglect them while you continue to
copulate elsewhere.

------
BuckRogers
I'm an idea guy, but the difference between someone who thinks they're highly
intelligent and creative versus someone who is, is the person who filters out
actual bad ideas. Which is the majority for any idea guy. Half-witted thoughts
sprawled on a napkin was never how I did it. Unfortunately a big filter is
that a lot of viable ideas require more capital or business connections than
what's readily available to the average person.

