10 ms·

As most readers here would agree, ideas are worth almost nothing but executing on them is the value.

by imglorp 10y ago

falcolas 10y ago
> As most readers here would agree And yet we are still confronted with NDAs just to listen to "Facebook for Farmers" pitches. Perhaps it's better to say those entrepreneurs are afraid of their implementers leaving with all of the domain specific knowledge; believing that it would allow them re-create the product and outmaneuver the entrepreneur. Of course it's never really that easy, but so few fears are rational.
- Declanomous 10y ago
  I work at an organization with about 75 employees, and I'm the only person who can program. Half the time I go out for drinks with coworkers, someone corners me and wants to tell me about this awesome idea they have. Unfortunately, they can't tell me anything because I haven't signed an NDA yet. So they spend a few hours being coy, and I spend a few hours trying to politely decline. It's always an iPhone app too. I've never worked on mobile development or Apple products before. This does not discourage them in the least. Half the reason I want increased computer science education is because I'd like this madness distributed across more people.
  - sbjustin 10y ago
    THIS!
  - sammydavis 10y ago
    That was so on the money. This happens to me too. My financial advisor and his friend want me to build them an iphone app. Please save me.
    - Declanomous 10y ago
      I've got another good anecdote. I went in for an in-person interview at a company. At the end of the interview process, the interviewer let me know I hadn't gotten the job, but told me I should connect with him on LinkedIn because he and his friend had a great business idea that needed a developer. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, since I've had interviewers reach out to me after I've been rejected to say the same thing. It seemed exceedingly strange that I was solicited to work on another project in person by the interviewer during the interview process.
    - clifanatic 10y ago
      > My financial advisor and his friend want me to build them an iphone app You can get a new financial advisor. My _wife_ wants me to build her an iPhone app.
      - wruza 10y ago
        If you don't build her iPhone app for too long, that will be done by someone else, you know.
      - TaylorAlexander 10y ago
        You can get a new wife. Some people really like their financial advisors!
- st3v3r 10y ago
  Well, if it's the typical person who does pitch "Facebook for Farmers", I'd say the fear is kinda rational, as those people never intend to do any of the work. They just had the idea, and now you need to go make it happen.
- saryant 10y ago
  I used to help run 3 Day Startup San Antonio. Part of the format is that the first night includes pitches by a select number of people hoping to get voted into the top X ideas that are worked on for the rest of the weekend. We once had a guy whose first slide was just an NDA in tiny font that he actually read aloud to 50 people. I was in the back of the room with some of the other staff and I had to step out because I was laughing too much.
YCode 10y ago
There is an argument to be made that a larger organization might be able to take your idea and run faster than you with it. In practice though, most of the time your idea is too small or too risky to be on the radar of those organizations. A bit like how when you wake up a dream you had makes perfect sense until you try to describe it to someone else.
- JangleBarney 10y ago
  You just defined Amazon.
- __derek__ 10y ago
  That's the core of the innovator's dilemma.
saosebastiao 10y ago
Most readers here would agree, but then again most readers here benefit from that perspective and tend overvalue their work relative to the creativity and research behind it. Both are necessary. Sure, there are delusional business types that think that their idea is gold and are willing to offer you 3% if you do all the work. But you are suggesting the exact opposite and it is just as delusional. Silicon Valley is a testament to bad ideas backed by talented executors.
- JamesBarney 10y ago
  In hindsight what would be some ideas that you think would be worth lots of money? Most of the unicorns I know about and are aware of what they do don't boil down to a great idea.
jnicholasp 10y ago
The idea that ideas have no value is prima facie ridiculous. The reason we aren't just a slightly odd species of chimpanzees is that we developed the ability to produce ideas. Ideas are the only thing of fundamental value to us as an intelligent species. The statement that ideas don't matter, only execution matters, can only apply among sets of trivial ideas that don't change the landscape. Yes, if you want to make Facebook for Farmers, that's an idea that is completely interchangeable with hundreds of other equally trivial ideas, and it doesn't matter which one you choose so much as how well you execute on it. But if you have a genuinely significant idea, something that can fundamentally alter the landscape or advance humanity, then execution is secondary, and, in fact, lots of different people or organizations could implement it. That isn't to say that you can't screw up the execution and fail thereby, but the limiting factor to success is different for trivial ideas vs significant ideas: there are thousands of trivials and the major factor of success is how well you execute the one you choose; there are few significants, and the major factor in success is having them first/getting to market first. If you think you have one of the latter, NDAs might make sense.
- googletazer 10y ago
  >Ideas are the only thing of fundamental value to us as an intelligent species. I'm sorry but you're wrong. Its not ideas that are the only thing of fundamental value... information might come close. Ideas + experimentation to validate them + implementation is where its at. An idea by itself without execution is a fantasy.
  - jnicholasp 10y ago
    > Ideas are the only thing of fundamental value to us as an intelligent species. In my usage, 'information' describes patterns that exist in the universe, and 'ideas', at least loosely, describes the apprehension of one or more of those inherent patterns by an intelligent mind. An idea is the mental perception or conception of external information. Information might be fundamental to the universe, but ideas are fundamental to intelligent minds, being the lens through and by which we perceive everything. My point, though, was mostly that it's false that ideas have no value - I wasn't trying to make the complete opposite error and say that execution has no value. Of course to make something happen in the world you need execution as well as something to execute.

As most readers here would agree, ideas are worth almost nothing but executing on them is the value.

by imglorp 10y ago

As most readers here would agree, ideas are worth almost nothing but executing on them is the value.

> As most readers here would agree And yet we are still confronted with NDAs just to listen to "Facebook for Farmers" pitches. Perhaps it's better to say those entrepreneurs are afraid of their implementers leaving with all of the domain specific knowledge; believing that it would allow them re-create the product and outmaneuver the entrepreneur. Of course it's never really that easy, but so few fears are rational.

Declanomous 10y ago
I work at an organization with about 75 employees, and I'm the only person who can program. Half the time I go out for drinks with coworkers, someone corners me and wants to tell me about this awesome idea they have. Unfortunately, they can't tell me anything because I haven't signed an NDA yet. So they spend a few hours being coy, and I spend a few hours trying to politely decline. It's always an iPhone app too. I've never worked on mobile development or Apple products before. This does not discourage them in the least. Half the reason I want increased computer science education is because I'd like this madness distributed across more people.
- sbjustin 10y ago
  THIS!
- sammydavis 10y ago
  That was so on the money. This happens to me too. My financial advisor and his friend want me to build them an iphone app. Please save me.
  - Declanomous 10y ago
    I've got another good anecdote. I went in for an in-person interview at a company. At the end of the interview process, the interviewer let me know I hadn't gotten the job, but told me I should connect with him on LinkedIn because he and his friend had a great business idea that needed a developer. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, since I've had interviewers reach out to me after I've been rejected to say the same thing. It seemed exceedingly strange that I was solicited to work on another project in person by the interviewer during the interview process.
  - clifanatic 10y ago
    > My financial advisor and his friend want me to build them an iphone app You can get a new financial advisor. My _wife_ wants me to build her an iPhone app.
    - wruza 10y ago
      If you don't build her iPhone app for too long, that will be done by someone else, you know.
    - TaylorAlexander 10y ago
      You can get a new wife. Some people really like their financial advisors!
st3v3r 10y ago
Well, if it's the typical person who does pitch "Facebook for Farmers", I'd say the fear is kinda rational, as those people never intend to do any of the work. They just had the idea, and now you need to go make it happen.
saryant 10y ago
I used to help run 3 Day Startup San Antonio. Part of the format is that the first night includes pitches by a select number of people hoping to get voted into the top X ideas that are worked on for the rest of the weekend. We once had a guy whose first slide was just an NDA in tiny font that he actually read aloud to 50 people. I was in the back of the room with some of the other staff and I had to step out because I was laughing too much.

YCode 10y ago

There is an argument to be made that a larger organization might be able to take your idea and run faster than you with it. In practice though, most of the time your idea is too small or too risky to be on the radar of those organizations. A bit like how when you wake up a dream you had makes perfect sense until you try to describe it to someone else.

JangleBarney 10y ago
You just defined Amazon.
__derek__ 10y ago
That's the core of the innovator's dilemma.

saosebastiao 10y ago

Most readers here would agree, but then again most readers here benefit from that perspective and tend overvalue their work relative to the creativity and research behind it. Both are necessary. Sure, there are delusional business types that think that their idea is gold and are willing to offer you 3% if you do all the work. But you are suggesting the exact opposite and it is just as delusional. Silicon Valley is a testament to bad ideas backed by talented executors.

JamesBarney 10y ago
In hindsight what would be some ideas that you think would be worth lots of money? Most of the unicorns I know about and are aware of what they do don't boil down to a great idea.

jnicholasp 10y ago

The idea that ideas have no value is prima facie ridiculous. The reason we aren't just a slightly odd species of chimpanzees is that we developed the ability to produce ideas. Ideas are the only thing of fundamental value to us as an intelligent species. The statement that ideas don't matter, only execution matters, can only apply among sets of trivial ideas that don't change the landscape. Yes, if you want to make Facebook for Farmers, that's an idea that is completely interchangeable with hundreds of other equally trivial ideas, and it doesn't matter which one you choose so much as how well you execute on it. But if you have a genuinely significant idea, something that can fundamentally alter the landscape or advance humanity, then execution is secondary, and, in fact, lots of different people or organizations could implement it. That isn't to say that you can't screw up the execution and fail thereby, but the limiting factor to success is different for trivial ideas vs significant ideas: there are thousands of trivials and the major factor of success is how well you execute the one you choose; there are few significants, and the major factor in success is having them first/getting to market first. If you think you have one of the latter, NDAs might make sense.

googletazer 10y ago
>Ideas are the only thing of fundamental value to us as an intelligent species. I'm sorry but you're wrong. Its not ideas that are the only thing of fundamental value... information might come close. Ideas + experimentation to validate them + implementation is where its at. An idea by itself without execution is a fantasy.
- jnicholasp 10y ago
  > Ideas are the only thing of fundamental value to us as an intelligent species. In my usage, 'information' describes patterns that exist in the universe, and 'ideas', at least loosely, describes the apprehension of one or more of those inherent patterns by an intelligent mind. An idea is the mental perception or conception of external information. Information might be fundamental to the universe, but ideas are fundamental to intelligent minds, being the lens through and by which we perceive everything. My point, though, was mostly that it's false that ideas have no value - I wasn't trying to make the complete opposite error and say that execution has no value. Of course to make something happen in the world you need execution as well as something to execute.