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I have thousands of ideas. I very rarely encounter ideas I haven't had before. Most ideas (including startups ideas) seem trivial to me. Once you have thousand

I have thousands of ideas. I very rarely encounter ideas I haven't had before. Most ideas (including startups ideas) seem trivial to me. Once you have thousands of ideas, you realize you can't pick just one. Then you realize they all have things in common. Then you notice a trend, general principles that apply to all of these ideas. Ultimately, you find one idea that makes the previous thousand ideas obsolete. You become obsessed with the idea, try to tell everyone about it, try to figure out where to start. Nobody understands the idea. People actually reject it. They feel threatened. You start having doubts, you start questioning everything. You look for the meaning of life. You challenge axioms. Ten years later, you're still thinking about this idea every day. Yet, you achieved nothing. Why? I don't know why.

juice_bus 9y ago
Does anyone else have the opposite problem? I have plenty of technical skills but can not for the life of me come up with an idea. (I've tried thinking about 'solving my own problems' and such to no avail)
- codazoda 9y ago
  I do the "solve your own problem" all the time. I have a list of "ideas" that I keep in a To-Do list app. I just counted and my idea list is 51 items long. Some of them are simple and some of them are complex. Many people say there's no value in an idea, it's about execution. So, maybe you don't need an idea. Today I head this idea in a podcast... Listen to people's complaints. Do you hear the same complaint from multiple people? That's probably a good problem to solve. Here are some idea's from my list; I doubt they will resonate, but maybe they'll get you started. Simple Stat Recorder - Think Google Analytics (complex) meets the old school web page counter (simple). Omniture and Google have proven there's money here. Independent Music Site - There was a site called Aimee Street that did this well. Tracks started free and then went up in price as they were purchased. Amazon bought it and shut it down. I miss it. Search Netflix by Rating - A personal one; I want to search by rating such as NR, R, MA, PG-13, etc. I can't be the only one. Now, go build something.
- aregsarkissian 9y ago
  Don't try to come up with an idea. Instead find a group of people that are into something(preferably something you are into as well) see if they have any problems or friction with the thing they are into. Try to offer them a solution for their problem. If they start to eagerly use your solution, try to generalize your solution for larger and larger groups of people.
codazoda 9y ago
You know, I feel like this sometimes too. For me, however, I've just got to try some things. I've been doing it for 25 years and although I make a few hundred a month on my ideas, nothing has been a big enough hit to let me walk away from my day job. I suppose I either don't know how to find the "luck" or I don't stick with the same idea long enough. I do build a lot of things though. Some of them make a little money and some of them get amazing feedback that makes it all worth it. Build something. It doesn't have to be perfect. Hell, it doesn't even have to be good. Just get it done. Try it once, maybe you'll be hooked.
odonnellryan 9y ago
What's the idea?

juice_bus 9y ago

Does anyone else have the opposite problem? I have plenty of technical skills but can not for the life of me come up with an idea. (I've tried thinking about 'solving my own problems' and such to no avail)

codazoda 9y ago
I do the "solve your own problem" all the time. I have a list of "ideas" that I keep in a To-Do list app. I just counted and my idea list is 51 items long. Some of them are simple and some of them are complex. Many people say there's no value in an idea, it's about execution. So, maybe you don't need an idea. Today I head this idea in a podcast... Listen to people's complaints. Do you hear the same complaint from multiple people? That's probably a good problem to solve. Here are some idea's from my list; I doubt they will resonate, but maybe they'll get you started. Simple Stat Recorder - Think Google Analytics (complex) meets the old school web page counter (simple). Omniture and Google have proven there's money here. Independent Music Site - There was a site called Aimee Street that did this well. Tracks started free and then went up in price as they were purchased. Amazon bought it and shut it down. I miss it. Search Netflix by Rating - A personal one; I want to search by rating such as NR, R, MA, PG-13, etc. I can't be the only one. Now, go build something.
aregsarkissian 9y ago
Don't try to come up with an idea. Instead find a group of people that are into something(preferably something you are into as well) see if they have any problems or friction with the thing they are into. Try to offer them a solution for their problem. If they start to eagerly use your solution, try to generalize your solution for larger and larger groups of people.

codazoda 9y ago

You know, I feel like this sometimes too. For me, however, I've just got to try some things. I've been doing it for 25 years and although I make a few hundred a month on my ideas, nothing has been a big enough hit to let me walk away from my day job. I suppose I either don't know how to find the "luck" or I don't stick with the same idea long enough. I do build a lot of things though. Some of them make a little money and some of them get amazing feedback that makes it all worth it. Build something. It doesn't have to be perfect. Hell, it doesn't even have to be good. Just get it done. Try it once, maybe you'll be hooked.

odonnellryan 9y ago

What's the idea?