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Definitely. I would classify myself as someone who desires the challenge, autonomy, and opportunity for growth of a startup, but I have a difficult time identi

Definitely. I would classify myself as someone who desires the challenge, autonomy, and opportunity for growth of a startup, but I have a difficult time identifying viable ideas. I feel like I'm a creative problem solver, but not a creative problem identifier. I am an engineer at heart - I love to build all kinds of things, from software to electronics, etc. If you give me an idea, I can run with it and prototype it without difficulty. However, if you ask me to generate viable ideas from scratch it is as if I have writer's block. I've been working to improve by ingesting anything I can get my hands on - be it this post, talks (such as Tom Kelley's 'How to be an innovator for life' re: thinking like a traveler), books (such as 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship' and 'The Long Tail'), reading HN and PG's essays, and so forth. I don't think finding viable ideas will ever be as intuitive to me as it is to some, but perhaps with practice and hard work I will start to recognize some opportunities.

p4bl0 16y ago
Okay everyone thanks for your answers. (I'm only replying here for convenience).
messel 16y ago
Howdy Philip, maybe I can be of help. I find that ideas that really grab me can hit just about any time of day or night, but only if I'm open to them. When I'm idea light, it's because I discard ideas as low value without giving them a proper shake or playing with them (hashing out a design). My poor cofounder get's rained on by my ideas when they're flowing, At this point I'm pretty confident he auto forwards them to his junk box :D. Talking with folks about their needs can help trigger your creative side as well. Helping other folks can inspire us to experiment in ways helping ourselves can't.
- prawn 16y ago
  If you ever want to sound-off ideas against someone, get in touch. I wonder if people start auto-deleting mine too because I will think of something new most days of the week.
  - messel 16y ago
    It's helpful to sound off ideas, because there's no guarantee we'll recognize our best. I wait till I really fall in love with an idea, as that will help drive me to implement it (I'm a pretty slow hacker). Sure hit me up with ideas anytime at messel at gmail dot com. I'm Mark

p4bl0 16y ago

Okay everyone thanks for your answers. (I'm only replying here for convenience).

messel 16y ago

Howdy Philip, maybe I can be of help. I find that ideas that really grab me can hit just about any time of day or night, but only if I'm open to them. When I'm idea light, it's because I discard ideas as low value without giving them a proper shake or playing with them (hashing out a design). My poor cofounder get's rained on by my ideas when they're flowing, At this point I'm pretty confident he auto forwards them to his junk box :D. Talking with folks about their needs can help trigger your creative side as well. Helping other folks can inspire us to experiment in ways helping ourselves can't.

prawn 16y ago
If you ever want to sound-off ideas against someone, get in touch. I wonder if people start auto-deleting mine too because I will think of something new most days of the week.
- messel 16y ago
  It's helpful to sound off ideas, because there's no guarantee we'll recognize our best. I wait till I really fall in love with an idea, as that will help drive me to implement it (I'm a pretty slow hacker). Sure hit me up with ideas anytime at messel at gmail dot com. I'm Mark