I'm guilty of taking this myth literally myself. Until recently, when I experienced the complex scenario that "ideas don't matter" represents. A better way to c

I'm guilty of taking this myth literally myself. Until recently, when I experienced the complex scenario that "ideas don't matter" represents. A better way to communicate this might be: "Ideas don't matter unless proven otherwise". My experience with "ideas don't matter": A few months ago I pitched an idea to my idea buddy. We are very committed to financial independence, so he took me seriously. And he asked all the questions he needed to clearly understand what I was suggesting. Still - despite his respect for me - he shrugged it off as me being silly and grasping at straws. In the weeks that followed I took my hands off my "big" idea to see how well this "little" idea would turn out. The holidays where coming and I needed a smaller project to focus on for the shorter more inconsistent periods of programming time I'd have to invest in a project. A few weeks later I emerged with a hacked together prototype. I thought to myself.. "I was right, this is cool!". Proud of my programming abilities and pleased that my idea "worked"; I presented the prototype to the same friend. To my surprise he pretty much flipped out. He went on and on about how simple and brilliant it was. How he had not envisioned of how great the idea was based on my original pitch. I took a step back and related with him, then realized I might be on to something. After a few more weeks of polish on the prototype, he forced me to present my idea/execution at one of our local developer Meetup's. After boring the 25 participants with other programming topics I presented my prototype. The room lit up with energy and participation, questions fired off from all corners of the room, and the presentation went on to extend past its allotted timeframe. Again, I was caught off guard. I come up with 5 ideas a week, and there was no reason for me to believe this particular idea was any more promising than any other I spout off at random. I just picked it because it was fun and convenient. Looking back I'm in awe at how this idea was almost as useless as the rest of the ideas I file away. And while I don't yet know if this idea is a "diamond", it has already positively impacted my life for the coming months.