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> Pitching a new idea is hard. You need to iterate on it obsessively, cutting it down to the core value prop in easy to digest words for the specific audience y
by 6510 5y ago
> Pitching a new idea is hard. You need to iterate on it obsessively, cutting it down to the core value prop in easy to digest words for the specific audience you're talking to.
Then, after failing to explain it 1000 times, you find a combination of working simplifications and it finally can be explained in a few sentences.... Then people say: If it was that simple someone else would have thought of it.
> As for the statement "why would people put documents on the web?" That seems a very valid question. If you can't nail that answer, you haven't invested enough in understanding the customers/audience for who you're trying to solve problems.
The answer would have to be a lie. Neither of us would understand it when told it is all to watch cat pictures and to document and manipulate peoples personality and behavior to sell products and nudge their political ideas while they exchange cooking updates with their mum.
If someone told me or you the honest factual truth that it was a sound plan for world domination we would have laughed so hard. Why would anyone use google or facebook if it's that expensive to use?
- wizzwizz4 5y ago> Then people say: If it was that simple someone else would have thought of it. That's when you go into the prior art. Give a summary (long list of things other people have done – five or six will do), then start drilling down into them, touching on what they address, genuine pros and cons wrt your approach (when relevant), and then go back to how yours is different. (“But none of these XYZ, which is useful for foo and bar.”) Or, you know, whatever else feels right to say at the time. If you're well-calibrated, your gut instinct will be a result of “reading the room”. That comes with practice.
- _y5hn 5y agoThey'll just subtly say you're overthinking it or this is irrelevant to today. People just have a compulsion to put others down. Some years later when someone else comes up with the same idea, it's gold.
- Enginerrrd 5y agoIts possible to have the right idea before the world is ready to receive it. That includes good ideas where the technology just isn't there yet.
- _y5hn 5y agoIdeas themselves are cheap, and it makes no sense but to share them.
- 6510 5y agoOne should treasure ideas and never share them with cheap people.
- _y5hn 5y agoWhile I understand the sentiment, I find I lose nothing and have only to gain, from sharing my ideas with others. Of course, I wouldn't share business secrets that way, but those are rare exceptions. Oh, you said cheap people.. Sure :)