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Any idiot can have an idea. Hell, back in 1997, I wrote a list of 10 ideas I thought would make good online businesses when the technology was right. Of those

Any idiot can have an idea. Hell, back in 1997, I wrote a list of 10 ideas I thought would make good online businesses when the technology was right. Of those, from what I remember, I predicted Amazon, Youtube/Netflix, Facebook, Discord, Twitch, Paypal, and Reddit. I had no part in any of them because I didn't have the knowhow, the money, the connections, or the time. I've been approached since then when people have "ideas." I explain to them that ideas are worthless and that if they want me to work with them, I want an 80% stake that we will renegotiate in time as they prove they can sell the product. This normally shuts them up in short order.

tombert 3y ago
I've gotten in arguments with so many people over this. Everyone has "ideas". Everyone has "good ideas". Most people occasionally have a "great idea". Ideas are free and require very little effort. Ideas really aren't worth anything. Ideas aren't what run the world, implementations of those ideas do. I suspect that if I went to a venture capitalist with just an idea like "Uber but for X", they would laugh me out of the building (or more likely ask how the hell I got in there in the first place). I've told this story before on HN, but I remember back in 2013, I needed a job, and responded to a posting on Craigslist for a software engineer. I met up with a nice lady who had an idea for a specific kind of travel website. She wanted me to make the entire website myself, and she was generously offering me 3% equity for doing it. I had no idea how to negotiate this, and I was slightly less confrontational at the time, so I politely declined, in no small part because I didn't want to work with someone that thought that an idea was worth 97% of a company while doing, as far as I could tell, between 0-5% of the actual work.
- MisterBastahrd 3y ago
  Saying "hey, you're a developer, build this site for me" is the same as saying "hey, you're an architect and a supply chain expert and a manufacturing guru and an accountant, build this manufacturing plant and distribution center for me." Just because there aren't any bricks or steel doesn't mean there isn't any labor or expertise.
  - tombert 3y ago
    Exactly; it takes a long time to build an application, and even longer if you want it to not completely suck. I don't feel I was any "good" at programming until I had been a software engineer for like 6-7 years. I really don't think I'm that great now, but at least I've gotten a lot better at knowing the rough effort required to do things. Obviously I'm not going to claim that what I do is as exhausting as digging ditches or laying concrete (fundamentally I do get to sit on my ass all day and stare at a big screen), but it's not zero effort.
  - em-bee 3y ago
    it's more like "hey you are a brick layer. build me a house. what, i need an architect? but i already designed the house. here is my drawing"
jacknews 3y ago
Sure if your idea is 'uber for X' then it's worthless. And of course, any idea that stays just an idea is also worthless. But in the right hands ideas themselves can be valuable. Would you rather have your crack new team work on 'uber for doughnuts', or some genuinely innovative and market-making idea? So then, which is more valuable, the innovative idea or the crack team? The answer is both, together.
- MisterBastahrd 3y ago
  That isn't what we're talking about here. We're talking about people who have an idea, ask for it to be implemented, and assume that the labor involved has no value. The idea is worthless because it is only in the implementation and execution processes that it gets fully fleshed out to become a reality. It's still absolutely worthless on its own, and is akin to going to a logging company with a bunch of pinecones and demanding to be paid a tree's price for each seed.

tombert 3y ago

I've gotten in arguments with so many people over this. Everyone has "ideas". Everyone has "good ideas". Most people occasionally have a "great idea". Ideas are free and require very little effort. Ideas really aren't worth anything. Ideas aren't what run the world, implementations of those ideas do. I suspect that if I went to a venture capitalist with just an idea like "Uber but for X", they would laugh me out of the building (or more likely ask how the hell I got in there in the first place). I've told this story before on HN, but I remember back in 2013, I needed a job, and responded to a posting on Craigslist for a software engineer. I met up with a nice lady who had an idea for a specific kind of travel website. She wanted me to make the entire website myself, and she was generously offering me 3% equity for doing it. I had no idea how to negotiate this, and I was slightly less confrontational at the time, so I politely declined, in no small part because I didn't want to work with someone that thought that an idea was worth 97% of a company while doing, as far as I could tell, between 0-5% of the actual work.

MisterBastahrd 3y ago
Saying "hey, you're a developer, build this site for me" is the same as saying "hey, you're an architect and a supply chain expert and a manufacturing guru and an accountant, build this manufacturing plant and distribution center for me." Just because there aren't any bricks or steel doesn't mean there isn't any labor or expertise.
- tombert 3y ago
  Exactly; it takes a long time to build an application, and even longer if you want it to not completely suck. I don't feel I was any "good" at programming until I had been a software engineer for like 6-7 years. I really don't think I'm that great now, but at least I've gotten a lot better at knowing the rough effort required to do things. Obviously I'm not going to claim that what I do is as exhausting as digging ditches or laying concrete (fundamentally I do get to sit on my ass all day and stare at a big screen), but it's not zero effort.
- em-bee 3y ago
  it's more like "hey you are a brick layer. build me a house. what, i need an architect? but i already designed the house. here is my drawing"

jacknews 3y ago

Sure if your idea is 'uber for X' then it's worthless. And of course, any idea that stays just an idea is also worthless. But in the right hands ideas themselves can be valuable. Would you rather have your crack new team work on 'uber for doughnuts', or some genuinely innovative and market-making idea? So then, which is more valuable, the innovative idea or the crack team? The answer is both, together.

MisterBastahrd 3y ago
That isn't what we're talking about here. We're talking about people who have an idea, ask for it to be implemented, and assume that the labor involved has no value. The idea is worthless because it is only in the implementation and execution processes that it gets fully fleshed out to become a reality. It's still absolutely worthless on its own, and is akin to going to a logging company with a bunch of pinecones and demanding to be paid a tree's price for each seed.