3 ms·

Ask HN: How do you find ideas to work on?

2 points by grandimam 2y ago

temporarely 2y ago
Working on ideas is a creative endeavor so this prompts the implicit 'what is your personality type?' There are imo two general paths: opportunistic (in a positive sense), and inspirational. The former maps to 'resourceful' mindsets, the latter to 'creative'. Since you are asking this question, the assumption is that you are not a naturally creative type, so work on the opportunistic angle.
eamag 2y ago
I have two approaches: 1. Random ideas that come from reading, browsing, coding - like https://eamag.me/2024/HackerNews-Prediction-Evaluator#why https://eamag.me/2024/HackerNews-Prediction-Evaluator#why 2. Have some big goal in mind and think about missing things that have to be built to achieve it - like https://eamag.me/2024/Automated-Paper-Classification#motivation https://eamag.me/2024/Automated-Paper-Classification#motivat...
JohnFen 2y ago
I keep a notebook and have a habit of writing down every idea that crosses my mind as soon as it happens. I believe that we all have ideas constantly, but we have generally trained ourselves to ignore them. How often have you had a fleeting "it would be great if..." thought that just passed through your mind never to be thought of again? In practice, after years of doing this, I add about 5-10 items to the list every day. Every so often I go through and extract the most promising ones to another list for further contemplation. As a result, I have more than enough ideas for a lifetime. When I'm looking for a new project, I scan through the list and almost always spot an idea that I find particularly appealing in the moment.
- caprock 2y ago
  I have a similar approach. Over time, it also helps me see which ideas repeat themselves and evolve. So I'll refine the document every once in a while, and start to group things together. It's also very calming to get these things out of my head and into any document / record. This experience is discussed in more detail in the book Getting Things Done.
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    > it also helps me see which ideas repeat themselves and evolve Oh, great point. A couple of other thoughts I had about what I've found with this practice: I have to handwrite the note, at least initially. I've tried various electronic alternative methods, but there's something about the act of handwriting that makes my brain remember and grok the idea in a way that doesn't happen otherwise. I suspend any judgement about the idea in the moment. It just gets written down. In practice, this means most of the ideas I write down are garbage, but it's a bit like catching things in a net. The good stuff is recorded along with the dross, and can be mined out later. About 80% of my ideas are really complaints, or, more charitably, they are brief descriptions of actual problems I've personally encountered (and in terms of product development, those are where the gold is). The "idea" there is usually my instinctive thought about how to minimize or eliminate that problem. That instinctive thought is usually incorrect, but following up on it leads to better ideas. I've found that smaller ideas are generally more valuable that larger ideas, because every project will end up being larger in scope, more difficult, and require more time and effort than it seems at the idea stage. Sometimes by a shocking amount. A key aspect of this for me is to be a voracious learner. I go out of my way to learn about subjects that I have no knowledge of and/or are ones I'm not particularly interested in. It's all grist for the idea mill. Aspects of knowledge in one area can very often be applied to other, objectively unrelated, areas. Speaking generally about learning, I've learned that being uninterested in a topic inevitably means that I won't be exposed to the unique ways of thinking that topic brings with it. Different fields often tackle and solve similar problems in very different ways, and just seeing a familiar problem from a different angle is valuable on its own. My brain is a creature of habit, and that includes set habits about how I frame and conceptualize things. That means I have rather large blind spots. Learning things outside of my "comfort zone" goes a long way towards reducing that problem.

2 points by grandimam 2y ago

Working on ideas is a creative endeavor so this prompts the implicit 'what is your personality type?' There are imo two general paths: opportunistic (in a positive sense), and inspirational. The former maps to 'resourceful' mindsets, the latter to 'creative'. Since you are asking this question, the assumption is that you are not a naturally creative type, so work on the opportunistic angle.

eamag 2y ago

I have two approaches: 1. Random ideas that come from reading, browsing, coding - like https://eamag.me/2024/HackerNews-Prediction-Evaluator#why https://eamag.me/2024/HackerNews-Prediction-Evaluator#why 2. Have some big goal in mind and think about missing things that have to be built to achieve it - like https://eamag.me/2024/Automated-Paper-Classification#motivation https://eamag.me/2024/Automated-Paper-Classification#motivat...

JohnFen 2y ago

I keep a notebook and have a habit of writing down every idea that crosses my mind as soon as it happens. I believe that we all have ideas constantly, but we have generally trained ourselves to ignore them. How often have you had a fleeting "it would be great if..." thought that just passed through your mind never to be thought of again? In practice, after years of doing this, I add about 5-10 items to the list every day. Every so often I go through and extract the most promising ones to another list for further contemplation. As a result, I have more than enough ideas for a lifetime. When I'm looking for a new project, I scan through the list and almost always spot an idea that I find particularly appealing in the moment.

caprock 2y ago
I have a similar approach. Over time, it also helps me see which ideas repeat themselves and evolve. So I'll refine the document every once in a while, and start to group things together. It's also very calming to get these things out of my head and into any document / record. This experience is discussed in more detail in the book Getting Things Done.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  > it also helps me see which ideas repeat themselves and evolve Oh, great point. A couple of other thoughts I had about what I've found with this practice: I have to handwrite the note, at least initially. I've tried various electronic alternative methods, but there's something about the act of handwriting that makes my brain remember and grok the idea in a way that doesn't happen otherwise. I suspend any judgement about the idea in the moment. It just gets written down. In practice, this means most of the ideas I write down are garbage, but it's a bit like catching things in a net. The good stuff is recorded along with the dross, and can be mined out later. About 80% of my ideas are really complaints, or, more charitably, they are brief descriptions of actual problems I've personally encountered (and in terms of product development, those are where the gold is). The "idea" there is usually my instinctive thought about how to minimize or eliminate that problem. That instinctive thought is usually incorrect, but following up on it leads to better ideas. I've found that smaller ideas are generally more valuable that larger ideas, because every project will end up being larger in scope, more difficult, and require more time and effort than it seems at the idea stage. Sometimes by a shocking amount. A key aspect of this for me is to be a voracious learner. I go out of my way to learn about subjects that I have no knowledge of and/or are ones I'm not particularly interested in. It's all grist for the idea mill. Aspects of knowledge in one area can very often be applied to other, objectively unrelated, areas. Speaking generally about learning, I've learned that being uninterested in a topic inevitably means that I won't be exposed to the unique ways of thinking that topic brings with it. Different fields often tackle and solve similar problems in very different ways, and just seeing a familiar problem from a different angle is valuable on its own. My brain is a creature of habit, and that includes set habits about how I frame and conceptualize things. That means I have rather large blind spots. Learning things outside of my "comfort zone" goes a long way towards reducing that problem.