5 ms·

This is a pet peeve of mine. When someone talks about having their idea stolen, it really bothers me. It especially bothers me if they tell me "now don't steal

by jmcqk6 13y ago

This is a pet peeve of mine. When someone talks about having their idea stolen, it really bothers me. It especially bothers me if they tell me "now don't steal my idea, but..." I don't want your idea. I have too many of my own. Here, take some of mine. Most likely, I'll think your idea is shit anyway, because almost all ideas are shit when they are just an idea. For an idea to have value it needs to be backed by something tangible. As the article says, ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is where the [value] lies.

wise_young_man 13y ago
I agree. I almost wonder if when people say that it's as if it's their only idea they've ever had. From my experience and some friends, we constantly get new ideas and talk about them. I wish I could build them all. Take some from me and go build it!
drewblay 13y ago
The article reminded me a lot of this blog explaining why he doesn't sign NDA's with start-ups. http://blog.jpl-consulting.com/2012/04/why-i-wont-sign-your-nda/ http://blog.jpl-consulting.com/2012/04/why-i-wont-sign-your-...
tobyjsullivan 13y ago
I seem to get a new great idea every time I drink a beer. That's what I want to tell friends every time they come to me with a "great idea" I should implement (as business partners, of course). That said, I still love hearing people's ideas. Just don't expect me to act on it.
- junto 13y ago
  I need a new side project. Can you give me 5 of your best ideas that you don't want to use? :-)
  - tinco 13y ago
    Please build a project milestone tree site. The idea would be that the users can make a project. Then split that project up in milestones, and then those milestones can be split into more, etc.. I think that fits very well to how the planning for a software project should work. Bonus points if you can make it into a Trello like system where you can assign team members to milestones etc.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
      And generalize it so the underlying framework can be used in other areas, such as manufacturing, where you need to estimate the time/cost to build an assembly, which is itself composed of other subassemblies. Then have the ability to store those subtrees separately, so if you're estimating a new product with some subassemblies you previously estimated, you can reuse that data. That's a product you can actually sell to any number of small manufacturing businesses worldwide.
      - lesterbuck 13y ago
        HeyLaughingBoy, that's an interesting idea. I'd like more details, but your public profile has no contact info.
        HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
        Sorry 'bout that. Deleted the old email and forgot to add new one :-( Updated now.
  - ezl 13y ago
    @ 1. Craigslist style email obfuscation as a service. problem: i have a marketplace type website where my users would like to be contacted but not have their emails be made public. how it works: i set a subdomain of my site, mail.mysite.com to an ip address you designate. on demand, i make an api call to your service (emailobfuscationasaservice.com) with { real_address:foo@bar.com, expiration_timestamp:2014-01-20T00:00:00.000Z, obfuscate_replies: true / false, callback_url: (optional) } emailobfuscationasaservice.com responds with either a success message and an anonymized, temporary email address like 239fag72wa@mail.mysite.com (the subdomain i gave you) or an error message like "no such user at that domain" or "domain doesn't exist" or something. the email address lives until the expiration timestamp. if the obfuscated email receives a message, you forward it to the "real_address". if "obfuscate_replies" was set to true at email creation time, then if the person responds, you play middleman for both parties and force all their emails to go through you (basically you create another obscured email for person who writes to the obscured email). if "callback_url" was set, that means that I, the operator of mysite.com, want to be notified of activity at the obscured email address, so you POST activity to the specified url. that lets me do things like update activity feeds in my app for the user. If you build this, I will pay for it. @ 2. support page as a service. copy these: http://supportdetails.com/ http://supportdetails.com/ http://www.browser-details.com/ http://www.browser-details.com/ Sell more aggressively. @ 3. Basecamp for travel planning (I imagine this already exists). I am on a trip with some friends right now. We have ideas for stuff we want to do but its all poorly organized in email and google spreadsheets. Basically the things we want to do are: tourist sites, activities, food. A cool app would let us create a group like in basecamp, state our destination, then let us start typing things in we want to do. those get matched to existing review sites or links that contain information about them and put on a map. in an unfamiliar place this is useful because it lets me group items/events geographically and plan my trip better. it would let people plan an itinerary together, asyncronously and make comments on possible activities for the group. (other smart features: places to stay, modes of transportation, notes like "don't forget to get your visa by date XXX"). Basically a crud app. how to monetize? no idea. affiliate commissions on airbnb, event tickets, etc? i want it, wouldn't build it. the backend isn't hard, getting the UI right would be a challenge.
- teleclimber 13y ago
  I'm sure a lot of people here have a lot of ideas. But there is a big difference between "an idea" and "a good idea". I have a lot of ideas too, but I often find a rather critical flaw somewhere sooner or later, or I fall out of love with the idea because in the end... it wasn't that good. Finding a truly good idea, one that still stands after weeks of simmering, that looks good under all angles (product is actually buildable, the customers are there and reachable and willing to pay, you're not likely to have to compete with the Googles of the world, etc..) doesn't happen all the time. Discovering a hole in a market, and realizing a lot of people are walking right past a gold mine that you believe is there is something you may want to keep close to your chest. Especially when you're talking to other entrepreneurs.
midas007 13y ago
The whole meme is loser-code for: 1) an excuse for taking credit of another venture's execution* and 2) throwing mud instead. ---- Response: Call it out as a "________ or it didn't happen." * a cousin of the Not Invented Here (NIH) syndrome
k-mcgrady 13y ago
>> "It especially bothers me if they tell me "now don't steal my idea, but..." I don't want your idea." I take another stance on this. If you don't want me to steal your idea, don't tell me it. If you tell me it and I think I can execute on it better or quicker or I think I have a better take on it I'll build it.

by jmcqk6 13y ago

wise_young_man 13y ago

I agree. I almost wonder if when people say that it's as if it's their only idea they've ever had. From my experience and some friends, we constantly get new ideas and talk about them. I wish I could build them all. Take some from me and go build it!

drewblay 13y ago

The article reminded me a lot of this blog explaining why he doesn't sign NDA's with start-ups. http://blog.jpl-consulting.com/2012/04/why-i-wont-sign-your-nda/ http://blog.jpl-consulting.com/2012/04/why-i-wont-sign-your-...

tobyjsullivan 13y ago

I seem to get a new great idea every time I drink a beer. That's what I want to tell friends every time they come to me with a "great idea" I should implement (as business partners, of course). That said, I still love hearing people's ideas. Just don't expect me to act on it.

junto 13y ago
I need a new side project. Can you give me 5 of your best ideas that you don't want to use? :-)
- tinco 13y ago
  Please build a project milestone tree site. The idea would be that the users can make a project. Then split that project up in milestones, and then those milestones can be split into more, etc.. I think that fits very well to how the planning for a software project should work. Bonus points if you can make it into a Trello like system where you can assign team members to milestones etc.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
    And generalize it so the underlying framework can be used in other areas, such as manufacturing, where you need to estimate the time/cost to build an assembly, which is itself composed of other subassemblies. Then have the ability to store those subtrees separately, so if you're estimating a new product with some subassemblies you previously estimated, you can reuse that data. That's a product you can actually sell to any number of small manufacturing businesses worldwide.
    - lesterbuck 13y ago
      HeyLaughingBoy, that's an interesting idea. I'd like more details, but your public profile has no contact info.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
        Sorry 'bout that. Deleted the old email and forgot to add new one :-( Updated now.
- ezl 13y ago
  @ 1. Craigslist style email obfuscation as a service. problem: i have a marketplace type website where my users would like to be contacted but not have their emails be made public. how it works: i set a subdomain of my site, mail.mysite.com to an ip address you designate. on demand, i make an api call to your service (emailobfuscationasaservice.com) with { real_address:foo@bar.com, expiration_timestamp:2014-01-20T00:00:00.000Z, obfuscate_replies: true / false, callback_url: (optional) } emailobfuscationasaservice.com responds with either a success message and an anonymized, temporary email address like 239fag72wa@mail.mysite.com (the subdomain i gave you) or an error message like "no such user at that domain" or "domain doesn't exist" or something. the email address lives until the expiration timestamp. if the obfuscated email receives a message, you forward it to the "real_address". if "obfuscate_replies" was set to true at email creation time, then if the person responds, you play middleman for both parties and force all their emails to go through you (basically you create another obscured email for person who writes to the obscured email). if "callback_url" was set, that means that I, the operator of mysite.com, want to be notified of activity at the obscured email address, so you POST activity to the specified url. that lets me do things like update activity feeds in my app for the user. If you build this, I will pay for it. @ 2. support page as a service. copy these: http://supportdetails.com/ http://supportdetails.com/ http://www.browser-details.com/ http://www.browser-details.com/ Sell more aggressively. @ 3. Basecamp for travel planning (I imagine this already exists). I am on a trip with some friends right now. We have ideas for stuff we want to do but its all poorly organized in email and google spreadsheets. Basically the things we want to do are: tourist sites, activities, food. A cool app would let us create a group like in basecamp, state our destination, then let us start typing things in we want to do. those get matched to existing review sites or links that contain information about them and put on a map. in an unfamiliar place this is useful because it lets me group items/events geographically and plan my trip better. it would let people plan an itinerary together, asyncronously and make comments on possible activities for the group. (other smart features: places to stay, modes of transportation, notes like "don't forget to get your visa by date XXX"). Basically a crud app. how to monetize? no idea. affiliate commissions on airbnb, event tickets, etc? i want it, wouldn't build it. the backend isn't hard, getting the UI right would be a challenge.
teleclimber 13y ago
I'm sure a lot of people here have a lot of ideas. But there is a big difference between "an idea" and "a good idea". I have a lot of ideas too, but I often find a rather critical flaw somewhere sooner or later, or I fall out of love with the idea because in the end... it wasn't that good. Finding a truly good idea, one that still stands after weeks of simmering, that looks good under all angles (product is actually buildable, the customers are there and reachable and willing to pay, you're not likely to have to compete with the Googles of the world, etc..) doesn't happen all the time. Discovering a hole in a market, and realizing a lot of people are walking right past a gold mine that you believe is there is something you may want to keep close to your chest. Especially when you're talking to other entrepreneurs.

midas007 13y ago

The whole meme is loser-code for: 1) an excuse for taking credit of another venture's execution* and 2) throwing mud instead. ---- Response: Call it out as a "________ or it didn't happen." * a cousin of the Not Invented Here (NIH) syndrome

k-mcgrady 13y ago

>> "It especially bothers me if they tell me "now don't steal my idea, but..." I don't want your idea." I take another stance on this. If you don't want me to steal your idea, don't tell me it. If you tell me it and I think I can execute on it better or quicker or I think I have a better take on it I'll build it.