“A multitude of bad ideas is necessary for one good idea” – from Excellent Advice for Living
Whenever we read about the success of someone or something, we often get the impression that someone had a great idea and executed on it. Especially in computing, it can seem like it’s the trajectory of many of the companies we know well.
The reality is that a lot of companies have various bad ideas and then discover one working well. They pivot into the one good idea. Microsoft started writing programming languages and then pivoted to providing DOS. Netflix went from DVD rentals to streaming.
The reality is that often we have lots of ideas and it can be hard to decide what a good idea is. That’s why we brainstorm, why we game, debate, and discuss options. We don’t have any hindsight when we are trying to move in a new direction, so we need to come up with various ideas to find a great one. Artists do this, musicians do this, plenty of creative people do this.
I used to want to try and wait to have a great idea before discussing it with others. Andy Warren taught me to just throw things out there and then examine them with others.
I’ve been posting New Words on Fridays from a book I was reading, however, a friend thought they were a little depressing. They should be as they are obscure sorrows. I like them because they make me think.
To counter-balance those, I’m adding in thoughts on advice, mostly from Kevin Kelley’s book. You can read all these posts under the advice tag.