Ask HN: Too many concepts/ideas. What to do?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2338664

by riskish • 15 years ago

1 4 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have prototyped many projects in the past, but right now I have found myself with too many ideas I'd like to pursue. What's my next step? Figuring out which one I want to do most? That's really difficult...should I just pick one?

mixRead• 15 years ago

You should pick the one that you think can (and hopefully will) be the best fit with what are your plans forr the future. Where do you see in 2-5-10 years from now? Choose the best ideea you have right know, and start working on it, don't stop, be restless and fight for what you want in life!

yogsototh• 15 years ago

I'd do like this.

For each idea is the idea easy to make it real? Yes? Do it now No? Analyze more (give point on difficulty, probability of success, enjoyment doing it, etc...)

Once you only have _hard_ project, take the one with most point, start doing it. Only one at a time. Learn from your mistake for the next project.

pwp• 15 years ago

Write down all of the ideas, so at the very least they are not lost forever, in case you should get some time to come back and work on them. I can't tell you how many ideas I will have during some idle moments of the day or when I wake up in the middle of the night, but don't bother to write them down and end up losing them.

If you are wondering which to implement, my suggestion would be to see if one really sticks out as cool to you. Don't worry about making something to get a lot of money/girls/ice cream (I know, that was first on your list of desires wasn't it...). If you have several ideas and they all excite you... Before I finish let me emphasize this point -- they all excite you. You are a lot less likely to finish or even make significant head way if you don't care about the idea. Now back to your regularly scheduled post. ... talk to your friends, see which one they get excited about.

Not always, but typically if you have a good idea, it should only take a few sentences (at most a paragraph) to get others excited about the idea. This isn't 100% perfect, but it is a nice rule of thumb.

If all else fails, just pick one. One thing all good programmers, from the Knuths to the Zawinskis of the world, have in common is they all program/read code constantly.

Last but not least, good luck. If you feel like it, show us the results or (if we are really lucky) the code.

Happy hacking, pwp

riskish• 15 years ago

I appreciate the comments. After thinking about it myself, I have decided I am going to write a list of successful startups/companies that I admire and why. Perhaps this will give me insight into which idea I would like to succeed the most/gravitate towards.

Ask HN: Too many concepts/ideas. What to do?

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