Another idea if you want to push against the mental pressure that kills good ideas, from Paul Graham’s recent essay on how to do good work: “One way to do that is to ask what would be good ideas for someone else to explore. Then your subconscious won’t shoot them down to protect you.” I don’t know of anyone using this technique, but it might work.
This angle of attack sounds worth investigating for myself, especially because it can circumvent censorship for other reasons, such as resource availability or personal interests. I’ve had ideas before that I immediately knew weren’t something I’d be interested in pursuing myself, and it would be a waste to automatically throw them out without trying to think of someone more willing to take up the torch.
Circling back a few months later, I have some observations from trying out this idea:
I found myself tossing ideas to friends and acquaintances more often, which tended to improve my relationships with them somewhat
I noticed that some of the ideas I was preparing to hand off to someone else had glimmers of concepts I could use for other things, which had obvious benefits
I didn’t notice any impact to my normal ideation/processing bandwidth as a result of the change in operating method
Sometimes ideas I handed off to someone else would circle back later and benefit one of my own projects, although I suspect the success rates for such second-order results will vary wildly
Overall, it seems to have been worth trying, and I’ll probably keep it going.
This angle of attack sounds worth investigating for myself, especially because it can circumvent censorship for other reasons, such as resource availability or personal interests. I’ve had ideas before that I immediately knew weren’t something I’d be interested in pursuing myself, and it would be a waste to automatically throw them out without trying to think of someone more willing to take up the torch.
Circling back a few months later, I have some observations from trying out this idea:
I found myself tossing ideas to friends and acquaintances more often, which tended to improve my relationships with them somewhat
I noticed that some of the ideas I was preparing to hand off to someone else had glimmers of concepts I could use for other things, which had obvious benefits
I didn’t notice any impact to my normal ideation/processing bandwidth as a result of the change in operating method
Sometimes ideas I handed off to someone else would circle back later and benefit one of my own projects, although I suspect the success rates for such second-order results will vary wildly
Overall, it seems to have been worth trying, and I’ll probably keep it going.
Thank you for this update!