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July 22 2010
Consider What Your "Top Idea" is Making You Do [Thinking]
Essayist and programmer Paul Graham realized that the idea one thinks about when allowed to think freely—in the shower, for example—is more than just a quiet obsessions. It's a "Top idea," and it influences every other thought, too.
Photo by stevendepolo.
Actually, what Graham argues in his excellent essay is that if you've got a top idea in your head, that idea is getting all kinds of free, enthusiastic thinking that other ideas aren't getting. That can be fine if it's a good idea that comes from a good place, but all too often, Graham writes, we find ourselves letting non-priorities become our top ideas.
I'd noticed startups got way less done when they started raising money, but it was not till we ourselves raised money that I understood why. The problem is not the actual time it takes to meet with investors. The problem is that once you start raising money, raising money becomes the top idea in your mind. That becomes what you think about when you take a shower in the morning. And that means other questions aren't.
Graham's full essay is definitely worth the read, especially if you're wondering where your own "shower" idea is coming from.
May 20 2010
"Do Not Covet Your Ideas" [Quotables]
It's easy to understand why you'd want to safeguarding every idea you have, but it's probably not be the best way to get things done. Motivational author Paul Arden suggests you're a lot better off freeing your ideas, and staying hungry for new ones.
Paul Arden, author of the book It's Not How Good Your Are, It's How Good You Want To Be, suggests giving away your good ideas.
DO NOT COVET YOUR IDEAS.
Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you.
You will remember from school other students preventing you from seeing their answers by placing their arms around their exercise book or exam paper.
It is the same at work, people are secretive with ideas. 'Don't tell them that, they'll take credit for it.'
The problems with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually you'll become stale.
If you give away everything you have, you are let with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish.
Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you.
Ideas are open knowledge. Don't claim ownership.
They're not your ideas anyway, they're someone else's. They are out there floating by on the ether.
You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up.
In a time of mass and instantaneous communication it does seem silly to sit on and hoard ideas when they could be out there doing good and being brought to fruition. Sound off in the comments with your thoughts on the quote.
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