Szymon's Zettelkasten
Powered by 🌱Roam GardenPN: How to get startup ideas
Keywords:: PermanentNote
Reference: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
To get startup ideas you must live in the future and build what is interesting. Let's unpack that.
Why should you live in the future and what does this mean? It means that you need to live on the edge of a rapidly changing field. Why? Because usually, innovative products are a couple of steps ahead of the current times. Only after they've been present for a while people think: 'Why haven't I thought about it before? This is so obvious.' Only if you know what is possible you'll be able to imagine what particular concepts you encounter on a day to day basis can become. Ex. lot's of people were losing their USB sticks, but only Drew Houston (who was a computer scientist) came up with a way to store these files online (internet).
Once you're on the edge of a rapidly changing field the way to start noticing startup ideas is to see what is missing. In other words, you must aim to fill the gap between the present and your imaginary future world. It's like building a bridge between the future and the now.
PN: Innovation is about combining things, PN: Problems stay, solutions (products) change: new products are usually combinations of existing parts that address problems that never change.
How does this relate to N and S?
To make this process more effective you need to create an environment (inside your mind) to see potentially revolutionary things.
One way to do this is to surround yourself with ideas from unrelated fields. When seemingly disconnected concepts combine, bubble, and incubate inside your brain unpredictable and unique combinations can appear and produce an insight that might lead you to a successful startup idea.
PN: Diverse environments lead to creativity, PN: Environment for idea generation: ideas appear in environments in which there is a constant influx of diverse ideas.
Another way to start seeing what is missing is to question the status quo. Sacrifice part of your efficiency in favor of wondering why things are as they are. You must realize that the things we take for granted weren't so obvious in the past. Someone came up with them and only then they became obvious. Ex. washing hands wasn't an obvious thing to do in order to prevent disease. That said, you must become the person who examines reality and questions everything.
PN: The first principles: What'll help you to question the status quo are first principles which are immune to conventionality.
But arguably the best way to notice what is missing is building what interests you. Because building things compels you to seek information from unrelated fields. To build something, you usually need all kinds of skills and expertise from other people. Furthermore, when you build interesting things, you'll be able to persevere when you meet difficulties. Why? Because you're doing the thing for its sake. Interesting things fuel us with energy to overcome difficulties and take extra steps.
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: Building things lets you discover things you didn't think exist.
Lastly, you shouldn't try to come up with startup ideas directly. Rather you should be aware of it and let it run in the background. What you should focus on is generating input that will act as fuel for the potential ideas. Live in the future, work hard on what interests you and be ready for the inspirations to come.
PN: You need external input for serendipity: you need feed your brain before it can churn out ideas.
Relevant notes:
PN: The secret to entrepreneurship is to start small: about building what interests you
Referenced in
R: The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
By doing something you know (an objective or hypothesis) you find something that you didn't was there.
This shows that our platonicity and ludic fallacy—ridding reality of Black Swans through simplification due to our cognitive limitations—can work in our favor. You see, the hypothesis that hid BS could hide BS of the positive kind. When you test your hypothesis—implement it in reality—those BS get exposed leading to new things. The new things can be innovative on their own or they can act as a spare part (that was previously missing) to spark a novel idea. (PN: Most new ideas are incomplete)
- The important feature of creativity—it's serendiputous. PN: Times of slack for serendipity
- Secondly, this excerpt shows the recipe for creativity. In short, you must do stuff. Like in PN: How to get startup ideas, it's best to work on what interests you and keep living in the future. By building—i.e., externalizing your ideas in the physical world—you will discover things that only reality can disguise to you like in P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical
- Does bringing the metaphysical into the physical work because we expose the ludic fallacy? Those idealized but simplified pieces of reality get uncovered and this is where inventions hide?
- This shows that you have to have projects that you execute because they are what ena le serendipity. Putting thoughts into action in rral life can trigger new combinations like billiard balls hitting each other
- therefore do shit. Ship stuff. Execute. Implement and be ready for inspiration to come. Not the other way around. This is the cardinal rule.
- This also shows the side product of goals. You want to achieve on thing but you achieve another, unexpected because diving into reality shows you that your idealized goal was inaccurate, which is now irrelevant cuz you achieved more than you initially set out to.
R: The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
Secondly, this excerpt shows the recipe for creativity. In short, you must do stuff. Like in PN: How to get startup ideas, it's best to work on what interests you and keep living in the future. By building—i.e., externalizing your ideas in the physical world—you will discover things that only reality can disguise to you like in P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical
P: How to thrive in a Black Swan dominated world
By doing something you know (an objective or hypothesis) you find something that you didn't was there.
This shows that our platonicity and ludic fallacy—ridding reality of Black Swans through simplification due to our cognitive limitations—can work in our favor. You see, the hypothesis that hid BS could hide BS of the positive kind. When you test your hypothesis—implement it in reality—those BS get uncovered, leading to new things. The new things can be innovative on their own or they can act as a spare part (that was previously missing) to spark a novel idea. (PN: Most new ideas are incomplete)
- The important feature of creativity—it's serendiputous. PN: Times of slack for serendipity
- Secondly, this excerpt shows the recipe for creativity. In short, you must do stuff. Like in PN: How to get startup ideas, it's best to work on what interests you and keep living in the future. By building—i.e., externalizing your ideas in the physical world—you will discover things that only reality can disguise to you like in P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical
- Does bringing the metaphysical into the physical work because we expose the ludic fallacy? Those idealized but simplified pieces of reality get uncovered and this is where inventions hide?
- This shows that you have to have projects that you execute because they are what ena le serendipity. Putting thoughts into action in rral life can trigger new combinations like billiard balls hitting each other
- therefore do shit. Ship stuff. Execute. Implement and be ready for inspiration to come. Not the other way around. This is the cardinal rule.
- This also shows the side product of goals. You want to achieve on thing but you achieve another, unexpected because diving into reality shows you that your idealized goal was inaccurate, which is now irrelevant cuz you achieved more than you initially set out to.