A Thought is Not an Idea

Thanks to Simon Vin, the brain behind "https://dayssincehankgreenlaststartedanewthing.com/" - You can see more of his work here: https://rith.id.au/

You can apply for the product lead / cofounder position here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvZpBqJF0540eo5WfPuCM6nk9zhhuCOIwoXXy1ZQOgk78kkA/viewform

I've heard people talk a good deal about how ideas are useless without implementation, but I don't hear many people talking about the fact that an idea isn't even an idea if it doesn't have both an objective and a path to achieve that objective.

It used to be when someone asked me, "How do you become a YouTuber / TikToker / whatever" I would say, "I don't know, I did that 15 years ago, it's different now."

And hey, that's true...but it's not useful. What I say now is, "What do you actually want...it sounds like you have a thought, and that thought is 'that looks like a cool job.' But I need you to have an idea...what's your objective, and what are some things you've noticed that might help you get there."

The other thing that is more and more obvious to me every year is that all three of these things...thoughts, ideas, and implementation are deeply effected by available time, money, relationships, skills, and knowledge.

As I've gotten more into the world of business, every year I have more money, relationships, skills, and knowledge, and less time. Which makes me think, "Hey, I should probably be spreading these resources out among people who have more time." But that takes TIME! And that's a useful thought "Hey, I have noticed that as you go through life, most resources increase except free time."

And that makes me think about how inequality functions, and how older people have hoarded all kinds of capital, not just financial. And that makes me not want to be that person. But those are all thoughts...a way to actually fix it would be a course or book (or just YouTube channel) that shares that knowledge. But because I don't have the time for it, I'd need help with it, and since help would cost money (unless I was treating it like a charity) it now needs new thoughts about how something like that would be marketed, shared, and produced.

And then that creates thoughts about whether my insight would actually be valuable in a constantly changing world.

Regardless, it becomes very clear that my thoughts are deeply informed by my experiences and knowledge, my ideas all take into account acquired capital and being able to say, "Oh, this is solvable with the amount of money I currently have" is a remarkable power, and implementation is much easier having run a couple businesses for ten years...but, like, sharing and acquiring that knowledge is hard...which I guess is why business school exists?

I wouldn't know.

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