from Hacker News

How to get new ideas

by elorm on 1/24/23, 12:24 PM with 216 comments

  • by gizmo on 1/24/23, 2:32 PM

    Most things are strange, missing, broken for mundane reasons that you can't do much about. The space of new ideas is huge, but almost all new ideas are bad. One strategy I really like is to think of technologies you couldn't build 5 years ago but are just barely possible today. That's where yesterday's bad ideas become today's good ideas.

    For example, laptops and phones produced 20 years of incremental improvements in li-ion batteries, and suddenly electric cars are "unlocked".

  • by 3dsnano on 1/24/23, 2:29 PM

    i think new ideas come from being naive and possessing the "no-mind" or a childlike sense of wonder. the older i get, the less plastic my brain is and the more depression and other issues start to seep in, get in the way, overcomplicate shit.

    to be completely free, uninhibited, released from guilt and predjudice. to just think, play, laugh, fart, and yawn. boring days spent looking out the window wondering how crows fart, or what makes zebras sassy.

    the only limit is our own adult psychosis. we are prisoners of our own minds, locked and shackled by constructs of our own design. too focused on the failures of the past and anxieties of the present to take a moment and b-r-e-a-t-h-e. like who fucking cares about businesses and startups and shit. saas my ass. when you actually stop trying, give up, and stop caring, and truly let go (like in the movie frozen) you can actually go in and through and back out the other side.

    just learn to get out the way of yourself. that's what im working on, but it's really hard. you think you're supposed to be there and generate brilliance 24/7 but it's not possible.

    go outside and find a patch of earth where things are growing. get really close to the ground and start looking at it real hard. there's honestly so much stuff there, it's wild. like who knew? wow thats nuts. acorns, rocks and shit. touch the dirt and rub it on your face. mushrooms are literally everywhere. the water in my body was once in a bowl of rice that your great grandma ate at becky's 27th birthday party.

    just give up just give up stop caring be free

  • by r3trohack3r on 1/24/23, 1:57 PM

    Lots of truth to this. Just start building. Build for yourself and real people, not imagined profiles of people. The more you build, the more you explore, the more you'll find low-hanging useful ideas. As you encounter them it’ll surprise you that the space is mostly empty.

    Patio11 tweeted about using ChatGPT to immitate social signaling by rewriting content. I thought that was fun so I started doing it. That grew into Spencer Westford: https://vc.blankenship.io

    That grew into a product: https://persona.ink

    That keeps snowballing. Ever since building for myself my notebook of ideas is growing faster than I can keep up.

  • by kensai on 1/24/23, 7:48 PM

    Well, actually the ChatGPT essays-fed answer (https://twitter.com/stef/status/1617222536344764416/photo/1) is pretty close to what Paul Graham himself said, although he would not admit it. Real Paul talked about anomalies, and that's eerily close to "accidents and mistakes" in my opinion. :)

  • by interleave on 1/24/23, 3:10 PM

    I love this.

    Short and concise, this combines two of my most favorite mindshares.

    1. "Hackers and Painters" – I stumbled across in late 2004 at the Technical University of Vienna's (excellent) bookstore. Reading it changed my life.

    2. "Ideas are the Enemy of Observations (2012)" – Just Three months ago yamrzou shared this gem of a text. For me, it has become the most meaningful post ever shared on HN.

    "How to get new ideas" seems to fit snuggly right in the middle :)

    [^1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33355094

  • by jarrenae on 1/24/23, 6:37 PM

    I feel I can speak to this pretty well, over the past year I've launched 130+ projects as part of https://ae.studio/same-day-skunkworks and I've come up with ~250+ ideas.

    Similar to "look for anomalies" my general rule of thumb is to solve some sort of problem, even if it's rather small.

    So for example:

    1. I pick a topic/product. Let's say: Gmail

    2. I look for things that I'd like to be able to do, wish I could do, or consider frustrations I've experienced in the past.

    - I want to review how many emails I get a day on average, where are my "inbox metrics"?

    - I want to see threaded messages more clearly, why is the design so opposite a normal chat message?

    - I want to create emails faster, why do I have such an elaborate editor and format for something that I typically want to use informally?

    3. I consider ways to solve said problems

    - Where are my "inbox metrics"? - Chrome extension to show average emails per day, and graph on a timeline which types of emails I get on certain days. Huge personal data opportunity here.

    - I want to see threaded messages more clearly - An app that connects to my gmail that intelligently restructures my emails to make them appear like chat messages. It handles all the noise, I just message as I would in any instant messenger.

    - I want to create emails faster - predictive text templates, quick starters, GPT powered replies, change the "bulky editor" out for a simple text box + clever replies.

    4. I then research if there are existing solutions to said problems, and if there are, I either ignore and move on, or consider ways that I could quickly one up their product to make mine the better product in the marketplace.

    For my specific use-case, I'm trying to build a product per day, so I'll look for speedy ways to solve the problem that I've selected in a novel and agency increasing way. But I think this is a great structure for anyone looking to build a startup or a small side hustle.

  • by hristov on 1/24/23, 3:20 PM

    HN should have a [chat GPT] tag for stuff generated by chat GPT. So that I can ignore it. I do not mind reading what paul graham said about how to get new ideas. I do not care what chat GPT said. What chat GPT said may or may not be a good summary of paul grahams thoughts, it may be wrong in an important aspect, etc.

    If Paul Graham wants to say something, he should say it directly and not hide behind a chat gpt layer.

  • by ok_dad on 1/24/23, 7:11 PM

    I don't need ideas! I need some sort of "basic income" that allows me to pursue the ideas I have today while providing for a family.

  • by goertzen on 1/24/23, 4:18 PM

    It might not be good at generating original posts, but it’s really good at generating HN comments.

    Try it! Generate typical HN comments to this PG post [ … ]. - Include both positive and negative comments. - add replies that focus on annoying details that draw attention to the commenter - include fan boy defence of original post - point out obvious exceptions

  • by papito on 1/24/23, 2:21 PM

    When I was in my 20s, I could code for days on straight. I had so much energy and the perception of the bottomless capital of time. Now that I am forty, the cost-benefit analysis is getting tougher.

    Can I have my big break and retire early? Sure, but the chances of that happening are not that great. Many serial entrepreneurs fail multiple times with nothing to show for it.

    All I think about now is - when I am on my deathbed, and I look back at my life, will I regret not living it, or that I didn't spend enough time writing code in front of my computer on an off-chance that my idea works out?

  • by paraschopra on 1/24/23, 2:00 PM

    Wrote about the exact same idea a few years back: https://invertedpassion.com/to-get-good-startup-ideas-look-f...

  • by surprisetalk on 1/24/23, 1:47 PM

  • by marban on 1/24/23, 2:58 PM

    As someone who worked with Bill Gross* for almost two decades, I'd suggest watching this playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeabOFsFccYCkD9ZUsoI0...

    * Overture, Picasa and many more OGs.

  • by wbharding on 1/24/23, 7:41 PM

    The "gaps that seem obvious"-notion describes exactly how I feel about pull request tooling these days. The status quo for PR review has very obvious-seeming improvements that have not been pursued (ex: de-emphasizing moved code vs. deleted code, making AI predict what comment will be left before dev starts typing, auto-reviewing trivial changes).

    If I'm correct that PR review is currently much less efficient than it will be soon, it won't be because I'm smart or this is a new idea. It would just be because our company has spent last five years building code review tools, right place right time. Eventually there was enough infrastructure accumulated (and ambient events unfolding, ie OpenAI) that it became a small step to pass the edge of what PR review meant circa 2022.

  • by samsquire on 1/24/23, 6:53 PM

    I think that finding gaps as Paul Graham says is a good approach to finding ideas.

    My approach to finding ideas is to think, write and use words I like to explore creatively and join arbitrary ideas together. Writing and talking IS thinking itself!

    I even journal all my ideas in the open on GitHub! I share all my ideas with everyone, including startup ideas. Links are on my profile. I LOVE SHARING IDEAS.

    I enjoy reading people's problems to encounter inspiration for problem solving. I would read Slashdot when growing up to learn about computer issues people were solving.

    Some words I enjoy are "mesh", "parallel", "multiplex", "multi", "schedule", "marketplace", "tree", "additive", "auto", "query", "traversal", "graph".

  • by robg on 1/24/23, 4:06 PM

    Neuroscientist here. Closer I got to the physiology of mental health - sleep, stress, exercise, and nutrition - realized it was another fractal for personal and population health. Problem remains navigating regulatory or reimbursement hurdles from wellness into professional care.

  • by qikInNdOutReply on 1/24/23, 2:09 PM

    Have a anomoulus brain, that recombines things that do not belong together (conspiracy theories) but have enough filter to recognize the the bad recombinations. Train said brain with rewards for recombinations, even ridculous ones.

    Also recongize that inventors would be excellent in story writting when asked to produce a recipe for creativity. So the step by step instructions may be nonsense.

    Creativity, the far reaching one, not the incremental one, is topological adjunct to insanity. Which is why the radical new things, only get funded in times of desperation. If I were a inventor, i would be heading for ukraine or russia right now.

  • by bamazizi on 1/24/23, 3:06 PM

    One of the oldest saying in entrepreneurship is "need is the mother of invention"

    It starts with finding the right problem/need and before jumping into to solutioning, the smart person would validate and pitch the problem to as many relevant target customers as possible. Once the problem is validated and tangible root cause is flushed out then it's time to explore the solution and pitching it to the same customer research group for validation before going into building mode.

    Finding ideas is not hard, but the process is gruelling, frustrating and potentially rewarding. Good luck!

  • by topherPedersen on 1/24/23, 7:16 PM

    I thought GPT wrote what Paul posted! I guess I cannot tell the difference anymore between who's saying what. I actually thought what Paul wrote sounded like a poor imitation of Paul Graham... spooky!

  • by specialist on 1/24/23, 7:14 PM

    And I'm over here trying turn off my endless torrent of new ideas, to better focus on the work in front of me.

    During the apocalyse, it got really bad. Probably due to isolation and so I didn't have my usual inhibitors. ("Being polite company" turn upkeep.)

    --

    The one strategy I have "to let it go" for my idea factory is to journal. Write however much of the notion down in notebooks that emotionally allows me to mentally stop chewing on it. Sometimes just a one liner. Sometimes long white papers.

  • by paulorlando on 1/24/23, 9:00 PM

    Love the comments here. I try to get ideas for what is becoming possible (not what's a good or bad idea) by visualizing how drivers of timing work. I wrote a bit about it here: https://startupsunplugged.com/why-now/timing-drivers-visuali...

  • by photochemsyn on 1/24/23, 2:12 PM

    Real progress in any field or endeavor comes down to about 5% new ideas and creativity, 95% hard work putting those new ideas into practice or building something functional out of them.

    That 5% is pretty critical however, as without it you're just continuing to redo what's already been done.

  • by halfmatthalfcat on 1/24/23, 1:57 PM

    I think the key is noticing, which implies being a more passive observer. Most people want to find new ideas, which is being active. I've never had success at actively finding ideas but much more successful just living life, listening and the ideas just come.

  • by swyx on 1/24/23, 2:37 PM

    i am genuinely surprised that pg is writing such a short response to a question that seems right down his alley, seemingly very core to his subject matter. how has he not written an authoritative “how to get ideas” post until now?

  • by olalonde on 1/24/23, 5:33 PM

    I think that's why a lot of innovation comes from "outsiders" rather than industry veterans. You are more likely to notice the anomalies with fresh eyes and stop noticing them through time.

  • by iamflimflam1 on 1/24/23, 2:12 PM

    My problem isn't a lack of ideas. It's having the bandwidth to do them all. What I really need is the ability to clone myself.

  • by Existenceblinks on 1/24/23, 3:48 PM

    His take on non-natural lang for AI (https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1612510768674795523) sounds right (bias: because it's also what I was thinking)

    So I'm not hyped about ChatGPT at all

    > much of standup comedy is based on this (anomalies)

    I think it's more about capitalize popular rants though. Not sure most of them are even feasible things to fix.

    It's an ok essay .. though nothing sparks new idea of thinking about new idea.

  • by nickdothutton on 1/24/23, 7:15 PM

    Most of the truly new innovation that happens is between established disciplines. Biology <-> Chemistry, Biochemistry. Statistics <-> [insert field].

  • by Octokiddie on 1/24/23, 10:19 PM

    > Someone fed my essays into GPT to make something that could answer questions based on them, then asked it where good ideas come from. The answer was ok, but not what I would have said. So I asked: What would I have said?

    It's not entirely clear whether or not the essay was written by GPT because it's not clear who PG asked. Himself or GPT?

    I'm leaning toward the former, but can't rule out the latter. Maybe that's the point.

  • by naillo on 1/24/23, 1:52 PM

    I couldn't really parse the header to tell if he authored this essay or if he asked chatgpt to make it up. (If the latter, pretty impressive!)

  • by thenerdhead on 1/24/23, 2:34 PM

    A willingness to change one’s mind and the cliche Socrates idea that one knows they know nothing always helps too.

  • by bryanmgreen on 1/24/23, 6:19 PM

    Of PG advice/tips/guidance, "Do things that don't scale" I think is still a great starting point and a piece of advice that is a bit less abstract.

    When you start from that, only the ideas that most people would never consider float to the top.

    It's worked for me and my business.

  • by martin-adams on 1/24/23, 1:57 PM

    I was inspired by comparing DNA to information and used that as a formula for generating new ideas.

    https://meda.io/evolve-your-thinking/

  • by sidcool on 1/24/23, 2:36 PM

    Question. How does one feed content to ChatGPT and get such output?

  • by sargstuff on 1/24/23, 3:51 PM

    wonder what the typical painting brush stroke count is between posted writings.

    edit: perhaps a stippling[1] to stipulation [2] ratio tuppled with relevant/appropriate pruning technique(s)

          [1] stipplism vs pointillism : https://www.davidaccurso.com/the-art

      [2] document of concurrence : https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/stipulation

  • by biscuits1 on 1/24/23, 1:26 PM

    The question wasn't answered.

    How to fill those gaps? Write.

  • by ignoramous on 1/24/23, 3:47 PM

  • by steele on 1/24/23, 5:27 PM

    1) have capital 2) bet capital on people with ideas 3) exploit their labor 4) declare yourself their muse

  • by adversaryIdiot on 1/24/23, 5:06 PM

    Hi, Idiot here.

    How can I reliably find "Frontiers of Knowledge"? Especially in fields I'm not savvy in?

  • by seydor on 1/24/23, 2:48 PM

    "ChatGPT, gimme 10 startup ideas"

    TBH, at this point, if there is a problem that hasn't been solved, its because some people tried and failed and found that the problem is not solvable currently. It may be more fruitful to start with something promisingly popular, and improve upon it (e.g. tiktok)

  • by UncleOxidant on 1/24/23, 6:22 PM

    So PG has been automated?

  • by josht on 1/24/23, 2:15 PM

    Simply beautiful.

  • by andjelam990 on 1/24/23, 1:51 PM

    Ask chatGPT :D

  • by ljlolel on 1/24/23, 1:19 PM

    ChatGPT

  • by baxtr on 1/24/23, 1:28 PM

    It’s actually so short, you can read it here. (If you’re like me you head to the the comments section before going to a page…).

    Here it is:

    How to Get New Ideas

    January 2023

    (Someone fed my essays into GPT to make something that could answer questions based on them, then asked it where good ideas come from. The answer was ok, but not what I would have said. So I asked: What would I have said?)

    The way to get new ideas is to notice anomalies: what seems strange, or missing, or broken? You can see anomalies in everyday life (much of standup comedy is based on this), but the best place to look for them is at the frontiers of knowledge. Knowledge grows fractally. From a distance its edges look smooth, but when you learn enough to get close to one, you'll notice it's full of gaps. These gaps will seem obvious; it will seem inexplicable that no one has tried x or wondered about y. In the best case, exploring such gaps yields whole new fractal buds.

  • by reffle on 1/24/23, 1:23 PM

    This essay is very short. Has he given up on writing? Maybe too much Twitter has melted his brian.