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Youre sitting at your desk, searching for hours on the Holy Internet something you need.
You want to build a great personal project.
But you miss something.
This is something simple but difficult to grasp.
Something everybody speaks about, but only the chosen ones know its true meaning.
You dont have great ideas.
The world is torture.
There will be always war and death.
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We have, all of us, creative possibilities.
Forget about this nonsense of Im born like that or Im not good in this.
You create artificial borders to your own possibilities.
You put yourself in an imaginary jail.
[Read:Are EVs too expensive?
Heres the good news: building a software means automating something.
you might automate a lot of things in many different domains.
Thats precisely why I think you could generate many different ideas, for many different domains.
To learn how, heres what well see in this article:
Whats an idea?
Even if it looks like a silly question, you should consider it.
Can you define whats an idea?
Lets look at the definition in a thing from the old ages called dictionary.
From theOxford one:
A thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action
Now, thats interesting.
We could think that an idea is a pure construct of our minds.
Its only a mere thought, right?
However, the definition suggests that its a special thought which takes a possible course of action.
We have a tendency to forget that an idea needs to be something were able to put into practice.
Its a thought which isactionable.
In fact, can we say that an idea has value without any action?
Is it what separates ideas and thought?
Is it a big idea?
The one with the biggest possible action?
I think well all agree that agoodidea is an idea which fulfills our goals.
Dont follow these feelings blindly.
Sometimes, ideas appear to us so good that we think it will automatically be appealing to everybody.
On the contrary, sometimes we convince ourselves that an idea is bad because were afraid of failures.
All of that is perfectly normal.
We are all human, we all have illusions and doubts.
It could be an MVP or even a simple prototype.
Now that we all agree on what an idea and agoodone is, lets continue our journey.
You first need to let space in your mind to allow them to come to you.
What do I mean by space?
Maybe youre never alone and you always meet and speak to a lot of people.
All these external stimuli will monopolize your mind.
You wont have space for ideas to pop up.
Lets take another example: your phone.
You could think: Right, but its so inspiring!
Its mainly the same content you will find on applications like Instagram, Twitter, and whatnot.
Is it great content?
Is it content that generates great ideas?
You need an external stimulus that is reallyinterestingfor you, to get inspired and having ideas you consider good.
it’s crucial that you create a balance between inspiration and space.
These feelings will generate ideas of any sort.
The more diverse your inspiration will be, the more diverse your ideas will be.
You need as well to be receptive to them when they come to you.
You might search on The Fantastic Internet what are the goodsoftwareideas out there.
You might go to forums, speaking aboutsoftware, or searching on Facebook forsoftwarerelated groups.
This is a mistake.
Remember what inspiration is?
you should probably be receptive to the things which surround you.
To be receptive, you better be interested in them.
It can be diversifying your activity, or simply working in another environment.
Every change, even a small one, can be a real idea generator.
Dopamine and ideas
It has been proved that dopamine release helps to create ideas.
Now, I got your attention.
How can you release this dopamine?
You might want to create space in these moments.
you oughta experiment, of course, to find what works for you.
Heres a cool Latin sentence from Juvenal:
Mens sana in corpore sano.
If its in Latin, its true.
Yes, you need a system to write out your ideas.
By writing your ideas somewhere, grouping them, connecting them, your idea flow will increase drastically.
First, your brain wont have to keep up with this mental load of every single idea you have.
Even better: review your idea system after a couple of days and BAM!
You will create the Virtuous Circle of Idea, you lucky idea powerhouse!
I would advise you to writeeveryidea, even the ones you consider bad.
A bunch of bad ideas can create a good one if you give it some time.
Dont be too judgemental.
Little, silly, or apparently stupid ideas can be the foundation of your next project.
it’s crucial that you categorize and organize them on a regular basis in your idea system.
Dont hesitate to cut out some ideas as well.
Dont be sentimental and press this delete button.
Ideas you generate are yours, thats true, butthey are not you.
You dont delete a part of yourself.
Its a never-ending and deeply enjoyable process.
Its pretty simple, really.
First, I need to have constant access to my idea bag.
Its where I throw ideas when I have them.
Directlywhen I have them.
Dont wait too long before writing them somewhere!
Your ideas are like little clouds, they can disappear from your conscious mind as fast as they appeared.
Often, I find a new link between ideas.
As the famousvisionaryphilanthropistmarketing guru, Steve Jobs, said:
Creativity is just connecting things.
I can then access them on any computer.
If youre interested in mindmaps and if you want to read them everywhere, there isplentyofsoftwareforthat.
When the programming project is well defined enough, I create aTrello board.
When I have any idea related to this new project, I write it directly into this board.
There is a last important component in my system, complementary with Google Keep: post-it.
I write it and put it on my desk.
Its a good way to oblige myself to keep my ideas in one place.
Now I have so many ideas for blog posts, I can write for years.
I could say the same for side projects, for books, and for many other projects.
The most important is: these aremyideas.
Still, they are the end of a personal process.
Therefore, Im way more motivated to execute them.
Writing your ideas makes them real.
They are not pure thoughts anymore.
Speaking with people about your ideas will make them even more concrete.
People can react to them, adding thoughts to your ideas, transform them.
You dont have to speak physically to people, even if I think its even more effective.
Dont be afraid to ask questions.
Dont be afraid of negative feedback.
You need all of that, or you will stick with ideas youre the only one to find good.
Even before beginning to build your side project itself.
This kind of project always involves people.
Because they will use what you build.
Creating a revenue stream from side projects is a complex question that goes beyond the scope of this article.
Comment below if somebody wants me to gabble about it in an article, one day.
Get inspired and grasp these killer ideas!
Many things can benefit from a new piece of software.
Thats why you should not limit your ideas to some precise field or interest.
We can build software for anybody who needs some automation.
Lets do a little debriefing: what did we learn together in this article?
We are all different, you should probably adapt and see what works for you.
The goal is to create more ideas, to build more valuable goods, and to have fun!
you might read the piecehere.
