Comments on: fighting brain crack

By: How to Fail | Our Start Up Story

How to Fail | Our Start Up Story — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:34:56 +0000

[...] so easy to do. It’s brain crack to plan and analyze and never [...]

By: Joeflash

Joeflash — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:14:30 +0000

I've got more than a few ideas running around in my head… so I'm VERY guilty of brain crack, LOL. "But, but… I've been writing THE MOTHER OF ALL FLEX BOOKS for over a year now, how can I have time to build anything in my spare time?", I ask myself. "Well, don't write so damn much, for one, or don't work so many hours in the week", I tell myself. Easier said than done.

Though I have let go of some brain crack: still own the domain myzengarden.com, from when Flash 8 came out and you could do low level bitmap manipulations for the first time — I thought it would be cool to create a virtual "zen garden" creation tool, and you would be able to export the image for your desktop. But that ship has sailed, so I think I'll sell the domain to this Ukrainian who's been bugging to buy it off me. If anyone else wants the idea, go for it.

That aside, some ideas need to stay private until they're ready to hatch, even if you are working on them. (Is fighting brain crack just building your ideas, or is it telling people about them while you're doing them, I'm confused.)

I mean, look what happened to Saffron: massive build-up, guy lectures around the world about it — and then he disappears off the face of the planet (AFAIK) and still no one has seen a beta! There's brain crack, and then there's premature Flashturbation, if you know what I mean. I'd rather have brain crack then be the Flexer who cried wolf.

By: John Wilker

John Wilker — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:22:50 +0000

Right, that's what I'm saying (Maybe not clearly, LOL) the tickler is a good solution to brain crack because it gets the idea out of your head, which is (if I understand Ze's point) the big point.

By: Jeffry Houser

Jeffry Houser — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:01:07 +0000

Unless I'm really confused, l would say that a tickler file is a way to avoid brain crack by getting that idea out of your brain in the short term.

Not to say some ideas shouldn't be chucked all together of course.

By: John Wilker

John Wilker — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:45:26 +0000

Well the Tickler is something different. The idea is that you put it in a tickler file and get it off your mind, to focus on other things. I think Brain crack is keeping it on your mind, in the background, but never executing. Coming back to the tickler in a year and busting out a game, is perfect. When it was time it got CPU cycles, that it was due, and wasn't stealing from others.

By: John Wilker

John Wilker — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:43:17 +0000

True, very true. But it's definitely more of a challenge IMO. first movers get a bit more lee way on things not being super great, so long as they show improvement. The next guy is expected to really "WOW" the masses, there's less room for "Well he'll improve later" for the 2nd and 3rd guys to market.

By: John Wilker

John Wilker — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:41:36 +0000

Awesome! Great post!

By: Jeffry Houser

Jeffry Houser — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:18:38 +0000

I tend to disagree here. The success of an idea is in the implementation, not the actual idea. Just because someone else built it doesn't mean you can't do a better job or fill a different niche than their previous project.

By: Jeffry Houser

Jeffry Houser — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:16:08 +0000

GettingThings Done recommend having a "tickler" file for these type of ideas. The idea is that you get them out of your head to review at some later date.

I tend to disagree that ideas should just be thrown out completely. For example, I want to build a game some day. It won't happen anytime soon, but there is no reason to give up on it.

By: Brian Deitte

Brian Deitte — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:07:03 +0000

You've inspired me to fight the brain crack: http://www.deitte.com/archives/2009/02/fighting_b...