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Ask HN: Opinion of thinking of startup ideas vs. not thinking of startup ideas?

3 points by LeicesterCity ↗ HN
Paul Graham states that not thinking of startup ideas leads to good ideas. Whereby, one develops a way of thinking of ideas unconsciously. Thus, the idea of working on side projects because they're plain interesting.

The other alternative is to constantly think of startup ideas. PG warns against this mode of thinking.

What is HNs opinion on thinking of startup ideas, vs. not thinking of startup ideas. There are many examples of successful companies using the latter strategy, but are there examples of successful companies using the former idea?

Overall, which is the more viable strategy?

3 comments

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pizza
imo solutionism is only sustainable if you have a source of free money
tlb
Solutionism is a belief in the power of technology, in the most general sense of any applied knowledge, to eventually solve all problems. While any particular solution may create new problems, those are in turn solvable. (If you mean something different by the word, let me know.)

If you believe solutions exist, you can think of lack of money as just another problem to which there must be a solution. Indeed, any problem you care about probably requires solving several other problems before you can address the main problem. Getting money is just another step in the giant yak-shaving project.

mindcrime
I just try to read a lot, absorb all kinds of ideas from all sorts of places - articles on HN, books, Youtube videos, Wikipedia articles, conversations with strangers at coffee shops, whatever... and then think about stuff and let the ideas pop out whenever / wherever they do. Some of the ideas I have might be good startup ideas, or not. Who's to say? I find a few from time to time that seem appealing enough to at least write down, or email to myself for future reference.

shrug