> I use a Siri shortcut to log to a text file with my ideas list, which is ~3k lines long right now.
If you don't mind, can you describe this system?
Re:Ask HN: How do you generate ideas?
by surprisetalk on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @08:06PM
(#35708310)
On iOS, there's a shortcuts app that enables you to automate things.
I have a shortcut for the following:
Receive Any input from Share Sheet, Quick Actions
If there's no input Ask For Text
|
Append Shortcut input to Documents/inbox.txt (make new line)
I have one idea per line in my ideas.txt file, so I use the following to pick some random ideas:
cat ideas.txt | shuf | head -n 20
When ideas get too large to fit on a single line, I break them out into unpublished essays. And if I work on them long enough, eventually I publish them :)
---
Whoa, what a coincidence! I just checked my ideas file, and I'm exactly at 3333 lines.
cat ideas.txt | wc -l
3333
How I come up with lots of ideas:
- I consume a lot of high-quality inputs from different fields (reading, podcasts, etc). If it's not difficult to consume, it's probably not worth it.
- I make the idea capture process extremely easy. I use a Siri shortcut to log to a text file with my ideas list, which is ~3k lines long right now.
- I publicly write about my ideas, and allow others to refine what I think.
- I choose one idea to pursue at a time until it's finished. I accept that execution is generally more important than ideas.
- Every morning, I run `cat ideas.txt | shuf | head -n 20` to review and refine my ideas.
- I ask people lots of questions. Every moment I'm talking about myself is a lost opportunity to explore.