#ideas

So, I fired off an email to Randy and asked him if he could use his algorithmic talents to plot the optimum road trip route across the United States.

"This devotion to an idea is one of the amazing things about being human, but you're not much good to the rest of us until you're on to your 3rd."

"These facts were a currency in my social circle. We'd trade them like baseball cards. I'd show you my payphone trick and you'd show me your gag for turning the cellophane on a cigarette pack into a smoke-ring machine. Social capital accrued to everyone who could show or explain something that gave you power and insight into the mysterious workings of the world."

"As the name suggests, it is a combined scanner and shredder. Basically, the scanner has "transient" memory of say, 30 seconds. If you shred something by accident, simply press the "oops" button, plug in the USB cable, and retrieve the document."

"Teleportation should be a matter of simply proving you’re somewhere else."

"Ideas on their own are just not that important. It’s incredibly rare that someone comes up with an idea so unique, so protectable that the success story writes itself. Most ideas are nothing without execution."

"I flood my poor ageing head with information. Any information. Lots of it. And I let it all slosh around in the back of my brain, in the part normal people use for remembering bills, thinking about sex and making appointments to wash the dishes."

"I fell for hours. This is not hyperbole. I was not in space. Not technically."

"Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter"

"If writing a novel or non-fiction book is something you've dreamed of, the only way to make that dream a reality is by putting it into action -- day by day."

"one of the most important things that can happen is to hear “that’s already been done” and get pointed to somebody that already did it."

"GyroQ ... captures ideas in a few seconds. ... press a hot key, type a few words and hit Enter. ... ideas are added to a queue ... Once or twice a day, ... turn your queued-up ideas into topics that you can reorganise and plan."

Now this is the sort of thing for which I used to read Dave's blog: "So here's a free idea. Everything that produces output should be available in HTTP server form."

"In brief: gather a bunch of terms for things, write onto a card each, ask some users to sort these into "like" piles, ask them to name the piles. Discover what categories exist for your information, and what goes into each category."

I think I need to start carrying a batch of index cards around