Ze Frank

This reminds me of Ze Frank's Ugly MySpace pages. He used to tease creators of "ugly" MySpace pages during his show. When someone called him out on it, he had this to say about it:

"For a very long time, taste and artistic training have been things that only a small number of people have been able to develop. Only a few people could afford to participate in the production of many types of media. Raw materials like pigments were expensive; same with tools like printing presses; even as late as 1963 it cost Charles Peignot over $600,000 to create and cut a single font family.

The small number of people who had access to these tools and resources created rules about what was good taste or bad taste. These designers started giving each other awards and the rules they followed became even more specific. All sorts of stuff about grids and sizes and color combinations — lots of stuff that the consumers of this media never consciously noticed. Over the last 20 years, however, the cost of tools related to the authorship of media has plummeted. For very little money, anyone can create and distribute things like newsletters, or videos, or bad-ass tunes about "ugly."

Suddenly consumers are learning the language of these authorship tools. The fact that tons of people know names of fonts like Helvetica is weird! And when people start learning something new, they perceive the world around them differently. If you start learning how to play the guitar, suddenly the guitar stands out in…

Sorry, I don't have time to make this short.

There are 2 ways:

1. Talk to individuals who you expect to be your users.

Ask them how they currently do what your idea makes easier to do. Try to find out if they have any problems with it, but don't push too hard. Just listen. If they seem at all receptive, tell them about your idea. Then pay attention to everything they talk about (good or bad). If they don't seem interested at all, move on. Find the next person to talk to. Your aim at this stage is to find people who do think your idea has some value. The uninterested ones provide data to act on in case you don't find anyone interested in your idea at all.

If you can find even 1 or 2 people who love your idea and really get excited about some feature, then build that as quickly as you can and get them to use it.

2. Just build whatever little thing is useful to you immediately. It's ok if it's ugly and incomplete. It should just give you more of at least one of the following: time, money, fun, happiness.

Then show it to other people who you think might like it. Most reactions on design you can safely ignore. People have a natural tendency to talk about how things look because it's what they see first and feel obliged to say something. It happens on HN all the time.

What you want to look for is things people really love or hate about what the thing does. Also look at the data on what people are actually doing with your product. They often say one thing, and do something…

It is all about execution. And some of the best executions haven't been first (i.e. Windows, Google, iPod, etc). Actually having others developing your idea will not only provide reassurance that it is good, but it will also probably be better if someone else tries it first and fails.

Google wasn't the first search engine but they are the best. Microsoft didn't build the first operating system based on 'windows' but they did it the best (execution). Firefox wasn't the first browser but it is much better than IE. The iPod was very late to the handheld MP3 player market, but they are the best.

It is ALL about execution and unless it is a patentable idea then why not share? You might be more compelled to execute faster if others are doing it and you might learn from how not to bring it to market from other failures.

Ideas really are worth nothing. They are handed out to multiple people across the world. First to market is great on occasion but usually second or third to market become the mainstream choice.

In game development it is the same thing. People think they have the best idea ever and never share it. But in actuality the idea is not new as there is nothing new under the sun. It is just another configuration of some past idea in a new form.

Everyone else also has ideas they want to work on. Rarely will they drop it and start pursuing your idea.

Here is a great article on this same behavior in game development:…

Ze Frank summed up the way I deal with ideas as I don't want to get addicted to brain crack.

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/07/071106.html

1. Take a shower and think it over.

2. Tell a few friends I trust.

3. Create the quickest and dirtiest version to see if it even has legs. This includes looking up who is doing something similar...

4. Show that to friends in #2

5. Walk away for 3 days and not think about it.

6. Come back and review the thing again and decide if I want to continue with it.

One thing I've learned is it is best to get others involved...early before you waste too much of your energy. If you can get someone else excited enough to want to help that usually means your idea has possible legs....or you are a good salesman/woman/person.

Regardless...engage early and engage often. Nothing is built in a vacuum.

See also David Barr's "Four Corners Project" from 1985.

Quoting https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/items/detail/celebration-four-corners-project-7848 :

"an invisible tetrahedron spanning the inside of the Earth with the outer four corners just protruding from the crust of the Earth. The visible corners are located in Easter Island, South Africa, New Guinea, and Greenland. Barr chose the locations as areas untouched by Western technology and in remote areas in order to bridge diverse cultures."

Yes, they placed little sculptures of the corners at those places.

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-juK0PTbAiI

Mathematics at https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/58275 .

There's also Ze Frank's "Earth Sandwich" from 2006, at http://www.zefrank.com/sandwich/ . That only required two points, and had fewer constraints.

A reminder I find useful: Code, not anger.

Find yourself annoyed about something "unfair?" Focus on a problem you can actually fix instead.

If you find yourself upset about kids who went to a $40k/year private high school winning the world, just re-focus your attention on what you can do now. Code. Fix. Help a real person. Get out of your own head for a while.

Success and growth are fueled by output. Running circles in your mind about our broken world only serves to make you more efficient at feeling angry. Use your limited conscious hours every day to make the world a quantitatively better place.

Alternatively, http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/whipass/