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8 Comments

Paul Graham on Crazy New Ideas

  1. 3

    there's some real truth / validation to having these types of reactions via hn...

    ... only the best projects get slammed.

    1. 3

      It's always great to go back and read the infamous HN comment when Dropbox was first introduced: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

      1. 1

        ages really well.

  2. 1

    This reminds me of when I proposed an idea on how to solve one of societies biggest issues that sounds like someone day-dreaming tbh. They were quick to call me a madman🤷🏿‍♂️. I'm pretty sure if someone like Dan Price said it, it'd make the news headlines all over the globe, but that's cool.

  3. 1

    The last few paragraphs are so good. Love how he said try and go back in history to when someone was first thinking of the idea. How and when did it form, why did it start to form. Asking questions!! Looking around at what people are creating is smart too.

  4. 1

    The key to 'Crazy' ideas is to find the quickest route to validation and refine the way you communicate the idea... Sometimes a 'Crazy' idea is just a poorly understood one...

    But do anything you can to remove that crazy label... and the best way to do that is to try everything you can to prove that it IS a "Crazy Idea"... if all that fails, you might be on to something.

    "Do things that don't scale"- PG

    Make a mockup, run a survey, take out ads for vaporware, convince one other person to join you.

    More times than not, it's actions that convince people, not ideas.

  5. 1

    A new idea will often sound crazy and people will try to dismiss it. Work hard, trust your guts and put your thing out there to see how crazy you really are

  6. 1

    An annoying thing is when I tell people about an idea and they respond "that's a great idea" and never use the product.

    Although I may not be classified under 'domain expert' or 'reasonable person' in PG's definition :(

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted a year ago.

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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