I had never heard of this term but it was helpful to have it be given a name. I feel the pull of many ideas at once. I find it hard to stick to one project. How do you see one thing through when a new idea seems better / more lucrative / more interesting? Of course, if you keep switching between pursuits, you accomplish nothing.
Just curious if you have the issue too and if you've built rules for your self to stay dedicated to one thing for a certain amount of time.
I think there is a difference between perhaps honing in an idea vs. switching between things constantly. The ability to craft and create an idea, and form it into something better is a way of focus.
The issue comes when you get distracted and constantly move on, leaving another item unfinished. For awhile I had a wood-shop, and my space was littered with random tools and half-finished products. I wasted my time and money and never really accomplished or "shipped" anything of worth.
However, for those of us prone to ideaphoria, we need to check ourselves and make sure we aren't making excuses for poor production.
Practically -- I have set some clear rules. I absolutely MUST publish each Wednesday a piece. I absolutely MUST publish a podcast on Thursday. It forces me to ship work.
If it's bad, no one will read it. It's going to be okay.
Just a few thoughts...so many more to think about!
Love the advice on how to get ideaphoria under control. It's so hard to be constantly coming up with new ideas and focus on working on one thing at a time. This is both a blessing and a curse.
Such a great word! It sounds like a place I know all too well. What works well with the two Davids is they've found a sandbox for their Ideaphoria. I like the action items you have for taming ideaphoria. Think I'll go analyze my tweets now.
I appreciate this insightful articulation of a phenomenon I relate to — "ideaphoria." My adult life can be seen in chapters of roaming and execution. I struggle, sometimes, to strike the right balance between honoring the space to foster creative ideas and the focused attention required to execute on them.
By the way, the voiceover is nice too. Well done Tim!
I think the question is what place does roaming have? How long can we roam in the desert? I think the answer is probably in a tension between creativity and focused attention.
The issue though is we allow creativity to be just “thinking” about the thing and never SHIP the thing.
Exactly. Creativity without shipping is a tailspin of nothingness. But always shipping and executing can feel suffocating. One solution, as you articulated, is focused ideaphoria, through some Pareto optimal positive constraints. I loved your point about Elon Musk, but he’s a case in point for both sides of this dynamic.
That's true on Elon. I hesitated on using him...I think though he is an example of the power of getting ideas out there, and then turning it over to someone else to go all in on focusing when he can move on to the next thing.
I had never heard of this term but it was helpful to have it be given a name. I feel the pull of many ideas at once. I find it hard to stick to one project. How do you see one thing through when a new idea seems better / more lucrative / more interesting? Of course, if you keep switching between pursuits, you accomplish nothing.
Just curious if you have the issue too and if you've built rules for your self to stay dedicated to one thing for a certain amount of time.
I think there is a difference between perhaps honing in an idea vs. switching between things constantly. The ability to craft and create an idea, and form it into something better is a way of focus.
The issue comes when you get distracted and constantly move on, leaving another item unfinished. For awhile I had a wood-shop, and my space was littered with random tools and half-finished products. I wasted my time and money and never really accomplished or "shipped" anything of worth.
However, for those of us prone to ideaphoria, we need to check ourselves and make sure we aren't making excuses for poor production.
Practically -- I have set some clear rules. I absolutely MUST publish each Wednesday a piece. I absolutely MUST publish a podcast on Thursday. It forces me to ship work.
If it's bad, no one will read it. It's going to be okay.
Just a few thoughts...so many more to think about!
Love the advice on how to get ideaphoria under control. It's so hard to be constantly coming up with new ideas and focus on working on one thing at a time. This is both a blessing and a curse.
Yes! It's never easy, but I think there's a power in applying some obsession around something smaller. Imagine what could happen?
Such a great word! It sounds like a place I know all too well. What works well with the two Davids is they've found a sandbox for their Ideaphoria. I like the action items you have for taming ideaphoria. Think I'll go analyze my tweets now.
Oh that's a great insight. You can have ideaphoria, but limit yourself to a specific sandbox and THEN go crazy.
I appreciate this insightful articulation of a phenomenon I relate to — "ideaphoria." My adult life can be seen in chapters of roaming and execution. I struggle, sometimes, to strike the right balance between honoring the space to foster creative ideas and the focused attention required to execute on them.
By the way, the voiceover is nice too. Well done Tim!
I think the question is what place does roaming have? How long can we roam in the desert? I think the answer is probably in a tension between creativity and focused attention.
The issue though is we allow creativity to be just “thinking” about the thing and never SHIP the thing.
Exactly. Creativity without shipping is a tailspin of nothingness. But always shipping and executing can feel suffocating. One solution, as you articulated, is focused ideaphoria, through some Pareto optimal positive constraints. I loved your point about Elon Musk, but he’s a case in point for both sides of this dynamic.
That's true on Elon. I hesitated on using him...I think though he is an example of the power of getting ideas out there, and then turning it over to someone else to go all in on focusing when he can move on to the next thing.
The tension is the beauty of this idea I think.