Facebook Play Ideas are worthless An empty cup How I learned to become a failure Designisnowhere The Junior & The Art Director A Case for Space Crappy club for jerks Boxed In Zero for hire HiiDef Inc. Identity A New Page (& Year) Portfolio Building Ignorance Avoidance Dynamic Columns Flat Shadows Upright Shadows The real Jim Shady Design with a point of view TweetDeck icons Get creative, you hack MacUser Magazine Expression Engine: Quick & dirty Back in business Swiss for WordPress Stepping into web design Navigation spacing in Photoshop .NET mag fame Design by numbers Proper propaganda Stats: One month in Pimped! The ever-watchful subconscious Designing for the web: 5 things I love & hate Ripped! Fun with a tablet Incestuous design A New Beginning Logo marathon Making it real What’s in a name? Tippin’ the Balance
—Published 18 September, 2010
Actually, I should clarify this — most ideas are worthless to you, and on their own.
The reason is simple: the value of an idea is largely a relative thing. An idea is born in context and of necessity and often carries with it an understanding of its true potential — something that’s only realised in its execution.
People tout the mantra that “ideas are easy and execution is hard”. This is true, but often works in reverse in creative fields. Still, there’s a certain non-committal freedom afforded to an idea. Ideas aren’t bound to reality — their realisation, however, must be. If an idea is a destination, their execution is the map that leads us there.
An idea is only valuable if it’s able to be done, and done well.
What’s interesting is that an idea is only valuable if its thinker has this map. An idea is worthless without an understanding of how, and more importantly, why it should be realised. This is why the ‘million-dollar idea’ is largely a myth. And if forced to decide between having a talent for ideas or the execution of ideas, I would take the latter every time. An idea is only valuable if it’s able to be done, and done well.
Turning an idea into a real thing is where magic truly happens (or doesn’t). In many cases there’s just a handful of ways to execute an idea well, and a myriad of avenues to squander it. A mediocre idea can become great with the right execution. Conversely, a great idea can be lost if the execution is poor. Thus, the value of an idea depends very much on who’s realising it.
So if someone copies your idea and executes it better than you, do they have a greater claim on it? That’s a very sticky question. It shouldn’t happen, but it does all the time. If your ideas aren’t original, for goodness sake, let your execution be. Anyone can get their hands on a good idea. It takes a special person (or people) to carry out an execution that’s worthy of it.