Idea Generation - Sam Altman

Source: Idea Generation - Sam Altman

Giving founders an idea almost always doesn’t work.

Having ideas is among the most important qualities for a startup founder to have — I will need to generate lots of new ideas in the course of running a startup.

It turns out that good founders have lots of ideas about everything, so if I want to be a founder and can’t get an idea for a company, I should probably work on getting good at idea generation first.

  1. It’s important to be in the right kind of environment, and around the right kind of people.
    • Be around people
    • who have a good feel for the future
    • will entertain improbable plans
    • are optimistic
    • are smart in a creative way
    • have a very high idea flux - These sorts of people tend to
    • think without the constraints most people have
    • not have a lot of filters
    • not care too much what other people think - The best ideas are fragile; most people don’t even start talking about them at all because they sound silly. - Be around people who don’t make me feel stupid for mentioning a bad idea, and who certainly never feel stupid for doing so themselves. - Stay away from people who are world-weary and belittle my ambitions.
  2. I want to be able to project myself 20 years into the future, and then think backwards from there.
    • 20 years is a long time; it’s ok if my ideas about it seem pretty radical.
    • Think about the most important tectonic shifts happening right now.
    • How is the world changing in fundamental ways?
    • Can I identify a leading edge of change and an opportunity that it unlocks?
    • Eg. The mobile phone explosion from 2008-2012. - In such a tectonic shift, the world changes so fast that the big incumbents usually get beaten by fast-moving and focused startups. - Get good at differentiating between real trends and fake trends. A key differentiator is if the new platform is used a lot by a small number of people, or used a little by a lot of people.
  3. Any time I can think of something that is possible this year and wasn’t possible last year, I should pay attention. I may have the seed of a great startup idea. This is especially true if next year will be too late.
  4. When I can say “I am sure this is going to happen, I’m just not sure if we’ll be the ones to do it”, that’s a good sign.
  5. A good question to ask myself early in the process of thinking about an idea is “could this be huge if it worked?”
    • There are many good ideas in the world, but few of them have the inherent advantages that can make a startup massively successful.
    • Most businesses don’t generate a valuable accumulating advantage as they scale.
    • Think early about why an idea might have that property.
    • It often exists in more subtle ways.
  6. It’s also important to think about what I’m well-suited for.
    • Hard to do with pure introspection
    • Ideally I can ask a mentor or some people I’ve worked with what I’m particularly good at.
  7. A good test for an idea is if I can articulate why most people think it’s a bad idea, but I understand what makes it good.