Recognizing Good Ideas
Don’t just do something, stand there!
Thoughts and ideas come and go like luggage on a conveyor belt. Predominantly, it’s mediocre stuff. But from time to time, there may appear an intriguing case.
That should be our cue: the curiosity trigger.
“It may be the best single thought you ever had in your entire life, then it needs to dominate everything because you’re not going to get many insights like that.” (Nick Sleep, read the profile here)
Google and Fat Pitches
In a moment of realization, the BackRub Boys, a research group spun out of Stanford in the mid-’90s, came to the understanding that index pages, ranked by significance, could become the bedrock for a high-quality search engine.
Thus, Google was born.
“When a really great dream shows up,” Larry Page, co-founder of Google, said, “grab it!”
"Fat pitch" is a term that's been around for decades, popularized by Warren Buffett. In recent times, the investor Stan Druckenmiller has been notorious for his patience in waiting for the "fat pitch" to arrive.
Essentially, a “fat pitch” is a clear and obvious investing opportunity that usually doesn't come by very often. But when it does, we ought to be prepared.
Recognizing good ideas
Shouldn't one do something besides just waiting to get more exposure to potential ideas? Yes, and more on that in the second to last paragraph. But the important part for now is this: the ability to spot good ideas.
The writer Stephen King says, "Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky."
(The philosophical tangent: It's hard to dissect the actual nature of good ideas. The lines dividing what's originating from our mind and what's originating from externalities are vague. Exogenous vs. endogenous… Is there even such a thing as an original thought? Or is it all a product of external information and ideas that have been shaped and formed as something that presents itself as something new? I love to go deep into the intricacies of these philosophical issues, but as with any tangent, it should end around here.)
King expands: “Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”
Recognizing is more than just the ability to observe. It’s a form of art. It contains both curiosity and creativity.
It’s about asking ourselves questions. It’s about applying previous ideas to compatible new ideas.
And it’s about knowing that the idea can be right around the corner.
I've probably read about what could’ve turned into amazing ideas dozens of times, without noticing. You probably have, too. How something is presented matters - the phrasing, the examples, the metaphors being used.
But we need a certain inclination to actually perceive what’s presented to us in order to create the magic we’re after. There will be no light bulb moments as long as we don’t expect them, don’t ask questions, and don’t look for connections.
Here’s where thinking enters the picture. Or another way of putting it: reflecting, contemplating, meditating - taking time to sit still with the mind.
“Don’t just do something, stand there!”, as the wise rabbit in Alice in Wonderland would say.
When there’s a thought that has a touch of intriguing ingredients, it’s worth stopping. Exploring. Don’t let the idea escape you, and don’t escape the idea.
Limit the search
Kirsty Young once introduced David Attenborough on a BBC Radio show. After outlining how David has spent his entire life exploring the breadth and depth of the world and its inhabitants, she ends:
“It must be true, must it not, and it is a quite staggering thought, that you have seen more of the world than anybody else who has ever lived?”
Attenborough responds: “Well...I suppose so...but then, on the other hand, it is fairly salutary to remember that perhaps the greatest naturalist that ever lived and had more effect on our thinking than anybody, Charles Darwin, only spent four years traveling and the rest of the time thinking.”
It was investor Nick Sleep who drew attention to this in one of his letters to shareholders, and elaborates: “David Attenborough's modesty is delightful, but notice also, if you will, the model of behavior he observed in Charles Darwin: study intensely, go away, and really think.”
Sleep concludes: “The decision not to do something is still an active decision; it is just that the accountants don’t capture it.”