Tackling Trends & The Importance of Ideas

Maybe you've heard it before, maybe you haven't—but ideas are the currency of the future.

What does that mean exactly?

It means that modernity favors creatives who devote their daily time, energy, and brain power to identifying problems and finding ways to solve them.

Steve Jobs, Gandhi, Mark Twain, Elon Musk and hundreds of other innovators and artists are all linked by a common thread: a complete and absolute refusal to accept the status quo.

They are fueled by the opportunity to change things for the better. Or in the words of the late Steve Jobs—the possibility to dent the universe.

To be fair, all this might sound a bit lofty and abstract.

And trust me it is, but if you can manage to develop concrete skills that engage this sort of abstract thinking, your chances at success will be significantly higher than those who don't.

The three examples listed below serve as excellent testimony to why the importance of ideas is a trend worth tackling, now more than ever.

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The creators of ideasai.net—a GPT-3 powered business idea generator—are among the long list of entrepreneurs actively taking advantage of this emerging trend.

Their site offers a way to feed GPT-3 problem statements while playing the role of a spectator as we sit back and watch the impressive AI work its magic.

The platform then rapidly pumps out potential solutions in the form of business ideas.

These solutions are presented in a social media-esque timeline where the site's diverse community can then vote their fates with the best ones being bought for a measly 100 dollars, and subsequently taken off the public domain.

Entrepreneurs, innovators, and aspiring founders seem to be infatuated by the site's growing power and appeal, however they're not the only ones cashing in on the importance of ideas.

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My First Million is a podcast hosted by acclaimed marketer Shaan Puri and distinguished entrepreneur Sam Parr.

The show's core objective is focused around interviewing interesting millionaires and extracting their often times lengthy, but insightful ongoing lists of new and exciting business propositions.

It's quickly morphed into a fan favorite among tech geeks and entrepreneurs everywhere as the platform continues to soar in popularity.

The more you listen to the podcast, the more you notice a common thread between all of the successful guests: a personal oath to continuously spotting new ideas throughout their daily routines.

Although the concepts of brainstorming or ideation sessions (if you want to sound simultaneously both hip and formal) are nothing new, it's the first time in history we've been collectively granted the power of the internet to understand, and solve problems that concern people groups far beyond our circle of influence.

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While there are many advocates that support the idea of the idea muscle, perhaps the most infamous is James Altucher.

He is a seasoned veteran when it comes to the game of winning big and then losing even bigger.

Altucher has started a wide variety of successful companies only to witness their demise before starting fresh and repeating the cycle.

He credits his continuous success to the 10 ideas a day method in which he carries around a server notebook everywhere he goes while recording his thoughts—almost as if he's channeling insights directly from the idea Gods themselves.

At the end of each year, he has accumulated precisely 3,650 ideas.

His claim being that somewhere bundled within that number—at least one unicorn is hiding itself in plain sight.

The key to this exercise is to record any idea—good or bad—that works to disrupt your daily cognitive diet.

It could be an app idea, a physical product, or even a blog or podcast.

The important part is training your brain to identify problems in all of the places that the average person would overlook.

So how does one go about spotting a good idea?

Well, you don't.

Most of the best ideas come from a very long lineage of bad ones.

A Sprinter is somebody who believes this with every fiber in their being.

They are fueled by the recognition of solvable problems and energized by the creation of sustainable solutions.

It's what gets them up in the morning and keeps them awake at night.

In the next part of this series, we will be looking into tried and proven methods that lead to dreaming up better ideas.

Stay tuned, stay safe, and stay ideating.

This is how we help ordinary people build extraordinary products.