Sometimes, you’re going to want to start something. I think it’s within our nature because we’ve started so much growing up - whether it was debate or WTFC, arduino chips or research projects - there’s a desire that at some point or another will pop up.
So, you’ll think to yourself - “I want to do something. I don’t know what, but I want to do something.”
You will stay up at night, frustrated, or you’ll spend an unnecessarily long time in the shower, waiting for a Eureka moment, for an idea to fall into your lap, for a hint of inspiration. You’ll light a match and let it burn to your fingertips to feel something, anything (okay maybe I’m getting carried way).
The point is, you’ll want to do something, and you won’t know what. Hopefully, a great idea will come. If it does, pursue it.
For me, those ideas came very rarely if ever. Instead, I like to rely on this notion of “Idea Recycling”.
Idea Recycling is the notion that ideas are not single use. Reach into the bin of old ideas - old ideas that have worked, and repurpose them for something new.
What bin of old ideas? Any of your old ideas will do - whether it’s an old idea for a nonprofit (such as Feed the Frontlines) or an old API/script from research. Take an old idea from your repository, and repurpose it.
If you think about it, even most of our old ideas weren’t entirely original: they were repurposed ideas from dad or a slightly different take on projects we’d already seen online. Feed the Frontlines was fairly similar to HackStart - fundraise, and deliver a product. Alfred is a recycled spin on the old take of a Jarvis style voice assistant.
At this point, we’ve been working for long enough, and have a large enough breadth of experience that mixing and matching across different things we’ve done will get you 80% of the way to your idea of something you can do. And 80% of the way there is a hell of a lot better than not knowing where to start.
I’ll leave you a quote from Mark Twain - he had thought of Idea Recycling too.
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”