Original ideas and original opinions
I’ve been reflecting on our journey at @ArcticTheory and wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned for the past year
@ArcticTheory is founded with a strong and innovative vision. Our first few months were focused on following that vision and trying out ideas. some ideas were tried and tested and some original. We would make prototypes, workshop them and in most cases be able to extract value.
This quote has stuck with me:
Having an opinion is easy. The work required to actually have an original opinion is the hard part.
- Charlie Munger
Looking back, I feel that some of the more original(crazy) ideas would get shot down very early because of opinions like:
- I don’t think this will ever work!
- There is no way this will scale!
- I just don’t like this!
- I don’t think this will be fun!
The sentiment behind these opinions is “probably” valid. If a programmer says a “This won’t scale” then they are “probably” right. If a designer says “this wont be fun” then I’m sure its valid.
The idea could be amazing! Questions such as “Does it scale?” or “Is it fun?” might just need original opinions.
I remember a conversation I had a few years ago with someone about Netflix. I was so sure that streaming your whole DVD collection over the internet was impossible. Its way too much data, it’ll cost to much both for the user and for Netflix, the internet infrastructure won’t handle it etc. I bet they’ll go bankrupt in a few months. I can now see that I was not able/willing to put in the work to have an original opinion. I was stuck with what I “knew” and what I “felt”. I was wrong.
Netflix was lucky not to have me on their team at the time:)
Someone at Netflix did put in the work though and thought: “Sure, this won’t scale now, but what needs to happen for this to work” These people put in the work to form an original opinion and things turned out pretty well for them
I’m sure there were other companies that stumbled because the outcome was: “This definitely won’t scale however we spin it” or “We could make this scale, but the idea isn't as good as we thought”.
I don’t think this is a failure, If the work is done in-line with the companies vision then there is a good chance that something great came from the work.
I’ve learned that as innovators we must foster an environment where original ideas are both celebrated and met with original opinions