Why I Started Building 100Ideas?
Brainstorming: The Good, Bad and Ugly
The moment I say brainstorming, some people's brain goes to a whiteboard and a room full of people or miro over a zoom call people talking over each other. I'm not here to talk about that kind of brainstorming. I'm talking about the ones that happen in your personal space, the scribbles on your notebook, or that empty document you randomly opened to dump your ideas.
The ones that never get looked at. #GuiltyAsCharged
I'm that kind of brainstormer - If that's even a word.
So what about it?
Brainstorming is Great
It helps you dump all your thoughts and see them visually
It clears your brain for new ideas
It helps you feel like you're in control of your thoughts. I have never left a brainstorming session without taking away something from it.
It is good to stroke your ego. When good ideas pop up, you can pat your back and go, "I made this"
Brainstorming The bad
The same brainstorming happens in groups, The same brain, which could fire ideas, would work very differently.
In group brainstorming, people will have their tounges tied. Everyone would want to look and sound smart.
When groups meet to brainstorm, good ideas are lost. People bite their tongues due to conformity pressure, noise, and ego threat. A better approach is brainwriting: generate ideas separately, then meet to assess and refine. -- Adam Grant
Brainstorming The Ugly
When I asked around my circle if they brainstorm, most of them stick to the basics. They use pen and paper or whiteboard. I asked why? To see if they had similar reasons as mine. The answer came to be the same
People usually brainstorm when they can't visually comprehend an idea. Tools like paper and whiteboards make it readily available and accessible. Whereas the brainstorming tools online are not so accessible. I'll tell you why.
It has a loading time. By the time it loads, your idea will go into thin air.
The tools like miro, scapple, and excelidraw started as diagramming tools. So there is no concept of "quickly jotting" down the ideas you would do on paper. They focus on the visual component of brainstorming.
My Dream Brainstorming tool
Quick to jot down ideas
Thinking in steps
Ability to go back and forth between visualizing the ideas vs creating new ideas
I don't have to go through clicks, boxes, colors, sizes, and shapes just to put a few ideas down.
I should be able to create lists and upload them to visualize them - Text-based.
You need 1000 ideas to arrive at 100 good ideas and 100 good ideas to arrive at 1 great idea. 1000 sounds like overkill, and procrastination will follow, so why not start with that 100?
The above reasons are why I started building 100Ideas. If you relate to the problem Try 100Ideas now
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