many ideas new idea investigating and exploring

I’m of the mind that creates many many ideas, some ok, most bad. I’ve written about this before.

Every once in a while I come up with an idea, and I’ll need to sit on it for a little bit, maybe develop it further, take it in a particular direction, write a very small amount about it, and then… Nothing. I’ll just shelve the idea.

Shelving the idea like this (literally, write about it, put it somewhere, and leave it) is paramount to having good ideas. Once something is on the shelf, it can brew in the back of your mind and be ready to pounce at the right moment. It also has an oppertunity to interact with other ideas and experiences on your shelf.

This happened with Zakabin recently: I’ve had some form of this idea for a long time, and I also had some experience with electronics; and now I’m thinking: why not use something like the elixir nerves project, to build a physical kanban system, that can be used for SME?

If i had created zakabin, called it “finished”, and put it in the project graveyard, I wouldn’t have had a receptical for my thinking of nerves and electronics. Zakabin would have gone down it’s own path and built into something that I’d have to unwind and refactor to get it to a point where it could accept any potential interface with electronics.

This is why i like my idea of having a systems section on zukini.. This is my (very public) shelf, and it’s one where I leave projects to brew and simmer, and I hope others might be curious enough to add some of their own ingredients.