Don’t hoard your darlings

I’m guilty of writing down tons of ideas and shoving ’em into a hole in my notes vault only to stagnate over years.

Scott deals with the same thing and he says the best thing to do is delete them:

Dealing With Your Ideas by scottnesbitt.online →

After a lot of thought, I came to a conclusion. Get rid of those ideas. Stuffing them away like a squirrel hoarding nuts for winter isn’t going to do any good. It won’t get you any closer to making those ideas a reality. You’ll just increase your digital or paper clutter. Older ideas will be buried under newer ones.

How about taking it a step further — first share those ideas no matter how silly they might seem and then delete ’em?

Let others find ways to riff off your ideas before you snuff the light out for good.

I’m reminded of two other memorable quotes I came across in the past (and of course squirreled away):

Cole Schafer →

You should never hoard your ideas. They will only die on the vine like unpicked tomatoes. You should share your ideas. Tell the joke when you have the idea for the joke. Pen the poem when you have the idea for the poem. Paint the painting when you have the idea for the painting. Write the song when you have the idea for the song. If there is one universal truth to creativity, it’s that ideas breed ideas.

Edd Wilder-James →

Ideas rot if you don’t do something with them. I used to try to hoard them, but they rotted. Now I just blog them or tell people about them. Sometimes they still rot, but sometimes someone finds them useful in one way or another. —via Cory Doctorow’s “Notes from Danny O’Brien’s NotCon Recap of Life Hacks.” from 2004

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