Weekend Edition: How Do You Capture Your Ideas?
This is a followup post to the question from last week: Where do you do your dreaming and thinking? It was good to look at how myself and others approach the conceptualization phase that precedes any big project. And there really are a lot of places people dream up new project and product ideas. But the next question is: How do you then capture these ideas? This is an important subject because without a proper recording of the idea, it can get lost in the minutae of every day life. And if you’ve ever lost what you thought was a killer idea, I’m sure you can associate with that horrible sinking feeling in your stomach. You just knew that the idea you had would have made you a million bucks. If only you had written it down! Or maybe not! Some people record ideas on non-papyrus means. I think some of this is…
Weekend Edition: Where Do You Do Your Dreaming and Thinking?
I have a strong interest in the creative side of engineering. Some would say this doesn’t even exist, since engineering is at most times closer to a science than an art. And when you’re in the thick of developing a product, it’s often times troubleshooting and process improvements (both being very important, in their own right). Even in the “artistic” side of engineering, a lot of the process is trying out your ideas and iterating on them. But I still think that initial seed of an idea is quite important, regardless of how little of total time it might take (1-2% maybe? It can’t be much). Being able to work through an idea or two in your head or smash other concepts together is all that’s required to get started on a project. But when do people really come up with these ideas? In The Shower — You’re standing there,…