Building an Idea Engine

Friday, June 30th, 2023

I have long struggled with being able to stick with any kind of public Tweeting.

But the problem went deeper than that.

I had a problem sticking with any number of my multiple side hustles for any period longer than a year. Often it was because of lack of traction.

But the real problem was my well wasn't of ideas and of conviction deep enough.

Ideas and Conviction are the engine. Consistency and Creativity are the fuel.

But I know that I need to change.

I am experimenting with a new approach that is combining the ideas behind what Dickie Bush and David Perell seem to teach in their online writing courses (I haven't taken either -- in large part because I knew I would hit the idea wall.)

So I decided to try to do something about it.

First, I needed to define a set of interest areas that I hope I will build conviction in.

Second, I needed a way to set up what I would begin to write about.

Third, I needed to build a well of input to help fuel these ideas.

I realized that just listing topics wasn't enough.

I tried that exercise as part of my first build in public attempt, and I couldn't really do much with it.

I needed to drill down into why I was interested. I had to get to the Inner Resonance.

Like the physics phenomenon, we each have an existing frequency based on interests, passions, motivations. The external world consists of different frequencies and we want to find resonance.

So I broke it down like this:

  1. WHAT: General Topic
  2. WHO: Personally Invested Persona
  3. WHY: Emotionally Charged Motivation
  4. DRIVING QUESTION: The question you want to answer in your content and research

Example 1:

  1. WHAT: Artificial Intelligence
  2. WHO: Parents of young kids like me
  3. WHY: Fear that the current education system is not equipping my daughters for this brave new world
  4. DRIVING QUESTION: How can I prepare my daughters with the right skills and help other parents to do the same?

The above became my Prepare My Children for the AI Age pillar.

This approach helped me to solve the challenge of a deep enough will to keep returning.

The problem has been that I don't have just a single pillar.

As a result, I bounced around and that wasn't great. The Twitter greats, on the other hand, often had just a single frame of what who and why and stuck to that.

I haven't found conviction yet. And I know that I need to.

But that shouldn't stop me from moving forward.

And if you face the similar challenge, it shouldn't stop you either.

Yes, it'd be great to have lightning strike, and to have conviction around a single idea pillar that has External Resonance.

If you're like me and not there yet, then some wandering in your own Idea Garden is probably a good way to go.

I wish I were someone who could go all in. But I accepted that I am just not wired that way.

I grieved this.

I think it might be more common, though.

And if you are trying to find your category of one, tapping into your unique wiring may be the critical step.

So have a bench of Idea Pillars to build your Idea Engine.

In the beginning, it will help with consistency.

Longer term, as you make Stand Out Connections, the opportunities for you will appear.

It hasn't happened for me yet, but I finally feel like I have a plan.

What are my Idea Pillars as of this writing?

  1. Prepare My Children for the AI Age

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