Dare to be Stupid
Every friday I have a standing lunch with some friends. We’ve been doing this for years. It’s a good group to talk with, laugh with, and bounce things off of.
On Friday, Eric was telling us about this new project. I won’t go into details, cause it’s his project, but we were talking about the pros and cons; how much it would cost, who has already committed to buying one (I have staked my claim) whether it’s a copyright violation or parody, etc. And then he said, “Well, I’m committed to doing this because my New Year’s Resolution is to follow through with all my stupid ideas.”
That hit me like a ton of cliches. Holy shit. Follow through with all your stupid ideas.
How many times have you thought of something and then cast it aside thinking, “Nah, that’s stupid.” Were you really thinking you didn’t want to spend the time to see if it would be cool? Were you afraid stupid=failure? And how many things that are awesome (EDIT- or at the very least, successful) can you see, if written down on paper, looked stupid to begin with?
- Let’s make a video game where you roll around a sticky ball and pick stuff up. (Katamari Damacy – incidentally, one day my husband was on painkillers and I asked him if he wanted anything to keep him occupied during recovery. He said he wanted the game with the sticky ball where you roll things up. I thought the painkillers had gotten to him.)
- Let’s make [insert any popular reality show here].
- Let’s scream at people who have different opinions than we do. (Any political talking head show.)
- Let’s bottle water and sell it.
I don’t like resolutions, but I do like this philosophy. I wonder how it fits for long term projects – stupid ideas – that I’ve had: I should start a new magazine/podcast/audio drama/novel! But it’s a concept I just might consider doing. What is worse: one success, or ten success and three failures?
I’ve referenced this Ze Frank video more than once, but it has such an impact on me I feel the need to reference it again. (When he bursts into song, it has the F bomb, so it’s NSFW unless you have headphones.)
Now my idea is to finish this damn novel so I can play with some other ideas. And watch out; they may be stupid.
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Totally agree. Totally. Our heads get in the way too much, finding obstacles. Let the stupid, crazy, wacko ideas fly – it matters not where they come from, just let ‘em fly. And try some.
There is sooo much research on scientific advances, businesses, marketing ideas, all kinds of stuff, that occurred to numerous people at roughly the same time in history. Those that acted were often the ones who got the credit, glory, headlines and all that good stuff (not always tho, in some cases it was the person or group who had the best marketing or P.R. or politics.)
So if an idea flies in, nuture it a bit, try it on, and who knows, maybe you, too, could be the next Newton, Starbucks, Ford, or Gates.
Sounds good to me. My head is full of ideas – exploding full. And I think I’ve given in into trying out as many as I can. Not all is possible. Studying English Literature was one of those ‘y don’t I just study something with which I will not be able to make any money but which I will surely enjoy enormously’-ideas, same with agreeing to write a few poems for a friend’s anthology. Turned out I’m a horrible writer of poems. Really bad. But I’d never made that bird-shaped poem if I hadn’t tried
. And one of the most stupid ideas according to many friends was trying to write 50.000 words in November. It drove me crazy but I got there in the end and now I have a half-finished novel sitting on my computer, some very impressed colleagues and the knowledge that I CAN actually write 50k in less than 30 days, with which I am still pretty impressed ^^.
Stupid ideas can turn out to be alot less stupid if you give them a chance. One idea which seemed very stupid turned out to have been one of my very best. I decided to kiss that lovely English guy who was visiting me over New Year two years back. Now we’re talking about becoming engaged. And I really hope that the stupid idea to one day get a novel written and published will prove one of the actually great ideas which only seemed stupid at the time.
But back to the stupid idea of wanting to write my MA-thesis on a very contemporary author now.
Good luck with your stupid ideas, Mur!
I am all about finishing my ideas right now!
Follow-through period has always been hard for me and since I’m always at least partially certain (can you be partially certain?) that my ideas aren’t real smart it’s not that that’s stopping me.
Mur, you’ve definitely given us the headline of the day.
Good thoughts, though, in spite of sounding to the uninitiated like the pitch for the Bush Administration. (Two more days … two more days…)
But I think any writer would know the feeling behind your headline, and identify with it.
This has long been the cornerstone of my design philosophy and it has served me very well as a solo artist.
If I tell someone my idea, they will look confused and skeptical and might even try to talk me out of it. But when I come back with the finished product, they’re amazed by its quality and uniqueness.
Labelling ideas as “stupid” ideas runs contrary to the very concept of brainstorming. NEVER judge your ideas in a brainstorm. Just jot every crazy thing down. At the very least, if it sounds crazy and stupid, you don’t have to worry as much that someone else might have done it already.
I hate to admit it, but I am addicted to brain crack. Fantasizing about applause is fun
.
Seriously, though, I don’t have stupid ideas. I have boring, unoriginal ideas. A stupid idea would be a step up!
Damn, Mur, you hit it right on the head. Now my year of lazy sloth just got replaced by my year of industrious insanity. Thanks. Sheesh.
[...] go here and read it. Done? Yes, I like Zefrank [...]
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[...] few days ago, Mur Lafferty spoke on the power of daring to be stupid. That stuck with me. I wanted to do that. I wanted to follow through on every stupid idea that [...]