The Secret to Generating Good Ideas

15 Mar 2026 #misc

Good ideas start as bad ones. You just need enough to find the least bad.

#1.

Tim Ferriss had different titles for his book, 4-Hour Work Week. Probably, there were good and bad titles among those.

He tested titles with ads and picked the one with the most clicks. He started with bad ideas, iterated, then picked the right one.

A similar story with James Altucher and Choose Yourself.

#2.

Last year, I attended a book writing workshop that drilled the value of bad ideas.

One of the tasks was coming up with title ideas. One of the participants had an immigration practice helping people move to Australia. While he waited for the perfect title, I suggested Aussie Job and follow-ups like Aussie Colleges and Aussie Marriages.

I don’t know which title he chose or if he even wrote the book. I just checked Amazon and there’s no Aussie Job. Insert shrugging emoji.

As a fan of 10-idea lists, that exercise was a piece of cake. It was just another daily prompt for ideas.

That workshop pushed me to keep writing my 10 ideas daily.

3.

Don’t wait for a perfect book title, blog post subject, or business idea.

Chasing the “perfect” idea leaves you blocked, waiting for inspiration. Aim for 10 guilt-free bad ideas. Among those you’ll find a decent one that leads you to the right idea.

Put your work out there. Show it. If people like it, they will engage with it and remember it. Otherwise, they won’t.

I’ve published over 600 posts over the years (half of them reposted on Medium and dev.to). Not every single post is a hit. Good ones stand out. People like, comment, and share them. Others go without “fame or glory.”

Then the work is to have more bad ideas, find the least bad, and share them. Rinse and repeat.

Sharif Shameem shared a similar idea. He calls it, Aadil’s Law, named after a friend:

The amount of stupidity you’re willing to tolerate is directly proportional to the quality of ideas you’ll eventually produce

Be willing to look stupid. Write 10 bad ideas every day and let the good ones emerge.

Writing 10 ideas every day has been so valuable that I made it part of 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life And Could Change Yours Too Write them daily and watch your life change.