Implement, implement, implement.

Construction Worker Houston Texas 1 by billjacobus1

You’ve collected some ideas? Now it’s time for the second part.
Firstly, you should work out the details of your favorite idea. Draw some sketches, note down some cool features. Generally, think about it.

Secondly, check if somebody already implemented your idea. You can use Google or any other search engine. Sometimes a view at uspto.gov can be useful. So, what’s your outcome?

Somebody has already implemented your idea: You should be depressed. Yes. No, of course not. This is rather a good sign than a bad one. You know that there’s a market, there’s interest. But it doesn’t help if your current idea is very similar, perhaps the same, as the existing one. “What can be improved?” That’s the essential question.

Nobody has implemented your idea: Before you start implementing your idea, ask yourself: “Why haven’t someone implemented this idea yet?“. Maybe it’s so worse, that there’s no market or interest. Or somebody implemented it unsuccessfully. Remember: It’s harder to introduce a new concept than go with an established one.

I have no idea

notepad by Ti.mo

Everyone has ideas, a few ones are great and some people have successfully implemented great ideas. I want to say something about collecting ideas and implementing them.

Collecting ideas is a very crucial activity. Ideas are volatile so you should write them down as soon as possible. An easy but effective tool is a pen and paper. You can comfortably put a little piece of paper and a short pencil into your wallet. That’s all.
Well, twenty little snippets with scribbles aren’t very manageable. I recommend to buy a notepad.
You have your snippets and a notepad, now you can begin to structure your idea. Write down some small sentences maybe other ideas or features in respect of your main idea. It is important that you don’t reject your idea too early!

Ideas are only imaginary, therefore you should implement them. Take a look into your notepad. Is there anything which is worth implementing?

I’ll write later about implementing ideas. Just begin your collection and collect ideas!

The curse and blessing of a high bandwidth connection

A high bandwidth connection is seductive and can be useful.
There are various things to do in the net. I categorize a few and colored them with their “productivity factor” (green = good; red = bad).

Video streams
Youtube and there like are immense productivity killers. You’re maybe just watching an interesting video about quantum physics but then you see another one, and another one, and another one.

Social networking sites
I don’t think that I have to say much about them. Killers.

Mailing Lists
Oh yeah, that’s the social networking sites for nerds. “Oh, I must just read these 1932 mails then I continue working! I swear!”.

Information gathering
Hey, finally. This is a productivity pusher if you have a little bit discipline. Otherwise you can land in the endless browsing through wikipedia articles and board postings.

So, what has bandwidth to do with them? Let’s analyze.

Type Required amount of traffic typical amount for one session
video streams about 3 to 8 Megabytes per minute 36 Megabytes (3 videos a 4 minutes)
social networking sites (photos) about 80 to 300 Kilobytes per image 7 Megabytes (forty pictures and eight profiles)
mailing lists about 4 to 12 Kilobytes per mail 5 Megabytes (500 mails)
information gathering about 40 to 300 Kilobytes per site 2 Megabytes (ten sites)

Based on my personal experience you can construct a graph like this (for computer related work):

“Does this mean that I’m highly productive with a limited connection?” No. If you want to avoid work you’ll avoid it.

“So, why does it matter?” I saw a lot of people who are surfing here or there because they must see the latest video. If your connection is limited you are so annoyed that you rather do something else, often, more productive.