Skip to content

Anshumani Ruddra

Understated Hyperbole

Menu
  • About Me
  • Videos and Talks
  • Story Stack
  • Fiction
  • Courses
  • Playbooks
Menu

Generating Ideas

Posted on November 16, 2022November 16, 2022 by Anshumani Ruddra

Kapi Pe Charcha #001 – Venture Highway

I am often asked: “How do I constantly come up with new ideas?” 

While coming up with ideas, do not worry about their originality, quality, feasibility or the opportunity size that they represent. Forget all that. 

Focus on idea generation. Keep reminding yourself – there are no bad ideas. Not at this stage.  

Next – create an idea bank. This could be a notebook – physical or digital (lots of great apps out there for this). It should be easy to add, tag and retrieve ideas. Keep this bank close at hand. 

Now use the following three methods to come up with ideas: 

  • Irritants: there are a bunch of things you and the people around you find irritating. These are things you avoid (like paperwork and taxes) or procrastinate over. These could be from your personal or professional life. “I wish I wouldn’t keep opening the same tab again and again in Chrome.” Well, someone was so irritated by this that they built a Chrome plugin to fix it. 
  • Repeatables: are there tasks you find yourself repeating at a certain frequency? Paying the bills, watering the plants, cleaning the bike. Most repeatable tasks can be automated or outsourced. Repeatables that are Irritants are fantastic ideas.  
  • Enhancers: What are the experiences that become better with a few flourishes? Coconut water is great. Chilled coconut water is even better. Small enhancements can drastically change the experience. Enhancers can also get rid of Irritants. Waiting line too long? Pay a small fee to skip the line and get the VIP experience. 

There are a lot of other methods of generating ideas. 

Ideas are all around us – all you need is constant and deliberate practice of mining them. 


This post originally appeared on LinkedIn.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt-out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

1 thought on “Generating Ideas”

  1. Pingback: Shortlisting Ideas - Anshumani Ruddra

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Recent Posts

  • A Personal AI Manifesto
  • Father of Man
  • A Year of Quizzing – 2024 Retrospective

Recent Comments

  • A Personal AI Manifesto - Anshumani Ruddra on Career Choices in the Wisdom Economy
  • Venkata Subba Raju on Rethinking the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
  • Shortlisting Ideas - Anshumani Ruddra on Generating Ideas

Archives

  • April 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • October 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • January 2016
  • July 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
©2025 Anshumani Ruddra | Built using WordPress and Responsive Blogily theme by Superb