Two Great Tastes

I'm an idea person. I love blank spaces. I love saying, "There's nothing here, and presto! Now there's something here."

Other people are 'Make it Better' people. They see my not-so-great idea that I've produced and they say, "Oh wow. But what if we lost that bit, added this part, and gave it a different name?" Voila. BETTER.

It's VITAL you figure out which one you are.

Are You an "Idea from Nothing" Kind of Person?

And let's be honest: "from nothing" is a lie. All the good idea people are thieves and synthesizers and mulching machines. We sift through ideas and land on something that's new, but that has "parents" from many other sources.

Idea creators are great at saying something in different ways. They are masterful at showing you the thing you were TRYING to think of, but couldn't quite see yourself.

I watched this TED Talk last night before bed and almost couldn't get to sleep. I'm so over general AI stuff and basic LLMs, and trying hard to see what's on the other side of things. For instance, agents. But I digress. When I saw that talk, my head filled to the top with ideas.

Idea people think all the time "Why hasn't anyone ____?"

Or Are You a "Make It Better" Person?

Others come along and take your okay idea and make it work so much better. Harvard MBAs do this. Deloitte consultants. Operators. They help people like me who chase dandelion seeds on the wind and slap us until we turn something into a repeatable and monetizable process.

Does it sound like I'm speaking with a bit of derision? I guess kinda. But it's more like we're natural frenemies. Idea people are dreamers. Make-it-Betters are practical. They think of things like "cost" and "time to produce" and all that.

Nothing I invent is useful on its own. Even while I'm highly business minded, I've really only started to see how to do this better in the last few years.

Make-it-Better people are VITAL to our world. But here's the thing: we forget to celebrate them as much.

We Need Both

Dreamers are annoying. Just when you finally start understanding the idea we tell you about, we've already flitted off to some other patch of sun and are cooking up something new. Make-it-Betters love to tinker, tweak, edit, fix, release, re-release, and on and on and on.

I know what you're thinking: "I'm a hybrid. I do BOTH." Yeah, duh. Michael Jordan also tried out baseball.

You're GREAT at one or you're great at the other.

Play with your toys and let the other people bring their toys to your sandbox. Let "Make it Betters" take your idea stuff and fix it up. It's going to be...better. See? That's in their name.

You know what happens with a Make-it-Better when you give them a blank page? Yeah, so they need idea people, too.

Idea Friendly

My friends Becky and Deb talk about rural towns being "idea friendly." I think THIS aspect of getting things done is a two-way street. I think Idea people can work harder to make their ideas easier to run with, and I think Make-it-Better types can help serve and deliver good ideas into great results by focusing on how to best interact with an Idea type.

I love the phrase "idea friendly," because it means that people are open to new things, and willing to work with idea weirdos, and it also means that those ideas will need "Make-it-Better types to make something happen.

Penguins are Cruddy Fliers

I love this as an image for thinking through which you are and understanding what makes you better-served in the work you pursue. Penguins are terrible at flying. They are incredible swimmers. Fast, clever. Just amazing.

Similarly, you might be a great Idea person or a great Make-it-Better person. It's important to gauge yourself against the right goal.

You following me on this one?

So, which are you? (And remember, I'll judge you if you say both.)

Chris...