design collisions

a long time ago i used to think “ideation” was an activity.

sit down, concentrate, open a doc, write “10 startup ideas,” pretend the page isn’t screaming back at you in silence.

& sometimes you’ll even get something. a clever sentence. a concept that sounds like it could be real. you’ll screenshot it. you’ll send it to a friend. you’ll feel that tiny hit of control.

then, three days later, you can’t even remember why it felt interesting.

because it wasn’t an idea. it was a simulation of one.

the older i get, the more i think real ideas don’t come from chasing. they come from collisions, the moment your particular psychology meets the world’s particular need at the exact right time.

ideas are not thoughts.

they’re actually events.