Is there no room for the idea guy?

This article, from 37signals, says that there’s no space for the “idea guy” in many projects as they aren’t able to contribute to the actual creation process. It’s reflective of a mindset in Silicon Valley, something which goes along the lines of “if-you-can’t-code-you-are-useless”. The article has drawn quite  a bit of flak, like this response post from a UI designer.

It, however, describes the major reason why I’m now doing engineering. I’ve always been an “idea guy”, starting with Crossways Journals when I was 14 (a watered down version of 1000journals, for poverty issues), to Locra and thirty.sg. As the ideas have become more complex, I’ve realized it isn’t sufficient to have an idea, and then hope to find someone to build it for you. Even though that works out in a rare few instances, the process often fails because of unequal commitment levels, or just not being able to find people.

I spent 2 years trying to find people to build a particular web project that I had in mind, eventually choosing to outsource (which resulted in expensive, but terrible results). Now, with Ruby on Rails/Django, it’s not impossible for me to sit down and build the whole thing in a week.

Good ideas are nothing without good implementation. A corollary of that is that it’s very difficult to do a project if you aren’t familiar with the key method of implementation. If you’re building a better wheelchair, you’d want to know machine shop skills, and access to people to test the wheelchair on. If you’re starting an educational non-profit, you’d want access to people who are your target group, and the knowledge of how to create tutoring materials. This, of course, assumes you’ve already got all the other things nailed down- leadership, commitment- and are able to work with other people who are critical to its implementation (e.g. UI designers, marketing etc).

There’s often precious little that separates an “idea guy” from someone who suggests a feature in the feedback form. On the other hand, the potential of an “idea guy” who is able to make his/her ideas happen consistently and effectively is boundless.

(In other news: got mentioned in the Stanford Daily for declaring my major. Not exactly a glamorous reason for appearing in there, eh?)