On Ideas, Ideation and the Ideals in Men

Ideas: assets or liabilities?

I got a lot of response to my blog about hypernumerals yesterday, but mostly in my email.  Please be adviced that the comments are on so you can answer in the blog itself.

I do not agree with some of you that there not enough ideas around.  In Slashdot today: "Ideas are really the sexy part of innovation and there's rarely a shortage of them. If you look at the biggest problems around innovation, rarely does a lack of ideas come up as one of the top obstacles; instead, it's things like a risk-averse culture, overly lengthy development times and lack of coordination within the company."

The question is whether an idea is an asset or a liability.  
When I said I am giving ideas away, it is because otherwise they become a liability since I do not have the financial backing to exercise them all.  If I do not give them away, they accumulate as to-do lists in my head or like save-bookmarks.  So, better that somebody else does it then, so that I am rid of them.  Invention without a financial return is just an expense. Ideas without the power to exercise them become frustrations.

Whether there is job in gatekeeping or idea-production for companies?  I doubt it very much.  Although I love ideas, thinking, philosophy and abstract objects, basically ideas are worthless.  It is 10 times tougher to come up with a prototype; 100 times tougher to come up with a company around it that is working  and has real customers; 1000 times tougher with a company that is profitable and keeps evolving and 10,000 times tougher to do an IPO around that company and finally 100,000 times tougher to exit as a multi-millionaire.

Walter