Just Ideas

Here’s the core claim behind Just Ideas: a good idea is only good in context. EDM at a club: okay. EDM at a funeral, well, …

That sounds obvious. But sometimes it’s not.

Every idea arrives with luggage (often invisible and unstated): the context that makes it work. Strip that away and even a brilliant idea looks absurd. Keep it, and an idea you’d normally dismiss might be exactly right.

That’s the starting point for Just Ideas — and it changes how you evaluate almost everything.

Sometimes the context is enormous. Some ideas are timeless and work everywhere (like donuts are good). Other times, the context is narrow: this team, this quarter, this specific mess we’re in right now. Neither scope makes the idea better or worse. It just defines where the idea is useful.

This matters when you encounter an idea you don’t like. Before dismissing it, consider that you might not share the other person’s context. You’re not wrong. They’re not wrong. You are just working out a different puzzle.

And more importantly, ideas should change. They should evolve as you learn, as you accumulate experience, as your world changes. An idea that’s three days old and an idea that’s thirty years old can both be challenged. Ideas are not axioms. They are not etched in stone. They’re working hypotheses with varying expiration dates.

Of course, sometimes — even after you’ve considered the context, acknowledged your biases, and granted every possible charitable interpretation — an idea is just crazy.

That happens too. (As my children will remind me, usually in reference to something I just said.) 😜