15-Feb-2006

Ideas, innovation, books...

Joserra in Najaraba.com: Software libre, negocios y más. posts a link to The Idea Book, where Frederik Härén's suggestions for improving your creativity are interspersed with blank pages for your own ideas.

Anti-Hype manifesto

WMC in Linking Paths día a día publishes the Anti-Hype manifesto for their company:

ANTI-HYPE MANIFESTO

“Keep your marketing out of my code!”

1. Sometimes I have good ideas, sometimes bad, and sometimes they are just average. But none of my ideas will be considered as exceptional just because they are mine.

2. If one day I get an exceptional idea, I mustn't forget the words of Newton, “If I have been able to see further than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”.

3. Everything that existed before my idea is not stupid, and the reason I had my idea is probably because I focused on the errors of others.

4. My idea has a purpose. Someone may find a purpose in it that I haven't considered so my idea is not the solution for everything.

5. When I write in a blog or in a forum or respond to questions, I will try to forget my ego (that dangerous companion): I will simply explain my idea and its virtues. Good ideas do not need to attack others to be valid.

6. I will be open to fundamental technical criticisms about my idea. I will not get heated over criticisms that are not relevant.

7. I will fight criticism with established facts, not with exaggerations, lies or insults.

8. If someone has a better idea, I will celebrate and support it. I understand that in the whole of the human race there may be others who can have ideas that are better than mine.

9. If my idea attracts followers, I will not make them into my “brothers in faith”. If someone follows my idea but does not comply with the Manifesto, I will not defend him just because he agrees with my idea.

10. Although there are ten principles, this manifesto is not the ten commandments. The ten can be summarised in one: watch the ego.

I sign, accepting these principles and undertaking to follow them,

Ship It!

Juan Palacio in Navegapolis posts a link to the book, Ship it!, A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects.