Talk: Antifragile Idea Generation

Quotes by Kent Beck:

• “Sometimes, the best way to be smart is not to be smart at all”
• “Young developers don’t understand how deeply great developers care”

It’s important to have lots of ideas.

Expose yourself to lots of stimulus. This is the source of lot of ideas especially if you can link them together.

Enjoy the high you get when you come up with an idea

Then try to bust the ideas as fast as possible

When ideating, think first about how to bust your idea

• Falsification first ideation
• The ideas that survive your rigour will be strengthened through antifragility.
• This gives instant negative feedback on your ideas

This gives you an assymetry where you enjoy the highs and limit the lows of trying out bad ideas.

Having ideas and not busting them causes them to become pet ideas.

• You will not be as harsh as necessary on them

Thus ideas that can’t be tested immediately aren’t as valuable.

On improvement: Factors of 4 are when things start to get interesting.