The danger of "Someday/Maybe"

[2097]

Haha, wow, I just wrote in this other thread that I don't really look in my "someday / maybe" list during weekly reviews and for a lark I just looked at some random things in there and... uh... I would've invented Kickstarter T_T

This article from 1999 about crowdfunding (before it was called "crowdfunding") made a big impression of me and I was still thinking about it ten years later, in 2009. The way I understood the article was that everyone was to set up their own site and run their own bank and pledge system basically. So the "brilliant" idea I had was to start a site where other people could run their crowdfunding projects (again, it wasn't called "crowdfunding" but you get the idea). And I promptly tossed the idea into someday/maybe... and didn't look at it again until today

I mean, honestly, there was probably no week where I would've gone "yeah this is a good idea now". I don't want to learn how to run big sites and handle big money. I want a simple life. And, Kickstarter was launched just two months later! So obviously they'd been cooking the same idea for longer than I had.

I just thought this was a fun anecdote that other GTDers could relate to♥

 

[Oogiem]

I don't really look in my "someday / maybe" list during weekly reviews

I may not read all of my S/M lists at every weekly review but I do make sure that I spend the time to read each and every one at my in-depth quarterly reviews. I'm already moving projects that have to go on hold for the next season out into them and brining in projects that can be worked on this season so it's a natural time to re-read everything.

I would say your issue is not "The danger of Someday/Maybe" but instead is more like "The danger of ignoring Someday/Maybe because you feel too rushed." If that happened to me I'd see it as a sign I needed to split my S/M list a bit more or that I really needed to focus on doing a really in-depth capture followed by a really in-depth processing session or 3.

 

[2097]

Splitting up or organizing or tagging your SMD stuff is a good idea. I think in this particular case nothing would've saved me because undertaking a project of that magnitude was just kinda beyond me at that point—as someone working alone with no team and no funding. It was just as reasonable as "bike up the eiffel tower".

 

[mcogilvie]

There are plenty of examples where some idea or technology was discovered anf rediscovered, failng to
become mainstream until it finally caught on. The fast Fourier transform, for example.

 

[TesTeq]

There are plenty of examples where some idea or technology was discovered anf rediscovered, failng to
become mainstream until it finally caught on. The fast Fourier transform, for example.

Yes! I invented "knowledge in the air" in the second half of 1970s - now known as Wikipedia in the smartphone. @2097

 

[2097]

Wow that's fantastic @TesTeq !