Alright, let’s talk about this idea I’ve been messing around with – what I call getting down to ‘nude ideas’. It sounds a bit weird, maybe, but stick with me.
It started a few weeks back. I was getting bogged down with a personal project, just something I tinker with on weekends. It felt like I was just adding layer after layer, feature after feature. You know how it goes. Suddenly, this simple thing I started felt like a tangled mess. Couldn’t even remember why I started it.
Hitting Reset
So, I just stopped. Literally pushed my keyboard away. Felt like I needed to strip everything back. Grabbed an old notebook, the kind with cheap paper, and a basic pen. That was the plan: get back to the absolute core, the ‘nude’ concept behind it all. No fancy software, no mind maps, just scribbling.
My Process (or lack thereof):
- I just started writing down the absolute basic goal. Like, one sentence.
- Then, I tried listing the bare minimum needed to achieve that. Absolutely nothing extra.
- Crossed out a lot. Honestly, most of my first thoughts were just adding complexity back in disguise. Old habits, I guess.
- It felt… difficult. Like my brain physically resisted keeping things simple.
Spent maybe two hours just doing that. Staring at the page, doodling, crossing things out again. It wasn’t some magic flash of inspiration. It was more like chipping away at rock, trying to find the shape inside.
Why Bother?
It reminded me of my first job out of college. We had this project, and the boss kept saying “more features, more value!” We bolted on so much stuff, it became this monster nobody understood, least of all the users. It eventually just collapsed under its own weight. We spent months trying to fix it, but it was easier to just scrap the whole thing and start over with something simpler. That lesson kind of stuck with me, even though I didn’t really get it back then.
So yeah, this ‘nude ideas’ thing for my current project… it wasn’t about creating something groundbreaking right there on the paper. It was about clearing the noise. By the end, I didn’t have a full plan, but I had maybe three core points written down that actually felt solid. Like a foundation. It felt cleaner.
It’s a simple practice, really. Just stopping and stripping things back. Sometimes less really is more, you just gotta force yourself to actually do it. Helps cut through the crap, you know?
