I have a bad habit: I can convince myself almost any idea is good if I stare at it long enough.

So now I try to run ideas through a simple filter:

  1. Can I explain the problem in one sentence?
  2. Can I find 3 people who already spend money to patch it today?
  3. Can I ship a rough version in a weekend?

If the answer is no on any of those, it probably goes back into the notebook.

This doesn’t make me smarter, it just helps me fail faster and cheaper.