Paul Graham states that not thinking of startup ideas leads to good ideas. Whereby, one develops a way of thinking of ideas unconsciously. Thus, the idea of working on side projects because they're plain interesting.<p>The other alternative is to constantly think of startup ideas. PG warns against this mode of thinking.<p>What is HNs opinion on thinking of startup ideas, vs. not thinking of startup ideas. There are many examples of successful companies using the latter strategy, but are there examples of successful companies using the former idea?<p>Overall, which is the more viable strategy?
I just try to read a lot, absorb all kinds of ideas from all sorts of places - articles on HN, books, Youtube videos, Wikipedia articles, conversations with strangers at coffee shops, whatever... and then think about stuff and let the ideas pop out whenever / wherever they do. Some of the ideas I have might be good startup ideas, or not. Who's to say? I find a few from time to time that seem appealing enough to at least write down, or email to myself for future reference.<p><i>shrug</i>