This is an Idea Foundry post. For more information on what this is all about, take a look over here. Background We all know Wikipedia. Fewer of us know about WikiBooks, the offshoot that is attempting to use the community to source free and open (and current) academic textbooks. If anything, the Wikimedia [...]

Part of the builder’s mentality is a certain can-do attitude: There’s no challenge that cannot be surmounted, no problem that cannot be solved, no issue that cannot be resolved through some creative application of talents. This is actually the easiest way to figure out if you’re talking to a Builder. If you give him a problem, the first question will be : "How do I solve it", rather than "Why should I solve that". It doesn’t matter whether it’s a good idea, whether there’s any use to it, or whether anyone wants it (which is why we have CRM’s): If you get one inspired he’ll find a solution come hell or high water, and God help you if you try to put on the brakes.

My coworker Tommy and I are builders. We go to lunch regularly and we think of neat things to do. In our conversations we talk about new tech, and since neither one of us shy’s away from learning a new language or fiddling with a new toy, the ideas of what is possible just fly. In course of this conversation we come up with some pretty viable business concepts and application ideas. We’ve imagined iPhone applications, conventions that would appeal to a specific demographic, everything from creating the Starbucks of milk bars to reasonably plausible ways of taking over the world.

Our dilemma though is this: What do you work on? There are only so many hours in the day, and the demands of everyday life continue to suck away at grand dreams and visions. Prioritization is important, but with so many interesting things to pursue it’s often hard to put an impassioned new discovery aside in favor of something previously deemed more important. Would you rather explore a new business concept, or… do laundry? A difficult decision, and one I’ve struggled with on my own on many occasions.