The traditional “idea” as described in the dictionary is just ‘any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity.’
So an idea is nothing but ‘a thought’ that comes to your head while you are peeing; & speaking it doesn’t necessarily make it a great one. Anyone can come up with an obvious and a not so obvious thought.
But does that make you a genius? No, you just observed with your common sense pee sized of a brain and then shouted it out loud.
Most people know that a simple idea if implemented know works. Most people know that if they work out they can loose those extra pounds, but executing the idea of working out for a prolonged period of time consistently is the hard part.
I for one think I am someone with common sense, and have a brain larger than the average Joe. Yet, people I know keep coming to me with ideas that are so simple and possibly effective as if I haven’t thought about it.
They think they are smarter, or think they are helpful. The reality is though their idea of doing something is so simple that they came up with it while they were sitting on the toilet. I also thought about it, months before in a similar toilet.
The fact remains that if you don’t the hard part of persistently pushing towards your objectives in life or project; your ideas mean nothing to anyone. An idea is only good as an implementation of it.
Yesterday, I was having a conversation with a restaurant owner, who happens to be a friend. I had some thoughts which I contemplated would improve his business but I kept it to myself because the thoughts I had were too simple that the restaurateur probably knows and is possibly contemplating improving his business by it. Perhaps he even knows he could improve his business but doesn’t have the resources of time and or money to make the change at this time.
Thus I kept my opinion to myself. I think would better suit him if I could put some work behind the idea and bring it up to his attention by offering quick and cheap ways to apply the changes.
Otherwise, it’s just a suggestion that is most likely overwhelming for him to put into action.
I think we are all better served, if you kept your ideas to yourselves. Because everyone knows, that if they work out they will be in better shape; that if you improve your website your business will do better; and etc.
You are no genius with your obvious ideas. And don’t get mad because I brush off your obvious ideas because I don’t have the time or money to employ it.
Published by July 27th, 2009 in Advice and Thoughts.
I know u get a million of those even on this blog….
It is so annoying when ppl give u some lame idea and they think they r doing u a favor…..
I disagree! We all have a unique perspective and each one person does not look at things the same way or at a particular point in time. I don’t mind hearing people’s opinions/ideas. They are just that! You can either run with it, store it for later retrieval or just scrap it! Ultimately, what you do with it is up to you!
maybe it would help to invent & install a filtering sieve for what you hear
hahaaa!! and there goes MY ‘lame’ suggestion
this reminds me of some earlier bernos posts complaining bout the customers’ market etiquette minamin…don’t see the point of the venting…*shrug*
Diniye,bezih annoy kehonk’ma u’ll have a very short life
M’lady, exactly! Lol @ tpeaces’ suggestion…I like!
Nol, if ur brain is larger than the average Joe, use a different toilet seat next time
Might just help your brain to process the info/suggestion with different outcome. Hey, how about a T-shirt that reads “I already thought about it!” ….am sure u thought about it too 
“if you can’t make your ideas practical, keep it to yourself” Lemalet Kehone..
I agree !!!
There is nothing I tresure more than getting ideas from different pepople, especially when I want to change something or I’m having a hard time making a decision. Even the simplest thoughts, I admire and crave. I always catch myself saying, “hum, I never thoguht of that” or “i never saw it that way” no matter how simple the proposed idea is.
I think Nol should have told the idea to the friend/owner. Just assuming that they have thought of it already because it is a simple idea might lead to that person missing out on a great idea.
Share your thougts. Don’t be greedy with ideas or thoughts or knowlege or….no matter how simple they may seem.
P.S. There is an annoying way of overwhelming people with advice. Be aware of that.
tpeaces wrote:
what exactly do you mean? I am confused..?
baby wrote:
I am not like you… and assume that most people are not like you.. they aware of things around them and have commonsense
Survey says that 90% percent of all drivers think that they are better drivers than the average driver.
Anonx wrote:
90% of all drivers also know that they should use the rear view mirror…
what is your point?
Ah-Oh!
That people think of imagined average and if there is an average few know of it. Ask yourself, if 90% think they are better than the average joe, does he exist?
Best advice I’ve been given so far in life: Never Assume.
So what if the person has already thought of it, just present your idea in a proper fashion and timing is important. If anything you reassure them that it’s a viable idea.
I think everyone of you are missing the point… here is a good analogy..
telling a fat guy to lose weight is not a new idea… nor did it slip his mind…
Z-House wrote:
assume that your girl friend knows that her cell phone batteries wont die if she charges up the phone everynight…
@ Anonx:
anchi what is wrong with you today? Regardless of the lack of Average Joes…. the point i made in my comment was, if you read it properly.. that no matter who the average joes if they have a driver license they know to stop at a red sign…
this is not a competition of best drivers…. its can you drive or not… and most joes know where to put the keys…. even gomer pyle does…
Assume that!
I agree unsolicited advice is very annoying. I think what Nolawi is trying to say is assume people know what they are doing before you offer them your ideas… because they probably have thought of it on their own. But if they ask, that is a different story.
May be the fat guy doesn’t think he is that fat he might think that he just average some one should tell him he is obese.
ende , ere dont keep it to yourself. If you are a friend of the restaurant owner, go give your advice. I mean that’s one of the reasons you network and meet people anyways. You get different perspectives. It’s up to him to do whatever with it (that includes getting annoyed). Because, even if he has thought about the idea before, you can help him enhance it or reinforce the idea minamin… all those good things.
For more information, please read about “brainstorming”.
lol
i mean to say this:
“Nols, I’ve already thought about not giving u unsolicited advice! so keep it to yourself! duhhh”
ppl share their ‘mediocre’ thoughts cos sharing is what humans do [as a blogger u're contradicting the premise behind ur blog by saying there's no point in sharing ideas] …if u’re not willing to sift through to find good ideas…well ma broda – that’s ur loss.
i don’t get the point of this post for instance [it sounds similar to a post about 'gulit mentality']…but u know what – am taking ur advice keeping that to myself! hehehe
I also don’t get how your keeping ur ideas from ur restaurant owner friend is helping him either…but then hey…i’ll keep that to myself
@ tpeaces:
I thought I explained that the ideas would have to be unique and thought out enough … otherwise its not really an idea and its just a suggestion… I will give you an example
‘why don’t you guy at bernos print kids tshirt?’ I get that comment a lot, probably once a week for the last 3 years…
family members friends, colleagues and potential customers of kids tees have suggested it… i listen and brush it off for now…
it may seem like a great idea… and maybe it is infact a great idea but right now we don’t have the resources of time to implement major changes to the bernos site… plus we are concentrating our limited resources on a suggestion that possibly might direct our business towards a different direction without contemplating the effect of kids tee to the brand…
… this is an example of a suggestion i hate because most people do not understand how much work we do… and sacrifices we have taken monetarily to run bernos
the annoying part is when they act like we are stupid because we are not doing what they suggested….it may seem simple but implementation is hard…
———————
A good example of a suggestion, is not if I said to the restaurateur…”why don’t you hire a better chef?” because better food makes restaurant better… for god sake he opened a restaurant… saying that would be annoying to him! as it would be to me… even
_______________________
A girl I met once told me that she was thinking about designing abesha cloth… she didn’t ask me for suggestions on how to approach it … she just mentioned it…
I could have said something as simple as why don’t you go to design school… which would be an annoying idea…
Instead I bought her a book… “how to start designing cloth” I read the reviews…. got her the best book I thought would be helpful… Her design dream fell through.. got married and is pregnant but atleast i put some effort of help into it…..
______________
A friend who had a website wanted more traffic… i could have said why don’t you advertize on google adwords….. he is a doctor in residency… he doesn’t have time to read and understand… the web advertising ROI and industry …
instead i looked up a website in his industry… and asked for the web banner rate…. and told him that he could advertize here for this much.. and he did.. and he got the traffic…
——————————–
this is how I want ideas sent to me… not just words… if you want to help… otherwise you are just…..
btw tsepeace… there is a difference between ideas.. and advice…
an idea is ‘ any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity.’
and advice is ‘Opinion about what could or should be done about a situation or problem; counsel.’
advice of you should get your brakes checked…. minamin… is different from ideas…
Unsolicited advice is not the same as an unsolicited idea….
So is this an unsolicited advice on not giving unsolicited advice?
Lemanignachewim Nolawi, tiyaqe alegn. Which toilet and on what date did you come up with this? Coz I’ve had this thought before, I just didn’t see the need to share it. I just wanna know, if I thought of it before you, then we at least conclude that I’m smarter than you.
Or unsolicited idea on not giving unsolicited idea … if you like.
Ok first of all how should I know that you really have thought the idea before I mentioned it to you. Sometimes “obvious ideas” might not be obvious for some people. So what is the problem, whether you already thought of it before or not, of mentioning an idea?!? if you already knew about the idea that i’m talking about, then ok you do. But it doesn’t mean that i have underestimated Nolawi by assuming he wouldn’t think of an idea like that or that it might be hard to implement the idea. On the other hand if you have never thought of the idea before, whether i offer you just the words or implement the idea, I am being helpful to you.
i’ll come back and read + respond to ur response nolawi but meanwhile…
LMAO @ #20 tobian…my point exactly!
tell tobian when/which toilet u had the thought to share this advice not to share unsolicited advice maybe she’d thought of it before you hahahaha! classic
plus…i think it’s kinda arrogant to assume that ppl have to do research/think an idea out thoroughly and act on something they wanna advise someone on before sharing it with another person…who does the advicee think they are! preposterous! lol
@Nolawi
By your analysis, you shouldve kept your ideas to your self as it is obvious this post is not ground breaking but some commonsense observation. Also by using your analysis, I should have not commented on your idea of keeping my idea to myself, since my response to you is not ground breaking. Which means, this whole conversation should have never occured (if we used your analysis) as everything you said and I said is nothing groundbreaking, its just commonsense observation.
So I would have to disagree, ideas are part of everyday life and people should exchange them freely since you never know who knows what. It is up to the person to decide what to do with it. In your case, you brush it off and you entitled to that. In other people’s case they just keep listining till they hear something that they think to be a ground breaking idea.
This is just this brotha’s point of view and I am not even tempted to keep it to myself.
u guys are taking this discussions way out of context….
Bottom line is more often than not people give suggestions and ideas just because they can….
Why dont u quit smoking…..u r the 278th person to tell me that.
Arriving on time is very important….Ya but u dont have three kids and live out of town like I do. All u have have is 2 cats.
If u save just $ 200 a month, it ll be $ 300,000 by the time u retire…..If only u knew all three of my credit cards are full.
Why dont u google it….duhhhhhhhhh u think I dont know google. I am asking u if u have any info. Just tell me u do or u don’t.
annoying annoying annoying….
wey guuuuuudd, nolawi, are you like “keep your ideas to your self” police? and yes i am keeping my ideas to my self as to honor this post.
dinich this last comment very funny, yet very true.
bez, ditto. i could not agree more.
Hahahahaha….Dinich thanks for speaking our minds in your own perspective way. LOLing at the kids and two cats part too:) I wonder if the potty training part of the cats and kids have similarities ?
The whole argument of I will keep my comments to myself because Nolawi said keep it… is actually quite ignorant.
The point being most people just talk shit about what they do know or not know …. and you have to filter it down to pretty much 10% …or less
if this concept is really hard to understand for you… I don’t know what to do… Tpeace… open your mind up to the possibility that some of us receive too much criticism and feedback…
most professional artists deal with this shit everyday everyhour
ok i went back and read your comment nolawi…and I feel you… see, post #18 nolawi would make a great blog article cos it is specific and thorough and gets your point across in a way that people know exactly what you mean.
on the other hand, the original blog post is too vague to make any impact – I personally still think your suggestion for people to keep their idea and advice to themselves is preposterous, stated in that way.
on the other hand if your blog post were to say – give constructive advise rather than fluffy generic advice…that’s a whole different blog post. plus, it should say – if you really mean to have a positive impact by giving them useful advise, you might want to invest more energy into it. this is very different from saying: “this advise you’re giving is so mediocre since you haven’t thought it out so – keep it to yourself! I’m not stupid (in fact i make a lot of sacrifices to do what i do and have a much larger than average IQ) I can figure it out myself!”
this makes you sound like you feel entitled, arrogant and patronizing
feel me?
tpeaces wrote:
although I dont think he meant to come off that way, that is exactly how it sounds to me!!
Nolawi, “The point being most people just talk shit about what they do know or not know …. and you have to filter it down to pretty much 10% …or less”
Yes thats a good point to make, but How can you filter it down to 10% if you want people to keep their ideas to themselves? you can only filter after hearing the rest. And yes some professions bring about more criticism than others, but constructive crticism can only help since the goal of every professional should be to get better. Anyways, I dont have a dog in the fight so I couldnt care less, just putting my two cents in!!
uffa SBS on comment #25, you’re on a roll Dinu.
p.s. i think dinich should have written this post cos he seems to get it and that is just hilarious!
u have 2 cats vs. my wife and kids…abooo life is hard eko! LOL
tpeaces wrote:
I am sorry but you are really annoying me… the point although vague was made… you had hard time understanding it… thus i broke it down…
now you tell me that was how i should have written it… lol… with specific examples…
i am glad you finally understand it…
——————————-
and those of you that took the my point and said i don’t want to advice you because i said ‘keep you advice’ what the hell kind of shit is that….
and my article is hypocrisy because its an advice? that is the lamest shit i have read on this blog in months…
I think I understand what Nolawi is saying. Anyone can throw ideas left and right. And God knows people love sharing their two cents. However, unless they have a genuine and well thought out plan for me to implement, to me, they are just talking out of their ass.
just hug it out people!!
“The whole argument of I will keep my comments to myself because Nolawi said keep it… is actually quite ignorant.”
Nolawi, on the contrary it’s the problem. You’ve made it impossible for anybody to suggest anything to you because, god forbid, you may have though of it before.
First you call people who give you info u deem unimportant stupid, and now you call people who refuse to give you info based on your first statement ignorant.
Come on, dude! Eat it, or leave it. Can’t have your cake all ways.
The only thing I agree with in this article is that way too many people say way too much stupid sh*t all the time. C’est la vie! I’m sure I do it to others too. But I don’t agree with the notion that they should keep it to themselves (maybe you should chose your company better, or you come up with a collection of exit phrases to avoid such conversations). You just can’t censor people. Get used to it.
Besides, many great ideas in this world have been pretty simple and stupid. Maybe in all this seemingly silly conversations, it’s the listener who’s missing the big picture.
“most professional artists deal with this shit everyday everyhour”
As I am not a professional artist, I’d not know. But what I do know is two things a) I get to hear poeple criticizing my work in my line of profession every hour and b) you’re not in my profession so you don’t know sh*t about that.
‘qil indeyeqil’, alu …
@Tobian,
PREACH PREACH PREACHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
bez achebchabi! lol
I think Nolawi makes a great point. Tobian has missed the point that the ideas are coming from random strangers.
“I am not like you… and assume that most people are not like you.. they aware of things around them and have commonsense”
Not seeing something from a different perspective or from all perspecives does not make one unaware of things around them. It sure does not mean they are in need of having commonsense. To think that they have stood on all the tables in the room to look at the view from different angles (referencing Dead Poet’s Society) I think is lacking commonsense.
Are you saying that you’ve never been amused by a simple idea someone told you of but you hadn’t thought of it yourself? If you’re really claiming that, then I think you’re the one in need of commonsense.
baby wrote:
no i did not say that… but i still do not want everyone to come to me with their perspective because most of the time their perspective is said not because they observed something they thought would be helpful rather because its part of a BS conversation…on rare occasions i get the aha moments… but most of the time… its bs…
then there is feedbacks I ask.. for people who i think I need input from… then there are comments unsolicited from friends and family… which i listen to and in most cases disregard…
Now let me ask u a q?
Go up to a smoker! and say “you know cigarrettes are bad for you?”
after that ask him if he thought that comment… your different perspective is helpful in any form?
Going up to a smoker and telling him smoking is bad for him is not the same as telling a friend about a thought you had on how to better run his business. You’re comparing appels with oranges. Both fruit, but very different.
I admit that telling people what you think they should do can get annoying. But if you do it in moderation and to people you are close to, then it is helpful.
Echoing #37,” @Tobian,PREACH PREACH PREACHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! ”
rahewa, it may be you who missed the point, because, the following doesn’t exactly refer to ‘random strangers’ as u mentioned, does it?
“Yet, people I know keep coming to me with ideas that are so simple and possibly effective as if I haven’t thought about it.”
Dini and Nol, I feel your examples are situational….just to give weight to your points. Could well be
“Have you thought about setting the tables for five on that end, and adding tables for four on this side? your restaurant could accommodate more customers”
“I have a unique necklace….may give you some abesha kemis design ideas, do you want to look at it?”
“what have u tried so far? may be I could suggest a few others to direct more traffic to ur website…it worked for my friend so and so”
“Dad, I want you to stay healthy, please stop smoking!”
“Entnna walks my cat…can drop your three kids at school too -for a small fee – if u want to go to work on time”
“I have benefited so much from my financial planner and am on my way to retire early that I want to give u her business card”
“Bernos has good info on it”
But then again, you knew it all..thought about it all…getting annoyed, annoyed and annoyed, on that darn toilet seat.
Nope Wudenesh,
you took my comment out of context it was in reply to Tobian 37.
What if its random stranger was to come to you and say those things.
personally, it affects me too. My uncles, aunts, brother, mother and sisters all come to me and say…
Why don’t you get married?
Godamn you, I would if I could, now find me a man that is willing to deal with my petite self.
Thank you
I see how that gets annoying….
Anyway, after reading the comments, I think i understand the point. I didn’t get it first because I don’t get too much ideas from people or even when i get ideas, i don’t consider it annoying.
However, it seems like Nolawi is pretty popular guy as “Meet Josy” asked him (may be Josy noticed that in Chicago) and I am sure people like to have acceptance from such kind of person or have just conversation; if they don’t have topic, they share their lame idea…if they get “wow” from you, you will make their day. well, it is good to be popular ..
BTW, i feel these days that everyone is run out of ideas. When i came up with the wildest new idea that i can imagine and google it, i find gazillion of it…so, for the sake of conversation, it is ok to share..
Nols, I feel you! I usually get stupid ideas from ppl. When they do that I just give them a fake smile and move on. The most annoying ones are those who keep trying to convince you even when you are ignoring them, AHs!
@Wudnesh,
PREACH PREACH pRRRRRReachhhhhhHHH sista!!
@Rahewa
“bez achebchabi! lol” too funny lol, Tobias was ON POINT. I have a great IDEA for you though, Why dont u get married?
Let me start by saying that I honestly enjoy your writing. There are times I don’t agree with you and there are times when anjeten yemitarelsegn gize! This is one of those time. Esye ashut inkwan …. Deg adereklign! I wanted to say more but … I’d rather keep it to myself!
“I for one think I am someone with common sense, and have a brain larger than the average Joe. ”
I for one think that you just have a hair longer than the average Joe…
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