A practical framework for filtering ideas and committing to the ones worth building.
Not everything worth observing is worth writing about. Not everything worth writing about is worth building. And not everything worth building is worth teaching. Here’s the checklist I use to decide.
The Five Questions
- Does this solve a problem I personally have? If I won’t use it, I can’t maintain it.
- Can I ship a v0 in a weekend? If not, the scope is wrong.
- Will building it teach me something I can’t learn by reading? Build logs need real lessons.
- Does it connect to something I’ve already written about? The ecosystem feeds itself.
- Would I be proud to show the code? If not, it’s a prototype, not a product.
[Expand each question with your actual reasoning and examples]