Interesting isn’t enough.
One Useful Idea is about ideas that can actually help.
There are plenty of interesting ideas.
One Useful Idea is about the ones that can actually help.
An idea might help you notice something sooner, make a better decision, avoid a mistake, ask a better question, try something different or stop doing something that isn't helping.
It doesn't need to change your life.
It just needs to be useful.
The rule
Before an idea is finished, we should be able to answer three questions:
What's the useful idea?
When is it useful?
What can someone actually do with it?
If we can't answer all three clearly, the idea isn't ready.
It might go into Working It Out while we explore it. Or we might decide there wasn't anything useful there after all.
That's fine too.
Simple on purpose
Useful ideas don't become more useful when they're made harder to understand.
We use ordinary language, real situations and practical examples wherever we can.
The aim isn't to make every idea simple. It's to explain it simply enough that you can decide whether it helps you.
What you'll find here
Useful Ideas are small ideas you can use.
Tools help you work through a particular situation.
Guides bring several useful ideas together around a bigger problem.
Working It Out is where we explore things that might be useful but aren't ready yet.
Some ideas may eventually become books, reports or other products.
The test stays the same:
Is it useful?