10 Reasons Why I Took Time off From NotePD

In the last week or so, I have been putting too much pressure on myself to create new idea lists. I wasn't entirely happy with some of the lists I posted. I felt that forcing myself to extract the half-baked ideas from my head to here wasn't serving myself or the NotePD community well. I wanted to step away for a while before I grew to resent the process and stop posting here entirely.

Was I doing this to share ideas and improve my creativity? Perhaps I was merely seeking validation in the form of likes and comments on my posts. Chasing empty validation is something that never appealed to me, that's why I never felt the urge to create an account or post on social media. I sincerely believe that Ideas ought to come first on NotePD.

Ideas are powerful. They can bring people together and drive society to new heights. Ideas can also incite hatred and spark bloody revolutions. An idea can be wielded as a weapon, or it can pave the path of salvation. I should at least put a little effort in polishing the ideas that I do post here.

Even though I tried to avoid it, I feel I've posted too many repetitive idea lists. I've also sacrificed fleshing out the details on some of my lists. It was either in order to finish my post before midnight, or just to get it out of the way so I could focus on something else.

Is having a lengthy streak even worth it if I'm not proud of at least half the lists I write? On the other hand, if I merely limited myself to posting what I thought was special, I probably wouldn't post much of anything. I truly commend the users who are able to not only keep up very lengthy streaks, but are able to consistently write high quality, innovative, and thought provoking ideas.

I feel that relying on lists that I wrote several months or even a year ago for posts has become a crutch. The purpose of this site is to become an "idea machine," someone who can be thrown into a distressing situation and be able to quickly come up with solutions to resolve it. Going back to the same well when I should be digging up new ones will only diminish my creativity, not improve it.

Maybe coming up with completely original ideas is impossible. Maybe what seems new is just the result of idea orgies taking place for over a millenia. Does it really matter? I think that the pursuit of something entirely new can be a beautiful thing in and of itself.

In addition to posting idea lists, I want to put more effort into networking and collaborating with other users. How will I do this? Maybe this is the start of a new idea list!

Being too worried about how executable an idea is can stifle creativity. On the other hand, is generating endless lists without putting time into trying to execute at least some ideas worth it either?

I have nothing against self-help in and of itself. I've liked and favorited posts that were in the self-help realm. My issue is that I don't think that there's much to say on this topic that hasn't already been said. There are only a few fundamentals that people far more eloquent than I am have talked about to death for centuries.

A quote from Jim Rohn best expresses my feelings on this topic: "There are no new fundamentals. You've got to be a little suspicious of someone who says, 'I've got a new fundamental.' That's like someone inviting you to tour a factory where they are manufacturing antiques."

Innovation doesn't come from sticking to what's safe and popular. You have to be willing to take risks. You have to challenge and even offend the views of others.

Good ideas come from being relaxed (or desperate, frustrated, driven, etc.). I will try to post as often as I can, but I also want to post my best stuff. Maybe too much emphasis on quality will backfire and I'll be too self conscious to post at all.

I guess the point is I want to post because I have something I want to share and maybe even improve with the help of all of you here. I don't want to simply go through the motions just to make an arbitrary number with no intrinsic value go up.