Minutes Concerning Idea Vault Growth
The folder where ideas are stored now contains more ideas than any reasonable person could ever execute. Growth continues.
Meeting Minutes Re: Idea Vault, Quarterly Growth Assessment Date: August 2022 Attendees: The Person
Call to Order
The person opened their notes application at 10:42 PM on a Tuesday to record a new idea. Upon opening the application, the person observed that the folder labeled "Ideas" contained 247 items. The person does not remember adding 247 items. The person added the new idea, making it 248, and closed the application.
This document constitutes the minutes of a review that has not yet been scheduled.
Items Reviewed
The vault currently contains 248 distinct entries. Categories are informal and overlap. A representative sample includes: fourteen app concepts, nine newsletter premises, four podcast formats for which no guests have been identified, one film treatment described only as "something like that one film but different," and a recurring entry titled "the furniture thing" that has appeared in three separate notes without elaboration.
No item has ever been removed. The vault operates on a policy of indefinite retention.
Age Distribution
Seventeen items are from 2019. The person was a different person in 2019. The items from 2019 reflect assumptions about available time, technical skill, and market conditions that no longer apply. The items remain in the vault because removing them would require acknowledging that they are no longer viable, and acknowledging this would require spending time that could instead be used to add new items.
Growth Rate
The vault has grown at an average rate of four items per week since its creation. During two periods of workplace stress, the rate increased to eleven items per week. The correlation between stress and ideation volume has been noted and not acted upon.
The Contradiction
The purpose of the vault is to capture good ideas so they are not lost. The vault now contains enough items that good ideas cannot be located within it without a dedicated search. The vault has become the problem it was designed to solve, which is a condition the vault has been unable to flag from the inside.
The Absurd Rule
A new section has been added to the vault called "Priority Ideas." It contains thirty-one items. All thirty-one were added in the same sitting and none have been acted upon. The Priority Ideas section is now experiencing the same growth dynamic as the original vault.
The vault is not a plan. It is a record of intentions that have been deferred indefinitely in favor of a future version of the person who will have more time.
The person closed the application and began watching television. A new idea arrived during the third episode. It has been added to the vault.
Next Steps
None scheduled.
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 11:14 PM.