How to Explore and Develop an Idea on Paper

I spend a LOT of time writing, both for work and for my personal life. So I’ve decided to elevate that activity, by using fountain pens. It makes something that I do for several hours per day more fun, more beautiful, and, as it turns out, much more effective.

One of the things I frequently have to do is to take the core of a new idea and evaluate it. This means turning the idea over in my mind, finding and fixing problems with it, molding it into something better and stronger. I’m always on the hunt for tools for more clear and effective thinking, so I wanted to share the current state of some of the writing prompts I use for this idea-refining process.

At the end, you’ll see this applied to a real idea (the technology trend of moving cloud infrastructure back to self-hosted infrastructure) which I evaluated in this way last year. You don’t have to understand tech to follow along with the process!

Checklist for Developing Practical Ideas

Here’s the list of writing prompts I currently use when I’m faced with a new and exciting idea. These prompts, of course, need to be combined with real-world actions like research, talking to people, finding reliable sources, etc. But these prompts guide me through the other half of the process, which happens in my notebook, where I refine and turn any idea into structured learning and actionable insights.

1. Define & Clarify the Idea

- What is the core thesis of this idea?

- What problem does it address?

- How does it fit into larger trends or cycles?

- What key assumptions am I making?

- What definitions do I need to clarify?

2. Analyze Market & Trends

- Who is already talking about this?

- Are there companies or individuals leading this shift?

- What historical trends mirror this change?

- What external factors (economic, technological, social) are driving or resisting it?

- What are the counterarguments against this idea?

3. Research & Gather Evidence

- What real-world examples support or contradict this idea?

- What experiments or tests can I run to validate it?

- Who can I talk to (experts, practitioners, customers) for deeper insight?

- Where is the best place to track developments in this space?

- What are the hidden costs, trade-offs, or downsides?

4. Identify Actionable Opportunities

- How can I personally get involved?

- What unique skills or knowledge do I bring to this?

- What small experiments or projects can I do today?

- Where is there demand for this shift (businesses, communities, tech stacks)?

- Could this be a business, product, service, or consulting opportunity?

5. Skill & Knowledge Development

- What do I need to learn to take action on this?

- What gaps exist in my current knowledge?

- Who or what are the best sources to learn from?

- What technical, business, or interpersonal skills would help me?

- What tools or resources would help me explore this idea deeper?

6. Test & Iterate

- What are the simplest ways to test this idea in practice?

- What feedback loops can I set up to refine my approach?

- How will I track my progress and insights over time?

- What signs would indicate I should pivot, refine, or double down?

- If this idea failed, what would be the most likely reasons?

7. Communicate & Share

- How can I articulate this idea clearly to others?

- Would writing, teaching, or presenting about this idea help clarify it?

- Where can I share my findings to attract like-minded people?

- What questions or debates can I spark in discussions?

- What personal or professional brand could I build around this idea?

Applying this to a real idea

1. Define & Clarify the Idea

Let’s clarify the Idea with a Thesis Statement, by writing the core idea in a single sentence:

"I believe there is a shift happening in tech from complex cloud architectures to simpler, dedicated hardware solutions, and I want to be involved."

Then, let’s define all terms clearly:

- What exactly do I mean by "complex cloud architecture"?

- What does "minimal complexity" look like in practice?

- What’s driving this shift? (Cost? Security? Performance? Control?)

- What evidence do I see that supports this?

- Who are the early adopters, and what are they saying?

2. Analyze Market & Trends

Now let’s break the underlying market or trends that are core to this idea down, by categorizing different aspects of the idea.

- Market Trends → Who is moving toward this? Any companies or industries leading the shift?

- Technical Feasibility → What does a simple architecture look like? Is it bare metal, on-prem, or colocation?

- Economic Factors → What makes dedicated hardware more attractive now? Cloud costs? Vendor lock-in?

- Challenges & Counterpoints → Why isn’t everyone doing this already? What counterarguments exist?

You could use a mind map to expand on these branches — something that’s always unwieldy in a digital format, but works great if you’ve got a fountain pen and some fountain-pen friendly paper handy :-D.

3. Research & Gather Evidence

- Track Real-World Trends → Follow blogs, forums (HN, Reddit, Lobsters), and industry leaders talking about cloud costs, on-prem resurgence, or colo hosting.

- Historical Parallels → Look at previous cycles of centralization vs. decentralization (e.g., mainframes → PCs → cloud → edge computing).

- Talk to People → If you know engineers, founders, or CTOs, ask them about their infra decisions.

- Experiment & Document → Try running a workload on bare metal vs. cloud and record the results.

In your journal, create a **logbook of observations**. Over time, patterns will emerge.

4. Identify Actionable Opportunities

Now it’s time to ask ourselves:

- How can I personally get involved?

- Consulting for companies moving back to dedicated hardware?

- Building tools that simplify self-hosting?

- Investing in or starting a company in this space?

- What skills do I need to deepen?

- Networking and provisioning for dedicated servers?

- Benchmarking bare metal vs. cloud?

- Selling and advocating for simpler architectures?

- What are some small steps I can take today?

- Write about this idea to attract like-minded people.

- Prototype a minimal infra setup, and document the cost/performance in comparison to cloud-hosted infrastructure for the same real-life performance (requests/sec or whatever metric is important to a large proportion of the market).

- Join conversations in tech communities about this shift.

5. Skill & Knowledge Development

- What do I need to learn to take action on this?

I need to finish reading “Designing Data-Driven Applications”

6. Test & Iterate

- What are the simplest ways to test this idea in practice?

Try to sell a consulting engagement.

7. Communicate & Share

- How can I articulate this idea clearly to others?

Blog about this to get some feedback from the community.

When I get stuck, I find that revisiting even a few of these questions can help me get moving again.