There’s something special about the moment a new idea appears — when something sparks out of nowhere, and you suddenly see a path that didn’t exist before. But knowing when to share a new idea can make or break it.
New ideas seem to arrive constantly — in songwriting, in contributing to WordPress, in start-up concepts, or at Stuurlui, where I’m part of a small Innovation team. For a long time, I believed that moment — the act of having an idea — was what mattered most.
But over time, I started to notice a pattern: many ideas didn’t fulfil their promise — their full potential. They ended up forgotten in my Notes app, buried in a GitHub repository, lost in a Slack thread, or just stuck in a corner of my mind.
I’ve come to believe that most of it has to do with a single question I hadn’t been paying enough attention to — one that quietly shapes whether an idea lives or fades:
When is the right moment to present a new idea?
It’s a harder question than it seems. Share too soon, and the idea might be dismissed, or misunderstood. Wait too long, and the moment might pass — or the idea could lose its energy.
This post explores that tension through five opposing forces — different axes that influence how ideas succeed, stall, or disappear altogether.
Axis 1: Emergence vs. readiness
In many creative or tech-driven environments, there’s a strong emphasis on moving quickly. The logic of agile development encourages us to launch early, gather feedback fast, and iterate continuously.
But not every idea thrives under this kind of pressure. Some need space to grow before they’re ready for critique. Others can be derailed by feedback that’s too quick, too practical, or too literal.
At the same time, waiting too long has its own risks. An idea that stays hidden for months may lose its relevance, or drift too far from the needs and context it was born from.
The tension between sharing early and waiting for the “right moment” is one of the most difficult to navigate. You have to develop your own sense of when something is ready to face the world. And that’s what this post is really about — because thinking through the other axes can help sharpen that sense.
Axis 2: Possession vs. participation
Many people feel protective of their ideas. There’s this anxiety that someone might steal your idea, claim it, run with it — especially if it’s still early and you don’t have anything to “protect” it with. That fear is understandable. Ideas can feel personal, even vulnerable. You came up with it — it’s yours, right?
But in her TED talk Your Elusive Creative Genius, Elizabeth Gilbert offers a perspective that’s both older and more freeing. She talks about how the ancient Greeks and Romans believed that creativity didn’t come from you, but to you — through an external force or spirit. The Greeks called it a daimon, the Romans a genius. Your job wasn’t to be a genius, but to collaborate with one.
That metaphor shifts everything. If an idea isn’t entirely yours — if it’s something passing through you — then sharing it doesn’t mean giving it away. And more importantly: feedback and criticism don’t hit as hard. They’re not attacks on you, just part of the messy process of stewarding something that was never fully under your control.
It’s a humbler way to relate to creativity.
Axis 3: Signal vs. noise
Feedback is often seen as a universal good. But in reality, it depends heavily on timing and context.
An idea in its earliest stages is rarely ready for critique — not because it’s weak, but because it’s still being formed. The wrong kind of feedback at this point can be misleading or even damaging, especially if it comes from someone who lacks the vision to see what the idea could become.
Paul Graham touches on this in his essay How to Get Startup Ideas. He argues that truly original ideas often look unpromising in the beginning. That’s partly what makes them valuable — if they were obvious, someone would have done them already. But this also makes them vulnerable to early dismissal.
Feedback is useful. But only when the person giving it sees beyond the surface.
Axis 4: Exploration vs. acceleration
Sometimes, sharing an idea publicly gives it momentum. That external energy — interest, accountability, encouragement — can help push a concept into reality.
But public momentum can also be dangerous when it arrives too soon. There’s a risk of an idea growing faster than the thinking behind it.
One high-profile example is Clubhouse, the audio-based app that gained enormous traction early in the pandemic, but arguably expanded before the product or team were ready. The excitement burned out faster than the idea could evolve.
Not every idea needs to scale immediately. Sometimes attention should follow clarity — not the other way around.
Axis 5: Intimacy vs. exposure
Sharing doesn’t always mean announcing. There’s a spectrum between keeping something private and publishing it for the world.
The layers between thought and publication aren’t barriers — they’re filters, and often protective ones. Moving too fast through them can damage an idea. Taking your time can help it grow stronger.
A note from Athens
We’ve already seen one way the Greeks looked at ideas — as something that comes through you rather than from you. Another Greek philosophy I keep coming back to is that of Plato.
I had the chance to visit Athens recently, and couldn’t help but think of Plato’s Theory of Forms. He believed that every object in the physical world is just a shadow of its perfect, abstract form.
That concept feels surprisingly relevant when trying to express new ideas. In your mind, the idea feels whole — elegant, full of potential. But as soon as you try to share it, it becomes something else. A rougher version. A shadow.
Maybe that’s why sharing ideas can feel so risky. Not just because others might reject them — but because you have to watch them fall short of the thing you imagined.
So… when is the right moment?
There’s no perfect formula — but there are patterns. And by learning to navigate these five axes, you start to develop your own sense of timing and care.
- Is the idea still forming, or ready to face the world? (emergence vs. readiness)
- Do I want to own this idea, or help shape it with others? (possession vs. participation)
- Will it be understood — or misunderstood — at this stage? (signal vs. noise)
- Am I seeking clarity, or traction? (exploration vs. acceleration)
- Where does this idea belong right now: in my notes, or on a stage? (intimacy vs. exposure)
These questions don’t offer guarantees. But they help shift the focus from having the idea to stewarding it — carefully, creatively, and in your own time.
Leave a Reply