This addresses the other part of my ideas post, and does quite succinctly:
Talking about your work does not directly improve the actual quality of your work. Ultimately design happens in the world and in your hands, and not in your mouth.
That’s from an interview with designer Jack Schulze.
The other quote that’s been picked up by a few blogs (including Bruce Sterling’s), which also relates to the importance of actually executing your ideas, is this one:
No one cares about what you think, unless you do what you think. No one cares what you do, unless you think about what you do. No one ever really cares what you say.
I can’t put it much better than that. You are what you do. So if generating ideas is part of what you do, it’s not enough to have the ideas, or to talk about them. Make them real.
In a way, this is clearer than anything. But it makes me ask “How do you execute your ideas?” Does writing count?
I think it can also be summed up as Nike’s tagline as “Just do it.” but they seem very specific about athletic endeavor in that case..
Writing definitely counts if it’s an idea that can be written (that’s mostly the case for me). But it could even be something like if you’re refinishing a kitchen, putting paint swatches on the wall to figure out which will look best, rather than just developing theories about it.