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Why I Built NotePD

James Altucher

Posted May 10, 2022

James Altucher

About 20 years ago, and various times since, I had to rely on only one technique to stop me from falling so low I couldn't stand it.

One thing helped me. And I kept it to myself for a long time. And when I told others what I was doing many many people asked me to, "Do you have a website about this?"

Well, now I do.

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I've been writing ten ideas a day for as long as possible. I try so hard to make it every day. Even when I really don't feel like it.

Sometimes I'm so upset I can't even move, let alone write ideas. But this is the most important time to write an idea list.

Why today? Because today is the youngest you will ever be again. Today is the day to be more creative. And today, to be frank, things are kind of hard in the world.

This is when it's most important to become an "idea machine".

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Go to notepd.com. Like "notepad" but without the "a".

It turns out I was missing one thing that would have made this practice so much better.

See, writing ten ideas a day gives you (of course) ideas. But it also exercises the idea muscle before it atrophies. And it atrophies FAST. Oh man, so fast. Sometimes I call it "the Possibility Muscle" because it tells me that there are more possibilities in life.

So finally, after 15 years of people asking me to make this. I made it.

Here's what you get at notepd.com.

- You can write your ten ideas. Or three. Or seven.

- You can make them "public" or "private". And soon, "premium". (a premium idea might be a for-pay newsletter, or course, or book. But with the benefits of having thousands of users at the site who can easily find you).

- Search Ideas: You can search all of the public ideas. For instance, search "crypto" to see any idea lists that mention crypto.

- Artificial Intelligence: You can use our AI engine to give you suggestions of more ideas! It's actually surprisingly good.

- A Feed: You get a feed where you can scroll through all the idea lists of people you follow.

- Message, Status Updates: all the usual stuff on a social site.

- Collaborate - you can list contributors you want on an idea list. People who you work with, maybe. I have a couple of those going.

- Keep track of your streak and the stop streaks on the site. Who has done the most days in a row? You can also follow trending idea lists and see who has the most idea lists overall.

- Challenges! : You can issue a challenge like "Can someone give me 10 ideas to make $2000 this weekend."

- Comments - people will comment on your ideas and you can comment on theirs.

The one thing I realized I was missing all of these years and it was so critical. Community.

NotePD is the "10 ideas a day" platform, but it’s also a community of other people trying to improve, to get more creative, to find opportunities.

Community, Master, and Freedom are the key components of well-being.

On NotePD I think we built it. Thank you for all of your insistence through the years to build this site. It's working.

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We haven't even officially launched and already thousands have used the site and there are thousands of idea lists.

Here's some that might be interesting to you:

"10 Rules to Gain Back Control and Get More Productive in Life" - https://notepd.com/.../10-rules-to-gain-back-control-and...

"10 ideas to avoid going with the crowd" - https://notepd.com/profile/randomroger

"Lessons I Learned working at Starbucks" - https://notepd.com/.../lessons-i-learned-working-at...

And one I made yesterday that is about all the use cases I realized for a site like this, including not only improving creativity, but keeping track of things you've learned, writing a book, and even just plain writing.

This site has broken a serious one year long writers block for me:

"10 SUPER PRACTICAL Use Cases for NotePD to make your life better" - https://notepd.com/.../10-super-practical-use-cases-of...

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Check out that list and see if any of those use cases apply to you.

I can't believe I didn't make this earlier.

Try it and message me so I can follow you and your lists. Here's a challenge: write a list of 10 guests I should have on my podcast.

Or simply write 10 people I am grateful for. If all you do is that every day it will build a better life.

Thanks.

Oh, also, please send me any suggestions. You're all pre-beta. This group means a lot to me.

Until next time,

James Altucher

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